PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "A jury in 2018 found Buchhorn guilty of reckless second-degree murder of a 9-month-old boy who had been in her care at a Eudora daycare almost 10 years ago on Sept. 29, 2016. The Kansas Court of Appeals overturned the conviction in April 2021 largely because Buchhorn’s trial attorneys had failed to challenge coroner Dr. Erik Mitchell‘s theory of how the boy died, which top pediatric neurologists called “absolutely false,” “made up” and “fantastical.”
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Former Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez’s office continued to prosecute the case, however, until a judge dismissed it in December 2022 because prosecutors had failed to seek a new expert opinion in time. The DA’s office pledged to appeal the dismissal but announced in January 2023 that their new expert pathologist, Dr. Jane Turner, had found that the boy had died from a heart defect and other natural conditions. The DA’s office’s press release at the time stated that they did not have sufficient evidence to continue prosecution. (Read more background on the case at the links below this article.) Altogether, Buchhorn spent more than 5 1/2 years in custody of the Douglas County jail, Topeka prison and on house arrest before her case was dismissed."
PARAGRAPH FOUR OF THE DAY: "Buchhorn admitted during the bench trial in the wrongful conviction case that she’d sent “horrible” text messages, including that “I’m going to kill a baby today” and “I’m in hell,” and that the boy was being “an asshole,” in August 2016, prior to his death. Her family members testified that she used the phrase that she was “going to kill” someone frequently as an expression of frustration, but none had seen her yell at or behave violently toward a child. McCabria wrote that the messages were wildly immature, dramatic, distasteful and, in the context of the boy’s death, “alarming and cause for suspicion and investigation. “But, in the context of all the other evidence, and as contradicted by objective, forensic evidence, not persuasive evidence of murder,” he wrote. "
STORY: "Judge rules Lawrence woman was wrongfully convicted in infant’s death, and state owes her $369K," by Reporter Mackenzie Clark, published by The Lawrence Times, on July 6, 2026.
GIST: "A Douglas County judge ruled Monday that the only credible explanation of a Eudora infant’s death is natural disease, and the woman wrongfully convicted of murdering him is innocent.
Despite prosecutors’ assertion that a forensic pathologist’s report “didn’t make sense,” Carrody Buchhorn, now 51, will be awarded $368,982 for the 2,072 days she was imprisoned, Douglas County District Judge James McCabria wrote in his decision.
A jury in 2018 found Buchhorn guilty of reckless second-degree murder of a 9-month-old boy who had been in her care at a Eudora daycare almost 10 years ago on Sept. 29, 2016.
The Kansas Court of Appeals overturned the conviction in April 2021 largely because Buchhorn’s trial attorneys had failed to challenge coroner Dr. Erik Mitchell‘s theory of how the boy died, which top pediatric neurologists called “absolutely false,” “made up” and “fantastical.”Former Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez’s office continued to prosecute the case, however, until a judge dismissed it in December 2022 because prosecutors had failed to seek a new expert opinion in time.
The DA’s office pledged to appeal the dismissal but announced in January 2023 that their new expert pathologist, Dr. Jane Turner, had found that the boy had died from a heart defect and other natural conditions. The DA’s office’s press release at the time stated that they did not have sufficient evidence to continue prosecution. (Read more background on the case at the links below this article.)
Altogether, Buchhorn spent more than 5 1/2 years in custody of the Douglas County jail, Topeka prison and on house arrest before her case was dismissed.
Buchhorn’s attorneys, Bill Skepnek and Quentin Templeton, filed the wrongful conviction case in February 2023. Years of legal battles have followed, including a bench trial in the fall of 2025.
In order to receive compensation under the state’s wrongful conviction statute (KSA 60-5004), defendants-turned-plaintiffs must prove by a preponderance of the evidence — more likely true than not — that they were actually innocent of the crime for which they were convicted. Defendants whose convictions are reversed because of constitutional rights violations, for instance, are not necessarily entitled to payment for time wrongfully spent behind bars.
They generally must also prove that the criminal case against them was dismissed, or not refiled, because of their innocence.
“As to the dismissal of the charges being the result of actual innocence, the Court finds that Ms. Buchhorn has met her burden,” McCabria wrote.
“The State’s only argument against such a finding is that Suzanne Valdez says she believes Ms. Buchhorn is guilty. This statement is entitled to no deference from this Court on the facts presented.”
In addition, “this Court finds the opinion of Suzanne Valdez as to the innocence or guilt of Carrody Buchhorn so lacking in legal and factual understanding of the evidence as to merit no weight whatsoever,” McCabria wrote.
Valdez had testified that she found Turner’s report to be “wonky.”
Turner wrote in her 11-page report that she had been a practicing forensic pathologist for more than 20 years and had performed more than 5,000 autopsies, including on hundreds of infants and children.
Her findings regarding a hairline skull fracture were consistent with what the defense expert had said during Buchhorn’s trial — that the injury showed signs of healing, and there were no injuries to the brain commonly associated with a lethal traumatic brain injury, as Mitchell had asserted during Buchhorn’s criminal trial.
The report couldn’t provide definitive answers: Mitchell did not collect cerebrospinal fluid to submit for viral, bacterial and fungal cultures, nor vitreous fluid for electrolyte testing, according to the report, and the autopsy did not include an examination of the inner ear structures, despite the boy’s history of ear infections.
There was evidence of infection, Turner wrote: a rectal swab viral culture isolated enterovirus, and a nasal swab culture isolated rhinovirus. A blood culture grew streptococcus salivarius, which although normal in the mouth “is not normal in the bloodstream and is considered an opportunistic pathogen.
“In fact, LabCorp personnel treated the culture result as a critical value in calling Ms. Sharon Mandel, investigator, to report it to her,” Turner wrote.
The boy also had hyperglycemia — his blood sugar was more than 4 times the normal range, which could have indicated diabetes — and hypothermia at the time of this death, according to the report. It was also possible that he had sepsis, but that could not have been definitively diagnosed, Turner wrote.
“Almost any infection can lead to sepsis, which is the body’s extreme response to an infection,” Turner wrote. “Without timely treatment, sepsis can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death.”
“Rather than ‘wonky,’ this is a detailed, nuanced analysis (as the Court finds all of Dr. Turner’s report),” McCabria wrote in his ruling on Monday.
A cardiovascular doctor found a congenital defect in the boy’s heart, though Mitchell never updated his report to reflect that finding. The foramen ovale is a hole between the two atrial chambers of the heart that closes soon after birth. If it doesn’t close, it’s called a patent foramen ovale. Turner wrote that it is her opinion that this put the boy at risk for blood clots or lethal arterial stroke, which would be “undetectable at autopsy when the death is sudden.”
The boy’s family believed that the heart valves had been donated. However, evidence uncovered in the legal proceedings showed that the Midwest Transport Network had deemed the boy’s organs unsuitable because he was positive for rhinovirus and enterovirus.
Buchhorn admitted during the bench trial in the wrongful conviction case that she’d sent “horrible” text messages, including that “I’m going to kill a baby today” and “I’m in hell,” and that the boy was being “an asshole,” in August 2016, prior to his death.
Her family members testified that she used the phrase that she was “going to kill” someone frequently as an expression of frustration, but none had seen her yell at or behave violently toward a child.
McCabria wrote that the messages were wildly immature, dramatic, distasteful and, in the context of the boy’s death, “alarming and cause for suspicion and investigation.
“But, in the context of all the other evidence, and as contradicted by objective, forensic evidence, not persuasive evidence of murder,” he wrote.
McCabria wrote that Valdez had testified that “Everyone else on her team” — including attorneys in her office; the boy’s mother and great aunt; Mark Simpson, who had prosecuted the criminal case along with CJ Rieg and is now chief judge in Douglas County District Court; and Eudora Police Detective Daniel Flick, “(who did not read all of it)” — felt that Turner’s report “didn’t make sense,” and that the boy’s mother “knows her kid better than any doctor.” So Valdez continues to believe Mitchell, the text messages, and that the boy was healthy on Sept. 29, 2016, and Buchhorn had killed him, McCabria wrote.
Another parent of a child at the daycare testified that she recalled discussions with Buchhorn and the daycare owner in which Buchhorn expressed concerns about the boy’s health, and frustration that her concerns were not being taken seriously, according to the ruling.
“The only credible forensic explanation of (the boy’s) death is that he died of natural disease and pathophysiologic processes unrelated to child abuse,” McCabria wrote.
Skepnek, Buchhorn’s attorney, said Monday night that he was not surprised by the ruling.
He said the ruling recognizes the wrongs done to the Buchhorn family.
“Think about the impact on the family of a mom … accused of and convicted of murdering a 9-month-old child,” Skepnek said. “To me, to be exonerated exonerates not just Carrody, but her entire family.”
“… I’ve been practicing law now for 48 years, and so I’ve represented a lot of people, and a lot of good people. I don’t know that I’ve ever represented better people than the Buchhorn family,” he said.
Skepnek said the ruling did a good thing for the people of Lawrence and Kansas because it recognizes that the state can do wrong, and the court can recognize the thing that was wrong and right it.
“The Kansas Legislature decided that if you’ve been wrongfully convicted, you should be compensated, and that’s not just to compensate you for your loss — it’s to inhibit the state from doing these things,” Skepnek said. “That’s why it matters, that’s why the Legislature would create that. It’s not only for Carrody’s benefit, that she gets this — it’s for all of our benefit.”
“… If you want to talk about a celebration of the Declaration of Independence — it really is.”
McCabria ordered that Buchhorn be paid according to state statute and awarded a certificate of innocence. Her criminal record will be expunged.
“Upon receiving a certified copy of the certificate of innocence and the judgment entry from the clerk of the court, the bill requires the Attorney General to pay any judgment through the procedure established in the Tort Claims Act,” according to a 2018 summary of the legislation creating the wrongful conviction cause of action.
McCabria also wrote that “the Court finds that any reasonable amount for attorney fees and costs incurred in this action would far exceed $25,000.00 and the same is awarded, subject to any request for a greater reasonable sum on a finding of good cause as permitted by statute.”
Click here to open the PDF of McCabria’s full ruling in a new tab.
A related civil case is ongoing in federal court.""
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog. FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."Lawyer Radha Natarajan: Executive Director: New England Innocence Project; FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true;
