A panel of East Baton Rouge appellate judges has upheld the conviction of a woman who killed her former live-in boyfriend with poison over a decade ago.

Meshell Hale, 57, is about three years into a life term in Louisiana state prison. A 19th Judicial District Court judge deemed her guilty of second-degree murder at the end of a two-week bench trial in December 2022. According to testimony from the trial, Hale used barium acetate, a highly soluble and toxic compound, to poison her ex-lover Damian Paul Skipper.

Hale and her attorneys challenged the conviction and mandatory life sentence, arguing that the evidence prosecutors used against her was insufficient. In an order affirming the conviction Friday, the First Circuit Court of Appeal rejected notions from Hale’s legal team that Skipp

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