In the latest appellate excursion into the thicket of “depraved indifference” standards, a panel in Rochester has held that a man who strangled his 11-year-old stepsister cannot be held liable for murder.

The Appellate Division, Fourth Department, bumped defendant Alan Jones’ conviction down from second-degree murder to second-degree manslaughter because his crime didn’t fit into either of the pigeonholes of depraved indifference homicide.