ALBANY – A defendant was not prejudiced because one member of the jury that convicted him of manslaughter was the mother-in-law of a sheriff’s deputy who served as a court officer at the trial in Otsego County Court, a state appeals court has determined.
A unanimous panel of the Appellate Division, Third Department, ruled that although there were several instances where the officer may have made his feelings about Timothy Beckingham’s guilt known to his mother-in-law during the 2006 trial, she denied her decision was affected by any outside influence.
