BATON ROUGE - The 1st Circuit Court of Appeal on Friday upheld the second-degree murder conviction for a woman accused of poisoning her domestic partner, rejecting her argument that the evidence against her was insufficient.

A three-judge panel ruled against Meshell Hale, who was convicted of killing Damian Paul Skipper in 2015. Skipper died after four trips to the hospital with signs of low potassium. After Hale's estranged husband Arthur Noflin died about a year later in New Orleans, the coroner exhumed Skipper's body in 2017 and determined he died of barium poisoning.

Officials said Hale, or a person using her name, contact information, credit card, and computer, purchased barium acetate online on three different occasions and killed Skipper in an effort to get insurance money. Barium was found in both men's systems when they died, and Hale received a $10,000 payment from Skipper's life insurance.

Hale's estranged husband had a $750,000 life insurance policy. Prosecutors say Hale was greedy and killed Noflin, too, but his death drew attention to both deaths.

Hale was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty in 2022. She had initially been charged with first-degree murder but the judge hearing her case without a jury convicted her of the lesser charge, which still carries a mandatory life term.

In her appeal, Hale said the evidence used against her was insufficient and shouldn't have been used against her. She also said prosecutors should have been barred used from using "other crimes" evidence to bolster their case.

Hale said it was possible that Skipper had been exposed to barium through other means and that he died of natural causes. While her credit card was used to buy barium acetate, she said that any number of people could have purchased it using her cell phones, PayPal accounts and other electronic devices.

Noflin's body was found in a burned out truck in New Orleans. Licence plate readers helped police determine that his truck was followed closely by a Jeep rented by the domestic partner of Hale's daughter. The appeals court said police eventually found a laptop computer in Hale's car with a search history that included "barium acetate poisoning."

Online purchase receipts show Hale bought barium acetate three times in 2015 and 2016. 

Hale said that, as a domestic partner, she could have had Skipper's body cremated to destroy evidence, but that her decision against that was proof of her innocence. The court said that since Skipper and Hale were not legally married, she could not have directed that his body be cremated.

The appeals court said the use of evidence from Noflin's death was used properly in the trial over Skipper's death. It also said the lower court was correct in refusing to quash evidence obtained through various subpoenas.