Murder Case Ruling Reversed

A state appellate court ruled Wednesday that a judge abused his discretion when he found a Sylmar woman “factually innocent” of her husband’s murder after a jury acquitted her.

Reversing a 1999 decision by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Judge L. Jeffrey Wiatt, the appellate justices also said that “there was clearly enough evidence” in the prosecution of Jeanie Adair “to have allowed the jury to convict.”

Under Wiatt’s ruling, Adair’s arrest and court records would have been destroyed. Her lawyer, John Steinberg, said he would appeal to the California Supreme Court.

Adair was charged with the first-degree murder of Robert Adair, who was found beaten to death with a baseball bat in their Sylmar home on Nov. 5, 1996.