High court won't reinstate conviction of cop in wife's death

CINCINNATI (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider reinstating the conviction of an Ohio police officer charged in the death of his wife in a botched burglary that authorities said he paid to have staged.

The appeals panel had ordered a new trial for Barton, who was convicted in 2005 of complicity to involuntary manslaughter and complicity to aggravated burglary and sentenced to up to 50 years in prison.

The unanimous ruling last year by the 6th Circuit panel said the state's case relied heavily on a witness who presented an "unsupported, shifting and somewhat fantastical" story at trial, and suppression of evidence made it more difficult for Barton to discredit the state's theory.