CHAMBERS COUNTY, TEXAS – A week after being convicted of killing her fifth husband with insulin, Chambers County mother and retired military veteran Sarah Hartsfield has filed to appeal her conviction and asked for a new trial.
The 50-year-old was sentenced to life in prison with the eligibility of parole after 30 years following expeditious jury deliberations.
On Thursday, Sheriff Brian Hawthorne confirmed Sarah Hartsfield had been moved from the Chambers County Jail to be transferred into Texas Department of Criminal Justice custody. She’s expected to arrive in Gatesville, Texas, later on Thursday, which is the intake location for female state prisoners.
The nine-day trial, which included testimony from 34 witnesses for the prosecution and zero for the defense, ended Oct. 9 when the jury delivered the maximum punishment after deliberating for less than an hour.
During the trial, prosecutors said Sarah Hartsfield overdosed her husband on insulin and ignored alerts from an app about his dangerously low glucose level. While claiming to be asleep on narcotics, her phone records revealed she was online banking, Facebook messaging, and setting herself up as Joseph Hartsfield’s Apple Legacy contact, essentially granting herself access to all of his iPhone data after providing his death certificate to Apple. She didn’t call 911 to report him being unresponsive until about nine hours later.
The new document filed Wednesday initiated the appeal process, which has to be filed within 30 days of a conviction. Sarah Hartsfield also filed a motion for a new trial, which asks the judge to set aside the verdict and grant a new trial. The motion for a new trial could also be used to get a hearing to elicit new evidence.
Motions for new trials are generally denied, criminal defense attorney and legal analyst Rick DeToto said.
The judge granted Sarah Hartsfield’s defense team’s motion to withdraw from the case, meaning attorneys Case Darwin and Ken Bigham will no longer represent her on the appeal.
Logan Pickett, the former elected district attorney in neighboring Liberty County, has been appointed to represent Sarah Hartsfield on the appeal.
KPRC 2 News has reached out to Pickett for comment.