Woman Accused of Poisoning Husband Indicted

Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - A Surrogate Court Judge ruled Tuesday nothing can be removed from the Town of Clay home an accused killer shared with her late husband.

Stacey Castor is in jail, accused of poisoning her second husband, David, with antifreeze. After her husband's death, Castor was named the administrator of his estate, and executor of his will. Tuesday morning, David Castor's only son appeared in court to try to reverse that ruling.

James Meggesto, is the attorney for David Castor Jr. "The family doesn't want to do anything that will impair or impede the criminal prosecution but they want to preserve the assets and that's the most important part of our bringing the order to show cause."

Castor is also accused of trying to kill her daughter by poisoning her. Last week, a Judge ordered Castor to remain in jail without bail. Castor is also being investigated by Cayuga County detectives; she is a suspect in the death of her first husband, Michael Wallace.

Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - The woman charged with killing one husband with poison, and who is suspected of killing her other husband in the same manner, was denied bail Thursday morning.

Castor's lawyer, Charles Keller, had said his client, Stacey Castor, had no means to flee,if released, and asked for bail in the amount of $100,000.  Judge JoeFahey refused, and ordered Castor remain behind bars without bail.  

The defense is saying Castor's daughter, Ashley Wallace, killed her step-dad David Castor two years ago. The defense also accused Ashley of killing her own father, and Castor’s first husband, Michael Wallace, seven years ago in Weedsport.

The defense also claims that Ashley Wallace tried to kill herself last month, and wrote a suicide note admitting to the murder of the two men.

Keller said the prosecution's case is weak. "I've had a chance to review, at least in the case of the David Castor homicide, all of the discovery provided to me by the district attorney's office.  My investigator and myself have been through it with my staff, and we can see nothing which is an obvious link which ties Stacey into this homicide."

Prosecutors say Stacey Castor wrote the suicide note, to make it looklike her daughter was trying to kill herself. Prosecutors also claimCastor gave her daughter a vodka drink laced with chemicals, in aneffort to pin her husbands’ deaths on her.

David Castor's first wife, Janice Puissant, was in the courtroom, and afterwards, told us the charges against Stacey Castor are "horrific."  When Castor died two years ago, it was ruled a suicide.  Poissant says David Castor never would have taken his own life.

Stacey Castor is charged with poisoning the man with anti-freeze. Her first husband, Michael Wallace of Weedsport, died the same way seven years ago, and Cayuga County detectives are continuing to investigate Stacey Castor for that death. 

Town of Clay (WSYR-TV) - The 20-year-old whose mother is accused of trying to poison her, was charged Monday with threatening her mom's boyfriend. Town of Clay police say Wallace threatened Stacey Castor's boyfriend during an argument over the phone.

Ashley Wallace was nearly killed September 14 when, according to the Onondaga County District Attorney, Castor , 40, added a potentially deadly mix of drugs to her mixed drink. Authorities say Castor tried to kill her daughter and blame her for the deaths of Castor's two husbands. Both Michael Wallace and David Castor died of anti-freeze poisoning, five years apart from each other.

Castor is charged with second-degree murder in David Castor's death and attempted murder in Ashley Wallace's poisoning. She has not been charged in Wallace's death. Sheriff's Deputies say they are working with the Cayuga County Sheriff's Department investigating the case.

Wallace was charged Monday with aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor, in Clay Town Court. She is accused of threatening Mike Ochsner while arguing over things that were left in Castor's home.
Ochsner told police Wallace felt the belongings were hers. Ochsner said in his police statement Wallace was swearing and that he felt threatened.

A short time later, Mark Gandino, the father of Ashley's boyfriend, drove to Ochsner's house and confronted him outside. Gandino was also charged Monday with harassment. Both Wallace and Gandino were arrested Monday and released. Wallace will be back in court November 1.

Syracuse (WSYR-TV) – Stacey Castor, the Town of Clay woman already charged with killing one of her husbands and suspected of killing another, has now been charged with the attempted murder of her daughter.

Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick says Stacey Castor, 40, gave her daughter Ashley Wallace, 20, a cocktail that was mixed with various drugs and poisons on the night of September 13th.

The felony complaint against Castor says that drink included opiates, codeine, morphine, and the painkiller Hydrocodone. All of which, according to investigators, Ashley Wallace did not ingest knowingly or willingly. She was rushed to the hospital the next day; her mother was arrested the same day.

The DA’s office says Castor typed a suicide note, trying to make the poisoning of her daughter, Ashley Wallace, look like a suicide. The note left took responsibility for the death of David Castor and Michael Wallace. Members of the sheriff’s department concluded the author of the note is Stacey Castor and not Ashley Wallace.

Fitzpatrick says Wallace has been completely cooperative with his office and denies having any connection with the poisonings.

Video: DA Bill Fitzpatrick talks about the Stacey Castor case.

Castor was arraigned in court Thursday morning and remains in the Onondaga County justice center. She was arrested nearly two weeks ago, and charged with murdering her second husband, David Castor, in 2005. Police say she poisoned him.

Castor is also suspected of poisoning her first husband but has not been charged. Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh says his department is working with Cayuga County Sheriff’s Deputies investigating, but cannot say when any charges could be filed.

Town of Clay (WSYR-TV) - Ashley Wallace told a Post-Standard reporter her mother, Stacey Castor, gave her a mixed vodka drink on the night she was poisoned. Right after she finished the drink, Wallace says she passed out.

Wallace, 20, insists she did not try to commit suicide. She told the Post-Standard she thinks her mother was "looking for an easy way out."

Castor, 40, was arrested on September 14th and charged with murdering her second husband, David Castor, in 2005. Police say she poisoned him with ethylene glycol, a substance commonly found in anti-freeze.

The Clay woman is also suspected of poisoning her first husband, Wallace's father, in the same way but has not been formally charged.

Wallace told the newspaper the poison in her drink was not ethylene glycol.

Friday, in court, Castor's lawyer accused Wallace of commiting both crimes, saying she confessed in a typed note found after she fell unconscious. Wallace says she didn't write it.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Bail has been denied for a 40-year-old woman accused of poisoning her second husband with antifreeze.

A judge in Syracuse denied Stacey Castor's request to be released on bail this morning.

Castor faces a murder charge in the poisoning death of 48-year-old David Castor Senior of Liverpool two years ago. Authorities say she killed her husband by poisoning him with a toxic liquid used in antifreeze.

Stacey Castor is also under investigation in neighboring Cayuga County for the death of her first husband. Thirty-eight-year-old Michael Wallace of Weedsport died in January 2000. His death was recently ruled a homicide due to ingestion of ethylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze.

Meanwhile, Stacey Castor's defense attorney says his client's daughter confessed to the deaths in a suicide note.

Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - Detectives in Cayuga County were interviewing witnesses and tracking new leads late Monday in the poisoning death of a Weedsport man seven years ago.

A new autopsy shows Michael Wallace was murdered by an overdose of ethylene glycol, a key ingredient in anti-freeze.  Investigators are trying to link his wife to the crime after she was charged late last Friday with killing her second husband in exactly the same way.

Stacey Castor was arrested last Friday, after she called 911 to say her daughter had attempted suicide at the family home on Wetzel Road in Clay.  The 20-year-old daughter, Ashley Wallace, was released from the hospital Monday afternoon, after being treated for an undisclosed illness. 

She has now told investigators what they had already suspected, that she did not try to take her own life.

“Information that definitely establishes the fact that she did not attempt to kill herself.  That there was no attempted suicide,” Onondaga County Sheriff Kevin Walsh says.

Instead, Walsh says, Stacey Castor may face additional charges in the illness of her daughter. 

“I think the circumstances that led to her arrest on Friday will strengthen the overall case we have against this woman.”

The case against Castor goes back to August 2005, when her second husband, David Castor, Sr., died in the Wetzel Road home from ethylene glycol poisoning.  The toxic liquid was in a drinking glass next to his nightstand. On the glass, just one set of fingerprints: Stacey Castor's.

The felony complaint against Stacey Castor says police found a turkey baster in the garbage pail in the kitchen of the home.  On the tip of the baster, David Castor's DNA.  In the tube, ethylene glycol.

The complaint also says Stacey Castor, in statements to police, “Acknowledged that from Friday evening and throughout (the) weekend (of his death two years ago), David Castor consumed large quantities of alcohol and spent most of his time in the bedroom alone consuming alcohol."

Castor also says she was the only person caring for her husband that August weekend in 2005.

David Castor's death, according to the sheriff, was made to look like a suicide.  But investigators always thought otherwise.  There was a Prestone anti-freeze container on the bedroom floor, the drinking glass with anti-freeze in it, only her prints on it, and the baster.

This weekend, NewsChannel 9 spoke briefly with David Castor's brother Gary.  He said he's "numb."  And like detectives, Gary said he knew his brother didn't take his own life, and yet he never thought it would play out like this.

Castor remains jailed without bail.  She’s scheduled for a preliminary hearing this Wednesday in Clay town court.

Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - A Clay woman has been charged in the poisoning death of her husband and investigators say this may not be the first time.

The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department says Stacey Castor, 40, has been charged with the 2nd degree murder for the death of David Castor, 48.

He died on August 22, 2005 and deputies have been investigating his death ever since.  His death was originally ruled a suicide by ingesting ethylene glycol, which is found in anti-freeze, but detectives continued to investigate the death, eventually ruling it a homicide.
 
During that investigation, they learned Stacey Castor’s first husband, Michael Wallace, died January 11th, 2000.  His death was originally ruled a heart attack.

As part of a joint investigation with the Cayuga County Sheriff’s department, Wallace’s body was exhumed on September 5th.  The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be murder by ethylene glycol poisoning.

Friday, Onondaga County Sheriff’s Deputies were called to Castor's home at 4127 Wetzel Road, for what was originally an attempted suicide call for her daughter, Ashley Wallace, 20.

Now, investigators are saying they don't believe it was a suicide attempt.  They are continuing to investigate the incident.

Ashley Wallace is listed in serious condition at University Hospital.
 
Stacey Castor was arrested at Upstate Medical Center and charged late Friday.  She was arraigned in the town of Clay court late Friday night and is currently being held in the Onondaga County Justice Center without bail.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, September 19 at 2pm in the town of Clay court.

Anyone with information related to the investigation and deaths can contact the sheriff’s office at 253-1610.