Routier appeal rejected

05/21/2003
Associated Press

AUSTIN - The state's highest criminal court Wednesday upheld the conviction of Darlie Routier, a homemaker in the Dallas suburb of Rowlett who was arrested two weeks after her sons were killed in 1996.

In a 75-page, unanimous opinion, the Court of Criminal Appeals rejected claims by Routier's attorneys that her conviction should be reversed because the record of her 1997 trial was plagued with inaccuracies and prevented her attorneys from raising important legal questions.

Her attorneys also have said her rights were violated because her lead trial attorney had a conflict; he had previously represented Routier's husband.

That conflict kept the attorney from pointing to the husband, Darin Routier, as a possible suspect in the stabbing deaths of Routier's two sons, her attorney has said. Darin Routier has not been charged.

Damon, 5, and Devon, 6, were killed in their home June 6, 1996. An infant son in another room was unharmed.

A Kerrville jury convicted Routier for Damon's slaying and sentenced her to death by lethal injection.

She has maintained her innocence and claims an intruder attacked her and the boys, then fled through the garage of the home.