Houston woman convicted of killing husband in staged home invasion expected back in court

Sandra Melgar reacts after being convicted in the murder of her husband at the Criminal Courthouse, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017, in Houston. Sandra Melgar reacts after being convicted in the murder of her husband at the Criminal Courthouse, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017, in Houston. Photo: Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle Photo: Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Houston woman convicted of killing husband in staged home invasion expected back in court 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

A Houston woman sentenced earlier this year to 27 years in prison for fatally stabbing her husband in a staged home invasion is expected back in court Tuesday as her lawyers argue that she deserves a new trial.

Among other reasons laid out in an 85-page appeal, lawyers for Sandra argue that jurors relied on their own experiments and prosecutors shifted the burden of proof to the defense.

According to jurors interviewed after the verdict, they tried to reenact tying themselves up at home and did a demonstration during deliberations before convicting the 58-year-old Melgar of murder then sending her to prison.

A juror said "that many of the jury members had tied themselves up to see if it was possible to get loose from the bindings," according to an affidavit from one of Melgar's lawyers, Allison Secrest. The juror also told them that the jury had done a demonstration leading to a female juror being tied up and rolling around on the floor to figure out how long it would take to get untied.

The contention is a shocking because jurors in every criminal trial are cautioned from the moment they are empaneled to not conduct their own investigations or experiments.

The juror who was tied up later said she was concerned about how hard the deliberations were and said "only God knows who is guilty and what happened,"

In their appeal, Melgar's attorneys said that because the jury did their own experiments Melgar did not receive a fair trial.

They also argue that prosecutors impermissibly shifted the burden during closing arguments by saying the defense criticized the investigation but never found "the real killer."

After the verdict, a juror told the defense that they should have persuaded him by doing their own investigation and pointing the finger at someone they believed to be real killer.

"He asked why we (the defense) did not find the real killer," Secrest wrote in her appeal. "He added, that had the defense 'found the real killer' it would have been the only thing that would have changed his mind about his verdict."

A hearing on the appeal is scheduled in state District Judge Kelli Johnson's court.