Four years ago, a jury convicted Robert Neulander , a prominent doctor in central New York, of killing his wife in their suburban home, seemingly ending a complicated case that had riveted the Syracuse area.

It was actually about to get more complicated.

On the day of the verdict, an alternate juror contacted a lawyer for Mr. Neulander . That led to the revelation that one of the jurors who had voted to convict him of murder had exchanged 7,000 text messages with family and friends during the three-week trial.

Hundreds of the texts involved aspects of the case, a clear violation of the judge’s standard admonition that jurors not discuss the matter until after the trial was over.

On Oct. 22 , the New York Court of Appeals , the state’s highest court , affirmed an appeals court’s decision last year that the conduct by the juror, Johnna Lorraine , was so bad that the conviction of Mr. Neulander, 68, should be set aside and that he should get a new trial.