ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A former stripper found guilty of participating in a murder conspiracy has been awarded a new trial.
The Alaska Court of Appeals ruled Friday that Mechele Linehan was entitled to a new trial.
The 37-year-old Olympia, Wash., woman was convicted in 2007 of luring a man who was in love with her to kill her former fiance, Kent Leppink, in hopes of receiving $1 million in life insurance money.
In its ruling, the appeals court said the trial judge essentially approved the use of Linehan's past profession as evidence of her character. But the court said "it was error to allow the State to introduce evidence of Linehan's statements about 'The Last Seduction,'" a movie that Linehan allegedly obsessed over, which features a woman who steals from her husband and convinces another lover to kill him.
The court also ruled the trial judge should not have allowed prosecutors to submit a letter written by Leppink, that implicated Linehan if he died suspiciously. The court said "that this error requires reversal of Linehan's conviction."
Linehan has been serving a 99-year sentence at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River.
Until she was charged with Leppink's death in October 2006, Linehan lived in Olympia where she was a school volunteer, active in church, and remarried as Mechele Linehan to a doctor at Madigan Army Medical Center who has stood by her side. It was a far cry from the life she lived in Alaska many years previous as a stripper and a murder suspect.
In 2006, Linehan was known as Mechele Hughes. She met Leppink at the Great Alaskan Bush Co. strip club in Anchorage, where she worked. They eventually were engaged, although Mechele already had a wedding date with John Carlin.
Prosecutors say Linehan and Carlin killed Leppink for his $1 million life insurance policy, not realizing that Leppink removed Mechele as full beneficiary just five days before Leppink was found dead on May 2, 1996. Utility workers found Leppink lying on his back on the ground near a trail in Hope, Alaska, shot three times with a .44 Magnum handgun.
Prosecutors said Linehan used the plot of the movie "The Last Seduction" to orchestrate a murder. The movie features a woman who steals from her husband, convinces another lover to kill him, and when he gets nailed for the crime, she gets away with murder.
Linehan's then-attorney, Wayne Fricke, said what actually happened between 1994 and 1996 was that Linehan had gotten in over her head with several men she met while working at the Anchorage strip club.
Carlin and Linehan were found guilty and convicted in 2007 of shooting Leppink to death. Carlin was later found dead at the state prison in Seward in 2007.
The court also said it was an error to allow prosecutors to use a letter written by Leppink, implicating Linehan if he died a suspicious death. The court ruled "this error requires reversal of Linehan's conviction. "
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