Texas woman on death row gets new sentencing trial

HOUSTON – A Texas appeals court says one of 10 women on the state's death row should get a new punishment hearing after her attorneys said prosecutors withheld evidence at her 2005 trial.

Chelsea Richardson was convicted of masterminding the slayings of her boyfriend's parents so her boyfriend could inherit their $1.56 million estate. She was 19 at the time of the December 2003 killings.

The now 27-year-old's attorneys argued she deserves a new punishment hearing because prosecutors withheld a psychologist's notes suggesting another woman, who took a plea deal in the case, masterminded the murder plot.

Richardson's trial judge and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed. The appeals court returned her case to Tarrant County on Wednesday.

Richardson's boyfriend and the other woman are serving life prison terms.