Motion for New Murder Trial Continued to Monday

A month after her conviction of second degree murder in the death of her 8-year-old daughter, Kimberly Fry returned to the courtroom Thursday seeking a new trial.

Assistant Attorney General Stephen Regine and the state's attorney requested more time to review new exhibits submitted by Fry's attorney, Sarah Wright. Wright argued that jury instructions in the original trial should have included the possibility that Fry acted with "diminished capacity," which could lead to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Wright pointed to evidence and testimony presented in the original trial – including Fry's medication usage, sleep deprivation, anxiety and depression – to support that Fry had acted with diminished capacity. Wright also claimed that Fry was "paralyzed" by her "evil impulses."

The hearing will continue Monday at 2 p.m.

On Oct. 6, a jury convicted Fry, 38, of second degree murder in the 2009 death of her 8-year-old daughter, Camden. Jurors, after about five hours of deliberation, found the state proved Fry strangled her daughter in their North Kingstown home at 73 Ricci Ln. in August 2009, reportedly while the young girl threw a temper tantrum over not wanting to take a bath.

Timothy Fry found his daughter dead in her bed the next morning, tucked under the covers with a stuffed elephant placed in her arms. He called 911, the recording of which Regine played for the court while Tim Fry sobbed on the stand.

The defense, while acknowledging that Camden died at her mother's hands — said Kimberly Fry never intended to kill her daughter. Rather, she was performing a restraint technique designed to quell a tantrum, a claim backed up by former RI Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Elizabeth Laposata. Another pathologist, Dr. William Cox, who performed the original autopsy on Camden's body, found she died of manual strangulation.

Fry could face life in prison, making her ineligible for parole until 2031.