Judge declines to overturn Elizabeth Holmes guilty verdict

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A federal choose on Thursday tentatively declined to overturn the jury conviction of disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes on 4 felony counts of fraud and conspiracy. That leaves the previous Silicon Valley star a step nearer to serving jail time.

U.S. District Decide Edward Davila gained’t make that call ultimate till Oct. 17, when he’s scheduled to condemn Holmes in the identical San Jose, California, courtroom the place a jury discovered her responsible of duping traders in her much-hyped blood-testing startup.

Holmes, 38, faces as much as 20 years in jail and a $250,000 high quality, plus restitution, for mendacity to traders a few Theranos know-how she hailed as a revolution in healthcare however which in observe produced dangerously inaccurate outcomes.

Amy Saharia, considered one of Holmes’ legal professionals, tried to steer Davila that the jury of eight males and 4 ladies had acted irrationally throughout their seven days of deliberations. The choose concluded that the jurors drew affordable inferences from proof offered on the trial, though he stated he would nonetheless evaluation some instances Saharia offered earlier than making a ultimate choice.

Thursday’s 90-minute listening to marked the primary time Holmes has returned to the courtroom since her Jan. 3 conviction. The decision ended an almost four-month trial that recounted Holmes’ exceptional rise from a Stanford College dropout in 2003 to a lionized entrepreneur as soon as price $4.5 billion earlier than all of it unraveled in 2015.