photo by: Dylan Lysen/Lawrence Journal-World

Carrody Buchhorn, of Eudora, appears in Douglas County District Court on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021. She was previously convicted of murder in 2018 for the death of a 9-month-old boy, but the Kansas Court of Appeals overturned the conviction in August 2021.

An appeal by the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office of the Kansas Court of Appeals’ ruling to overturn a Eudora woman’s 2018 murder conviction is still pending, DA Suzanne Valdez told the Douglas County District Court.

Carrody Buchhorn, now 47, appeared in District Court on Wednesday for a status conference in the case. During the hearing, Valdez told Judge Sally Pokorny that she had no update on her office’s petition for the state’s Supreme Court to review the lower court’s ruling and to reinstate the conviction.

A jury previously found Buchhorn guilty of second-degree murder after 9-month-old Oliver “Ollie” Ortiz was found unresponsive at a Eudora day care. She was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.

After the conviction was overturned, Buchhorn was released from custody in September on a $100,000 own-recognizance bond, according to court records.

In August, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled that Buchhorn received ineffective assistance of counsel during her 2018 trial, which denied her the right to a fair trial. The court said her attorneys failed to properly question a coroner’s ruling on how the boy died, among other issues. In the ruling, the court gave Buchhorn the right to a new trial.

After the appellate court ruled, the DA’s office told the Journal-World it would appeal to the Supreme Court.

No new court dates were scheduled Wednesday in the case.