photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Carrody Buchhorn hugs attorney Bill Skepnek after her testimony Thursday, Oct. 30, in her wrongful conviction trial. Attorney Quentin Templeton is at left.

A Douglas County judge has ruled that a woman accused of murdering a 9-month-old baby at a Eudora daycare 10 years ago was wrongfully convicted, and he has issued her a certificate of innocence, in addition to awarding her a lump sum payment of $368,000 and attorney fees.

The woman, Carrody Buchhorn, and her legal team have been in a yearslong fight to clear her name in the death of Oliver “Ollie” Ortiz – a case that has involved a conviction, years of prison and house arrest, a reversal on appeal, dueling theories of death and intense distress for both Buchhorn’s and Oliver’s families.

“I’m a little overwhelmed right now,” Buchhorn told the Journal-World right after the ruling. “I’m speechless. It’s such a relief. The judge did the right thing.”

Buchhorn said she got the news via a phone call Monday afternoon from her attorneys, Bill Skepnek and Quentin Templeton. She was babysitting her 6-month granddaughter at the time — her first grandchild, born shortly after the wrongful conviction trial. She and her husband, Tim, planned to meet with the attorneys right away and give them a “big thank you” for standing by her and believing in her all these years.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Kaylen Ortiz, on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, describes her son Oliver “Ollie” Ortiz as he appeared in a photo taken the night before he died at a Eudora day care.

Judge James McCabria announced his decision Monday — the long-awaited culmination to Buchhorn’s wrongful conviction trial last fall. Buchhorn had steadfastly maintained her innocence while the state continued to paint her as a violent killer, even as a forensic pathologist’s report sought by the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office declared Oliver’s death to have been the result of a defective heart and not child abuse.

That report led then-DA Suzanne Valdez to cease prosecution of Buchhorn, though she had vowed to retry her and had continued to espouse a belief in Buchhorn’s guilt. Buchhorn was never retried in Oliver’s death after the Kansas Court of Appeals overturned her second-degree murder conviction, ruling that her trial attorneys failed to adequately challenge Coroner Erik Mitchell’s controversial “depolarization theory” regarding Oliver’s cause of death. Buchhorn’s attorneys — and others — consistently condemned Mitchell’s theory of death as “junk science,” and even Valdez described his professional reputation as questionable.

Buchhorn was tried and convicted while Charles Branson was the DA, but Valdez spearheaded the case through the appellate process.

In the wrongful conviction trial Buchhorn had to prove her innocence to McCabria by a preponderance of the evidence. In her suit, she sought $368,000 for her 2,072 days of imprisonment and at least $25,000 in attorney fees. She also sought — most importantly, she has repeatedly said — a certificate of innocence.

“That is what I really wanted,” she said again Monday.

Buchhorn also has a lawsuit pending in federal court claiming that the state “schemed” and conspired to frame her by fabricating a fictional cause of death, withholding evidence and propagating false narratives of guilt for years.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Judge James McCabria is pictured at the wrongful conviction trial of Carrody Buchhorn on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025.