Citing a defense attorney's "stunning" admission that he had a clandestine ex parte meeting with the law clerk for a judge presiding over his client's manslaughter trial that he didn't disclose to co-counsel, a state Supreme Court justice in Albany has ordered a new trial for the defendant.

Albany Supreme Court Justice Roger McDonough ruled that defendant Gregory Thayer, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence for killing his best friend, would receive a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel from Andrew Kossover, a local counsel for Thayer's mostly New York City-based defense team.