ALBANY — A millionaire upstate New York businessman convicted of killing his estranged wife will get a new trial, a state appellate court has ruled.

Calvin Harris, 47, was found guilty last year of second-degree murder in the September 2001 death of Michele Harris, whose body has never been found. Harris was facing a possible life prison sentence.

But Judge Martin Smith threw out the conviction after a witness came forward at sentencing to say he may have seen Michele Harris with another man hours after the time a prosecutor said she was killed by her husband.

After a hearing, Smith determined that the testimony of Kevin Tubbs, a Candor farmer and animal hauler, was credible and could have led to a different verdict if the jury heard his account.

Smith ordered a new trial, but Tioga County District Attorney Gerald Keene challenged the decision to the state appeals court.

The appeals court sided with Smith in a unanimous decision issued Thursday. Smith will set a date for a new trial.

Defense attorney William Easton said the appellate court decision would begin the process of clearing his client’s name. Harris has been free on $500,000 bail since Smith’s earlier ruling.

Keene said Thursday he was ready to take Calvin Harris to court again.

“I absolutely intend to continue the prosecution of this case,” Keene told The Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin.

Harris, who owns a string of car dealerships, was convicted of killing his wife while their four young children were asleep upstairs in their town of Spencer home. Harris was not indicted in his wife’s death until September 2005.

Calvin and Michele Harris were in the midst of a bitter divorce and both had affairs, witnesses said. During the trial, Harris was portrayed as a controlling husband who killed his 35-year-old wife to avoid paying her large sums in a divorce settlement.