An Arizona woman confessed to attempting to poison her soon-to-be ex-husband to cash in on his life insurance policy.
Arizona woman tries to off husband with killer coffee
Melody Felicano Johnson admitted to attempting to poison her U.S. Air Force employed husband, Roby Johnson, by stealthily adding what he claimed was bleach into their coffee maker.
The pair were living together while they were going through a divorce, when Roby began to notice an odd taste in his coffee.
Their separation must have been rocky, because he instantly suspected that Melody was trying to off him to collect on his life insurance.
Roby, who was stationed in Germany for work in March of 2023, reported a “very bad” taste in his coffee, usually prepared by his wife the night before.
He set up cameras to catch her in the act of tampering with his morning brew and discovered that his nearly ex-missus in the act of poisoning him.
Footage revealed Melody in the laundry area, transferring bleach from a larger container to a smaller one. Another video displayed her cautiously pouring the substance into the coffee machine at their residence.
Meanwhile, Roby did his own on camera investigation to prove that the amount of bleach his former paramour was adding to his coffee was poisonous.
He recorded footage of himself testing the water from the coffee machine using a kit meant for swimming pool chemicals, uncovering a dangerously high chlorine level – indicating, as he put it, a strong odor of bleach.
He continued to pretend to drink the coffee, but delayed involving the police until his return to the Davis Monthan Air Force Base in the U.S. in July.
After gathering all necessary evidence, Roby approached the authorities, leading to Melody’s arrest. A search warrant executed at their home confirmed the coffee pot’s bleach-like smell.
Arizona woman tried to cash in on husband’s insurance
Court documents revealed Roby’s suspicion of Melody’s intentions to “collect death benefits” through his demise.
Johnson pleaded guilty to two counts of tainting food or drink on Monday, confessing to the act of poisoning her husband’s coffee pot on two occasions last July.
Melody has not been allowed out on bail, as she was deemed a flight risk for purchasing a home in Philippines recently.
She is due back in court on May 10, to face a potential four-year jail term for first-degree attempted murder and poisoning food or drink.
Woman poisons friend to steal cash
Meanwhile, in another case of poisoning, Jessy Kurczewski from Wisconsin received a life sentence after being found guilty of intentionally killing her friend, Lynn Hernan, and embezzling nearly $300,000 from her.
The 40-year-old administered a lethal dose of tetrahydrozoline, found in eye drops, to Hernan in a poisoned water bottle in October 2018.
She then staged the crime scene to resemble a suicide and siphoned $290,210 from Hernan’s bank accounts.
Kurczewski then discovered her victim’s “unresponsive” body and called 911 herself to report the incident.
Despite attempting to cover her tracks, Kurczewski was arrested in July 2019, and found guilty of first degree homicide in November 2023.
She reportedly “bawled” her eyes out during a two-hour-long statement she made about her innocence in court on Friday, but the judge was unpersuaded and handed down a life sentence with a potential for parole in 30 years.
Father poisons newborn baby’s bottles
In an even more horrifying incident, unwilling father Curtis Jack received a 50-year prison sentence for attempting to murder his newborn daughter by contaminating breast milk with antifreeze.
According to the City of South Fulton Police Department Jack had tried to pressure the baby’s mother into an abortion, but when that failed, he meddled with the breast milk bottles on Oct. 1, 2020, shortly after the baby’s birth and the mother’s hospitalization.
The bottles, delivered to the baby’s grandmother, led to the infant’s critical illness within hours, and an immediate hospital stay.
At just 18 days old, the baby was diagnosed with ethylene glycol poisoning – a compound commonly found in antifreeze, according to the authorities.
Jack was immediately identified as a suspect and later admitted to the heinous crime against his own infant daughter.
After being found guilty of criminal attempt to commit murder and cruelty to children in the first degree, he was sentenced to 50 years in prison on April 11.
