20 years to life for cyanide death of wife

By Leila Atassi, The [Cleveland] Plain Dealer


CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Street vendors and barflies in Beirut have heard the story of how and why former Gates Mills doctor Yazeed Essa killed his wife with calcium capsules emptied and refilled with hand-crushed cyanide.

The man who harbored him during his days on the run said that Essa bragged constantly about his handiwork to whomever would listen.

But Tuesday, days after a Cuyahoga County jury found Essa guilty of aggravated murder, Rosemarie Essa's brothers demanded to hear the story, too -- from Essa himself. Rocco and Dominic DiPuccio stood before their former brother-in-law, challenging Essa to come clean and ask for forgiveness.

"Are you man enough?" Dominic DiPuccio said. "Are you? Forget that appeal. Stop wasting your brother's money. This is your last chance to save your soul. Are you a man or not?"

But on his attorneys advice, Essa remained silent, avoiding eye contact and swiveling nervously in his chair.

Common Pleas Judge Deena Calabrese sentenced Essa, 41, to life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years -- placing the capstone on a trial that ranks among the most highly publicized in the court's history.

Essa's attorneys, Steven Bradley and Mark Marein, said their client plans to file an appeal. They asked, however, that he be declared indigent and assigned new legal counsel to work on his case. Essa's brother, Firas, had bankrolled the defense because Yazeed Essa's assets are frozen pending a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the DiPuccios.

Assistant County Prosecutor Steven Dever asked the judge to order Essa to reimburse taxpayers for $41,000 -- the cost of extraditing Essa from Cyprus when he was captured in 2006 after 18 months on the run.

The judge granted the motion. But first she invited Rosemarie Essa's friends and family members to speak about the woman they call Rosie and the cavity left in their lives when she died.

Rosemarie Essa's parents, Rocco and Gee Gee DiPuccio, told the judge how lucky they were to have four beautiful children, who grew into well-rounded, compassionate adults.

But on Feb. 24, 2005, Rocco DiPuccio said, their luck ran out when Yazeed Essa handed their 38-year-old daughter the contaminated pill. "I've seen a lot of court cases where they talk about closure," DiPuccio said. "I never understood that word until now, and I still don't understand it because there is no closure. The only thing I'm hoping is that from now on, maybe there will be less nights when my wife cries herself to sleep."

Gee Gee DiPuccio called Essa an evil, murderous coward and wished him misery in his lifetime behind bars. "You see, Yaz, our family has something you don't have," she said. "Heart, love, compassion and strength in a higher power that will get us through this."

Others invoked Essa's conscience and wondered aloud how it could bear the weight of what he had done. They reminded him of the two children he left behind, Armand, 9, and Lena, 7, who are now being raised by Dominic and Julie DiPuccio. And they spoke of the children's suffering and confusion in adjusting to life without either of their biological parents.

Dominic DiPuccio read a statement he wrote from the perspective of Essa's children, listing all the ways in which they have grieved in their mother's absence from holidays and landmark events in their lives. He vowed to raise the children as his own and said he hopes their memories fade of the man they refer to as their "old dad."

The memory of "Mommy Rosie," however, will survive, he said.

"My children, our children, have had to face fear and confusion that no child should ever have to face," DiPuccio said. "I miss my sister terribly each and every day. She will never get to hug her children or feel the sun on her face again. So I see no reason why (Essa) should ever get to as long as he lives."

Judge Calabrese asked Essa if he wished to remain silent. And the once suave playboy, now dressed in bright orange prison scrubs, paused for several seconds before answering, "Yes."

Then the judge told Essa that he has such little respect for women that she doubted her words would have much of an impact on him at all. Calabrese said his lack of emotion or remorse is unfathomable and that she regrets that the law would not allow her to sentence him to life in prison without parole.

"I cannot imagine the evil you have done to these people, especially your children," Calabrese said. "It is my great hope that they forget you and that whatever legacy you have is wiped away... I am so glad that you will be leaving my courtroom and that I hopefully will never have to look upon you again."

Curry poisoner gets minimum 23 year sentence for murder of "lover" after refusing to leave fiancee

By Caroline Gammell [London Telegraph]
Published: 3:46PM GMT 11 Feb 2010

Lakhvir Gaur Singh murdered Lakhvinder “Lucky” Cheema when she learned that he had rejected her and chosen a younger bride, Gurjeet Choough. Singh, 45, laced their vegetable curry with aconite, nicknamed the Queen of Poisons, which left Mr Cheema dying in agonising pain. His fiancée spent three days in a coma after the poisoning in January last year and has yet to recover fully.

Singh looked close to tears in the dock at the Old Bailey as she was told she would be nearly 70 by the time she was released. Passing a life sentence, Judge Paul Worsley said: You were not just a spurned lover, you did not simply explode in anger at your rejection. “You set about a cold and calculating revenge. You knew how deadly aconite was and how agonising the effects would be.”

Singh, a married mother of three, was found guilty of murder and grievous bodily harm but was cleared of attempting to poison 39-year-old Mr Cheema on an earlier occasion. Many of Mr Cheema’s relatives were in the public gallery to watch as Singh was sentenced.

His fiancee, now 23, said: “The poisoning led to Lakhvinder’s death and took me to the brink of death. I believe it will affect me for the rest of my life. I can never forgive Lakhvir as she has murdered one person and seriously harmed me. “Lakhvinder was looking forward to having children and also having his elderly father with us but none of this is now possible.”

Mr Cheema’s sister Narinder Kaur Singh, from Windsor, said her life and that of her two sons had been destroyed by Singh’s actions. “With Lakhvinder’s departure I cannot see any reason for living. In our culture a family goes on only through a sin but this has been snatched away from our family. All our joys have been snatched away.”

Mrs Singh, 48, said her husband Varinder – whom Singh tried to blame – had left the family home and she was spurned by her in-laws. “I feel as if there is only emptiness in my life. When my brother was alive he could not bear to see me crying, now I am left to cry for the rest of my life.”

Connecticut woman pleads guilty to poisoning husband; gets 15 years in prison

(Original Post 9-14-08)
A wife plead guilty Friday to poisoning her husband with antifreeze, then hiring a hitman to try and kill him plead guilty to attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and inciting injury to a person. Jennifer Ratti, 28, from Coventry, CT plead in Judge Terence A. Sullivan's courtroom.

She was first arrested in April 2007, after her husband, Joshua Ratti, told Coventry police that he feared his wife was poisoning him.Joshua Ratti had been approached by one of his wife’s co-workers, who told him that Jennifer had been talking about killing him, Vernon State’s Attorney Matthew Gedansky said Friday.

Jillian M. O’Connor, 28 was approached in York Correctional Institution by Jennifer, which houses both prisoners convicted of crimes as well as those accused of them. O'Connor faces charges related to this case.

Joshua Ratti spoke during Friday’s proceedings in Vernon Superior Court, saying he had discovered that his wife was having an affair and had asked for a divorce. She then began to lace his sandwiches with rat poison and put antifreeze into beverages that she served him, he said.After approaching police, Joshua Ratti was taken to a hospital, where the determination was made that he had been poisoned, according to a police affidavit.

On March 30, 2007, Joshua Ratti called Coventry police and asked for a drug test, prosecutor Matthew Gedansky told the court. Ratti told police he hadn't been feeling well and thought his wife might be trying to poison him.

He ended up at the University of Connecticut Health Center, where ethylene glycol — an ingredient of antifreeze — was found in his system, Gedansky said. He suffered from renal failure, his mother later told the court. Although Jennifer Ratti initially denied involvement in her husband's illness, she eventually turned over containers of antifreeze and ant and roach killer, Gedansky said.

He said he has suffered from sleeplessness, nervousness, and a loss of quality of life since the incident. Because his wife tried to kill him multiple times, Joshua Ratti said, he fears for his life.

"Please accept this sentence, so I can try to get on with my life...I no longer feel safe. I don’t want to live in fear anymore because of what she did.”

A criminal restraining order prohibits contact between the victim and the defendant. The probable sentence will be 10 years in prison followed by 5 years of probation.

While Mr. Ratti found out that his wife could not be trusted, he had the support of his mother Deborah at the hearing, who told the court about more effects.

"He sleeps with a pistol at his bedside. He has been so tired from lack of sleep, she said, he twice dozed at the wheel and was involved in car accidents. Please enable my son to have a safe life back."

(Update 11-15-08) Judge Terence A. Sullivan rejected the plea deal stating that 10 years wasn't enough for the severity of the crime against Joshua Ratti. "I can't accept the sentence. It simply is not adequate to reflect the nature and the seriousness of the crimes. I've gone through this pre-sentence investigation report diligently. Unfortunately, each time that I read it, it doesn't get any better. It is a very striking description of what can only be described as a cold-blooded attempt to commit a murder."

The report, which is not a public document, indicates that the 28-year-old Ratti, a former Coventry resident, is "not remorseful" and "doesn't seem to care about what she's done," Ratti's public defender, Lisa Bennett, said. Bennett disagreed with the writer's conclusion, telling the judge that Ratti does understand the severity of what she has done. "She's absolutely remorseful for the harm she's done," Bennett said.

Jennifer Ratti said, "I want you to know how sorry I am. I wish I could take back what I did to you," but Judge Sullivan ordered Bennett and Tolland State's Attorney Matthew C. Gedansky to come back December 5, for either a longer sentence under a plea, or a trial if the plea is thrown out.

(Update 12-26-08) Jennifer Ratti was sentenced to 15 years in prison on December 5, and accepted the revised plea agreement even though it will cost her an extra 5 years in prison.

British woman guilty of poisoning husband after planned divorce

From the BBC

A wife from a Cornish village has admitted poisoning her husband three times in four months.
Linda Lees, 45, admitted three counts of slipping drugs into her Royal Navy husband Paul Lees' food and drink after their relationship deteriorated. Lees, from Bosnoweth, Helston, appeared at Truro Crown Court to face the charges committed in March, April and July this year in Helston and Exeter.

Mother-of-one Lees was bailed for sentencing on 7 October.

Her engineer husband Paul, also aged 45, met her when he was posted from Portsmouth to the Naval Air station at Culdrose, near Helston. But six months ago, after 23 years of marriage and affairs by both, he decided the relationship was going to end. Lees used her own tranquilisers or the date rape drug GHB to stupefy her husband, apparently to find out if he was in another relationship.

In one incident she intercepted his food at an Exeter restaurant and laced it with poison by telling the waiter she was going to put her wedding ring into the meal. She told the waiter she was having a romantic reconciliation with her husband and wanted to surprise him by finding the ring in his meal. Instead he became groggy and realised he had been poisoned.
In another incident Lees poisoned a Chinese takeaway meal.

After the case Det Con Martin Skinner said: "This really was a crime of passion.
"It is fair to say there had been a strained relationship throughout the 23 years they had been married. Paul Lees is in the forces and his long absences led to the relationship deteriorating. It appears she may have been trying to find out if he had any other relationship going on."

72 year old suburban Toronto doctor sentenced to 7 years for "manslaughter"

Peter Edwards STAFF REPORTER, The Toronto Star

An elderly Thornhill gynecologist was sentenced to seven years in prison today for fatally injecting his wife with painkillers.

Ibi Roncaioli was found dead in the family’s Thornhilll mansion on July 20, 2003. An autopsy found she died from a fatal cocktail of drugs, including painkillers and alcohol. As she delivered Joseph Roncaioli’s sentence in Superior Court in Newmarket this morning, Madam Justice Jane Ferguson said: "He was in a position of trust and authority to the deceased."

Roncaioli’s sister began to cry when she heard the verdict against her 72-year-old brother, who was found guilty of manslaughter on Feb. 16. On the other side of the courtroom, family members of Ibi Roncaioli showed no emotion.

The judge said Roncaioli’s crime "more resembles a murder than an accidental killing."
The defense has said it plans to appeal the conviction.

The judge said the doctor deserved a lengthy sentence, even though he had no previous criminal record and an exemplary work history. The judge noted that the doctor took home the painkillers from his office to treat his wife. The doctor earlier testified that his wife had been suffering from unexplained weight loss and a decline in energy. The doctor said she was afraid of physicians, which led him to treat her in the family home.

“It was intentional, not spontaneous,” the judge ruled. “…In my view, a substantial penitentiary sentence is necessary.”

Defense lawyer J. David Hobson had argued for the court to spare the doctor any prison time and to give him a suspended or conditional sentence.

Assistant Crown attorney Martin Dionne said Roncaioli should be sentenced to a term of between 10 and 12 years, and argued that he breached his trust with his wife Ibi when he injected her with painkillers.

The verdict follows an often emotional trial in which the defense portrayed Ibi Rincaioli as the author of her own sad ending, through a secretive and hard-living life. Hobson repeatedly noted during the trial that Ibi Rincaioli pushed her household near bankruptcy, despite her husband’s high income and her lottery winnings of $5 million in 1991.

In passing her sentence, the judge noted the doctor will need continued psychiatric and medical care for a series of health problems, which include a past diagnosis for Hodgkins disease and a major depression disorder. Court heard that he attempted to kill himself in January 2005.
“Dr. Roncaioli is considered to be stable but fragile,” the judge said.

British woman gets 30 years for poisoning husband for intended financial gain

A British woman who attempted to do her best Mark Jensen impression by feeding her husband antifreeze laced wine and curry was sentenced to 30 years in prison with parole possible after 15 years. The poisoning, which took place on their 7th wedding anniversary, was partly to cash in on a life insurance policy, and partly to keep debts her husband did not know about hidden.

"The devastation you have brought to his life is apparent to everyone who saw him giving evidence in this case," said [Judge Simon]Tonking. "But while he did so there was little or any sign of remorse on your part."

There were cheers and applause from the public gallery as the judge read out his sentence at Stafford crown court.

Judge Tonking said that her offence was "committed wholly or predominantly for gain", adding that her crime fell into the "top of the scale" for sentencing attempted murder cases.He told Knight: "Your first thought about killing your husband may well have been born out of fantasy, which then drifted into a reality."But he said: "You were fully responsible for putting it into effect and for its consequences."

Knight, 28, stood to receive £250,000($500,000) upon her husband's death and was hoping to clear mounting debts.

She had confided in her neighbour, Sarah Johnson, who initially dismissed her talk as attention-seeking. But when Johnson found out Lee Knight had been in intensive care for three weeks she went to the police.

Knight denied murder. She claimed her marriage was an unhappy and violent one.

The court heard she had hoped her husband's death would be blamed on his heavy drinking.

Kate Knight settled on antifreeze as her intended murder weapon after researching poisoning on the internet. She thought about having Lee overdose on Ecstasy or iron pills before choosing her weapon.

Lee Knight was left blind, deaf, and has impaired kidney and liver functions after the attempted murder, and cannot work anymore. He is waiting for a kidney transplant from his brother.

Mr Knight recently underwent an operation to restore some of his hearing, but still required two hearing aids and support from two specialists to give evidence at his wife's trial. In a statement read out by police after the verdict in January, Mr Knight spoke of the impact on himself and the couple's nine-year-old son, Jack.

After a jury found his wife guilty last month, Lee Knight said in a statement he had "hardly any independence" and had lost "everything I worked for".

He expressed concern about the impact on their son, saying: "Kate has ruined my life and what she has done will have a big effect on Jack's future."