An Arizona mother has pleaded guilty to poisoning her husband after she was seen pouring bleach into his coffee maker on hidden cameras in the home they shared.
Melody Felicano Johnson pleaded guilty to two counts of poisoning a drink after she placed the lethal substance into the coffee machine, waiting for Roby Johnson, a US Air Force employee, to have his morning beverage on two separate occasions in July.
Per 13 News, after pleading guilty to the lesser crimes, authorities dismissed the murder charge she had originally been facing.
Credit: Pima County Sheriff’s Office
The incidents took place while the pair – who have children together – were in the middle of a divorce but were still living together at the airman’s duty station in Germany and in Arizona.
Roby had started noticing that his coffee tasted different when they were stationed in Germany in March and thought his wife might be trying to poison him.
“He stated she knew that he would prep his coffee pot to be ready at night so that in the morning he just needed to turn it on to make his coffee,” court documents show. “At that time he stopped drinking the coffee but continued to pretend to drink.”
When they were back in Arizona, Roby – unbeknownst to Melody – set up cameras in their home to try to catch his wife attempting to harm him.
Credit: Pima County Sheriff’s Office
On July 16, Melody was recorded pouring a substance from a large bottle of bleach into a smaller container in the the laundry room.
Soon after, she was seen on footage from a separate hidden camera going into the kitchen to pour chemicals from the smaller container into the water basin of the coffee maker.
The airman also recorded himself testing the water from the coffee maker in order to mount up the evidence for police.
“You can smell it from here. You can smell it,” he stated in one video.
“Look at that,” he said, as he pilled the positive, color-changing test out from the coffee maker. “Totally changed.”
Credit: Guido Mieth / Getty
The shocked husband repeatedly said, “Wow,” and showed the bubbles inside the water reservoir of the coffee maker before he ended the video.
After handing the footage over to the Tucson Police Department, Melody was detained on July 18.
Per court documents, Roby thinks his estranged wife had been trying to end his life in order to receive his life insurance benefits.
Considered a flight risk as she has relatives and property in the Philippines, she had been in custody since she was arrested.
Her sentencing is set to take place next month. She is facing up to two years in prison but could be released for time served as the minimum sentence is four months.