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Teresa Kotomski was convicted of murdering her husband, Raymond Kotomski, after his death from ethylene glycol poisoning, but now she’s coming up with a new theory behind bars.
“I felt people needed to know that I am innocent,” Teresa Kotomski said “Snapped: behind bars” aeration Saturdays To 8 / 7c to Oxygen. “I did not murder my husband.”
From the Dayton Correctional Institute, Teresa tells the story of her conviction, which began on the morning of August 13, 2009 in Pierpont, Ohio. That morning, Teresa’s mother came home and found Raymond in distress. She contacted Teresa, who started calling 911 and meeting with the ambulance at the house. Raymond was sick and unconscious, but still alive.
Teresa got into the ambulance with her husband, explaining to responders that he had been ill for several days. According to her, Raymond said he drank “something sweet”.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” Teresa told the producers. “It was very eventful, very moving… I prayed and prayed that he would wake up and let us know what happened.”
When Raymond arrived at the hospital, his kidneys were already failing.
But while the story of Teresa’s conviction did not begin until 2009, the story of their union began years earlier, in 2004. Teresa had been single for 21 years after her first divorce, and Raymond , who was 16 years her senior, was also divorced. . After meeting on a dating site, the couple got married.
“They were both very happy,” said Teresa’s friend Mary Kelly. “She loved having someone who shared the burdens of life with her, and she was happy and full of smiles.”
The couple settled in well in their Pierpont home, but a few years later tragedy struck. In 2006, Teresa’s 21-year-old daughter was killed in a car crash.
“It’s hard to explain when you lose a child,” Teresa said. “She was my only daughter.”
Teresa then obtained custody of her daughter’s two children, both of whom were still in diapers. Raymond liked the new grandchildren to live with them. But the marriage was still fresh, and soon the tension began to simmer.
“Since he was older than me, he was very set in his ways,” said Teresa. “So you have conflicts there. “
The couple broke up and Teresa took her grandchildren and moved into a new apartment. It was there that she was when her mother found Raymond unconscious in their home two weeks later.
“He was drinking a lot,” Teresa said. “And I said to him, ‘Ray, if you don’t stop drinking I’m going. I can’t live with an alcoholic anymore. I can’t put the kids and me in this situation. And that’s when I moved.
Teresa claimed that she was unable to make contact with Raymond on the night of August 12, 2009, she sent her mother to monitor him. It was then that she found Raymond.
After being taken by ambulance to the first hospital, Raymond was airlifted to another. There, doctors found he had ethylene glycol in his blood, the ingredient commonly used to make antifreeze.
“When they told me he had antifreeze in his system, I was overwhelmed,” Teresa said. “I just broke. I don’t know anything about antifreeze; all I know is antifreeze going into your car… we all wanted to know what happened.
It soon became clear that Raymond’s condition kept getting worse and that he would not be coming home. Doctors explained to Teresa that she had the option of removing her husband from life support and that he was already brain dead.
“I went ahead and told the doctor to go ahead and do it,” Teresa said. “And I sat there while they were doing it.”
A subsequent autopsy confirmed that Raymond died of antifreeze poisoning. But the question was: did someone murder him?
The accidental ingestion seemed unlikely, so authorities began to determine whether it was suicide or murder. Investigators struggled to view Teresa as a suspect at first, especially since she gave doctors the crucial clue that he was suffering from poisoning by telling doctors he had drunk something sweet.
She let investigators search her and Raymond’s house. There, authorities found an open container of antifreeze in the garage. What struck investigators was that the open container did not bear any fingerprints. If Raymond wanted to kill himself, they expected his fingerprints to be on the jug.
During the first interviews with the police, Teresa put forward the notion of suicide. According to her, after taking the children and moving into the new apartment, Raymond invited her. She visited Raymond, but there she thought he was drunk. When she asked him if he needed anything, he told her he already had “something sweet”.
She also claimed Raymond called his brother and said he had no reason to live without Teresa and the grandchildren in his life.
“Maybe if he did something he did it to get me home,” Teresa said.
Raymond’s family and friends didn’t believe he could have been suicidal, citing upcoming hunting trips and the land he planned to buy. They also said they were adamant not to remove Raymond from life support in the first place. Relatives have claimed that while they briefly left Raymond’s bedside in the hospital, Teresa made the ultimate decision to unplug the outlet without their blessing.
“It really gave me warning signs,” said Raymond’s ex-wife, Mary Lou Kotomski. “She wanted to unplug it right away and have it cremated right away. She didn’t want to have a funeral or anything. It was like… throwing him in a bag and getting rid of him. And at that point, I was like, something is absolutely wrong here.
But nothing directly linked Teresa to a crime. A few years have passed and there have been no new leads. Shortly after Raymond’s death, Teresa recovered $ 200,000 from Raymond’s estate. She bought a house for herself and her grandchildren, and soon she even had a new living boyfriend.
In 2012, the authorities resumed the investigation. They asked a special prosecutor from the attorney general’s office to assess the case and see if they could bring it to trial. They questioned Teresa again, explaining that they were treating Raymond’s death as homicide.
Teresa pleaded and no longer spoke to investigators.
“When you look at the case, this is a circumstantial case,” Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said. “But in the end, frankly, I have great faith in our investigators.”
DeWine gave the green light when investigators said they had enough to move the case forward. In March 2014, nearly five years after Raymond’s death, authorities arrested Teresa Kotomski.
“I was shocked,” Teresa said. “I was shocked to be arrested for something I didn’t do. They had no proof that I had done anything. In my mind, I knew I was innocent.
Prosecutors have presented the idea that Teresa chose to murder Raymond as an alternative to a lengthy divorce, for which she may not have seen monetary gain. The defense attorney convinced Teresa to go to trial, eliminating twelve jurors and only allowing the judge to hear all the evidence.
Investigators placed Teresa at Raymond’s home on August 11 from 10 a.m. to approximately 7 p.m. Later that evening, he left a voicemail message for a friend, where he allegedly chatted. Prosecutors then believed he was already in the early stages of antifreeze poisoning.
Contrary to Teresa’s claims that Raymond was a heavy drinker, there was no alcohol in his system, neither in the hospital nor in subsequent postmortem toxicology reports.
The judge found Teresa not guilty of contaminating a substance intended for human consumption. Despite this, however, he found her guilty of murder. Prosecutors say the contradiction had to do with the verbiage of the law relating to the contamination charge, which could not be determined without knowing exactly what Teresa allegedly contaminated.
Teresa was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 15 years.
“I believe Raymond died of diabetes, untreated diabetic,” Teresa said. “Raymond has never been tested for [diabetes]. But I think he fell into a sugary coma. This is what I believe. Yes. Absoutely. I believe 100 percent.
Teresa remains at the Dayton Correctional Institute. She is eligible for parole in 2030 when she turns 69.
To learn more about this case and others like it, watch “Snapped: Behind bars” to Saturdays To 8 / 7c to Oxygen or broadcast episodes here.
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