Judy Church gets life without parole for murdering boyfriend with antifreeze ingredient in Massachusetts
By Penny Kmitt
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BOSTON, Massachusetts (WBZ) — Judy Church, the Salisbury, Massachusetts woman convicted of murdering her boyfriend by poisoning him with an antifreeze ingredient, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Church, 67, was found guilty of first-degree murder “with premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty” Monday in the Nov. 2022 death of 55-year-old Leroy Fowler.
Judy Church sentencing
The judge said Thursday that he was mandated to issue a life sentence without the possibility of parole, but added “That is the exact sentence I would impose if I did have discretion.”
Prosecutors said Church deliberately poisoned Fowler with ethylene glycol because she was jealous of his relationship with another woman.
“Losing a loved one is painful no matter what, but when it happens at the hands of someone else it brings a pain like you’ve never felt before,” Fowler’s older sister, Tammy Carbone, said while reading a victim impact statement in court Thursday.
Church was accused of poisoning Fowler’s fruit punch-flavored Powerade on Nov. 11, his birthday. The poison, usually found in antifreeze, deicing fluid and hydraulic brake fluid, has a sweet taste that was masked by the drink, prosecutors said.
They added that Church videotaped Fowler struggling in their bedroom and asked him “are you having fun?” She didn’t call 911 for 30 minutes and told the dispatcher that Fowler “must have ingested something.”
That “something” was the drug Percocet, Church’s lawyers claimed. Fowler ended up in the hospital and died two days later.
“No one deserves to suffer like that”
Neither side disputed that Fowler was dating another woman named Barbara Randall while he was with Church and that the women knew each other. Prosecutors showed the jury a picture of a voodoo doll that Church allegedly kept of Randall. Fowler’s son testified that she would stick pins in it and throw it around.
Randall had her written victim impact statement read on her behalf in court Thursday. She said Church didn’t just take Fowler away from her, but also from his family who loved him.
“No one deserves to suffer like that. No one deserves to have their life ended in fear and pain at the hands of someone he thought he could trust,” Randall said.
The defense argued that Church and Fowler had a good relationship, were planning to move to Florida together and called this whole thing a conspiracy by Fowler’s family.
The Essex Superior Court jury deliberated for just about a day before reaching their guilty verdict Monday.
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