Wife Installs Hidden Cameras After Filing For Divorce, Discovers Husband Poisoning Her Coffee
A Michigan man pleaded guilty on Thursday to poisoning his former wife. This type of crime carries a maximum jail sentence of 15 years, and the minimum sentencing guidelines indicate time served should be at least 19 months, prosecutors said.
Macomb County Judge Anthony Viviano stunned the court by sentencing Brian Kozlowski, 46, to just five years probation and 60 weekend days in jail, ClickOnDetroit reported.
Brian Kozlowski and his then wife—Therese Kozlowski—had been together for 29 years, 22 of which they were married. But in May 2018, she filed for a divorce, although the couple continued to live together. According to divorce documents, the situation worsened to the point where he allegedly urinated in her shampoo and conditioner bottles.
Then, in July of that year, she noticed that she started feeling tired, nauseous and dizzy on days when her husband had made her coffee. One day, she even came close to crashing after falling asleep while driving on the I-375.
Suspicious, she installed hidden cameras in her kitchen—and the footage revealed that her husband had been deliberately mixing the sleep aid and antihistamine diphenhydramine into her coffee. She moved out of the home soon after.
“I felt a horrible coldness in the air as if I was being hunted by a dangerous predator, but in this nightmare, the predator was Brian,” she said reading a statement in court. “I fell to my knees and cried. I could barely move. Brian was trying to kill me to keep his comfortable life from slipping away.”
According to experts, the last coffee Brian Kozlowski made his wife contained 127 milliliters of the substance—which is about the same as eight sleeping pills.
Therese Kozlowski also revealed how their daughter had told her about one day when she also drank the poisoned coffee and drove to work.
“She was able to make it to her desk only to immediately fall asleep for two hours,” Therese Kozlowski said. “Brian had successfully poisoned his own daughter and set her on a path that could have killed her that morning.”
WDIV-TV reported that, after hearing his wife’s statement, Brian Kozlowski said: “I deeply would like to apologize.”
A day before the sentencing, Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith said that criminal guidelines for poisoning indicate that the defendant should serve a minimum of 19 to 38 months in prison.
“This defendant’s actions were despicable,” Smith said in a statement. “We are all thankful this sneak attack didn’t cause the victim to fall asleep behind the wheel on her way to work, killing herself and/or innocent drivers.
“This defendant deserves nothing less than a prison cell for his actions and that is what we will be stressing to Judge Viviano Thursday morning or we will be appealing the sentence, plain and simple,” he said.
However, the judge decided to issue a sentence which was far below the sentencing guidelines, despite objections from an assistant prosecutor who described it as a “a slap in the face.”
“If he comes back in society as a hardened criminal, what have I done? Nothing,” Judge Viviano said, according to WDIV-TV.
After the sentencing Eric Smith said: “It’s almost as though the judge is more concerned with the defendants freedom than he is with the safety of the victim.”
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