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Torrii Federick (Thomas County Sheriff’s Office).
A Georgia woman found guilty of murdering her husband by poisoning him with antifreeze will spend the rest of her life behind bars.
Torrii Federick, age 45, received a life sentence with the chance of parole after a jury found her guilty of malice murder. She was taken into custody in November 2022, over a year following the death of her husband, Phil Federick, 40, on September 5, 2021.
Investigations by the police revealed that Phil Federick died from poisoning by ethylene glycol, a compound found in antifreeze and brake fluid. Reports from the Thomasville Times-Enterprise noted that during an initial interview with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, one of the couple’s children mentioned that Torrii Federick had prepared a special drink for her husband.
Their children, Phil’Nesia Federick and Phil Federick Jr., were both teenagers when their father passed away. According to the Thomasville Times-Enterprise, even though they testified in defense of their mother, their first discussions with the GBI suggested they might have questioned their mother’s exoneration.
Phil’Nesia Federick, now 20 years old, contradicted her own statements to police and GBI agents concerning her father’s health in the days leading up to his falling ill. She also told District Attorney Brad Shealy that she didn’t remember contacting the GBI a year after her father’s death to provide additional details.
Phil Federick Jr. also recanted his statement about a cocktail his mother made for his father that was served to him in a sports bottle. According to the Thomasville Times-Enterprise story, Phil Federick Jr. told a GBI agent that he saw his mother give his father the drink in the bottle the night he fell ill. Father and son watched a fight on TV that night, during which time Phil Federick Jr. reportedly told the GBI agent he saw his father drinking from the bottle.
On the stand, Phil Federick Jr. reportedly became uneasy and told Shealy that he just told the GBI what they wanted to hear. He reportedly explained that at 14 years old, he was mad at his mother for dating someone new so soon after his father’s death. He also reportedly testified that he didn’t see his mother make the drink and that no one ever found the sports bottle in question.
Torrii Federick’s defense attorney Karla Walker argued that Phil Federick was “isolated and wearing a mask” on the Sunday he fell ill and took the antifreeze voluntarily as a way to end his own life.
Police said that when Phil Federick was hospitalized for his illness, they suspected ethylene glycol poisoning and notified authorities. Phil Federick died a week after he was brought to the hospital. In a statement announcing the verdict, the Thomas County Sheriff’s Office stated that the two-year investigation concluded that it was Torrii Federick who gave her husband a drink with the ethylene glycol that killed him.
On March 27, a jury agreed. Torrii Federick was convicted of malice murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
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