Melody Feliciano Johnson, initially charged in Arizona with attempted murder, receives probation after striking plea deal

An Arizona woman who was charged with trying to kill her husband by poisoning his coffee daily for months has reportedly avoided jail time and has been ordered to spend three years on probation.

Melody Feliciano Johnson received her punishment this week after striking a plea deal with prosecutors that allowed her to plead guilty in April to two counts of adding a poison or harmful substance to food or drink, according to the Arizona news website azfamily.com.

She had initially been charged with attempted murder, a more serious felony. The reduced charges left her facing up to two years in prison on each count. But state court judge Javier Chon-Lopez instead opted for probation, ordering her to undergo a mental health evaluation, and requiring her to abstain from contacting her estranged husband unless it is in a legal context, such as their pending divorce, as azfamily.com noted.

Chon-Lopez took note of how the husband, Roby Johnson, did not want Feliciano Johnson to be imprisonedCNN reported. The network said the couple are living together with their child while waiting for their divorce to be finalized.

  • BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.net
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    8 months ago

    Poisoned husband -daily for months-

    Gets probation and no contact order.

    Yo, what? When that husband or kid turns up dead down the line they are gunna be all shocked pikachu about it. At the very least she should have been ordered to an inpatient treatment facility and not just some wishy-washy mental health screening.

    She actively, daily, tried for months to kill him. Probation shouldn’t be for that kind of premeditation. It should be for “oops I lost my temper” or “oops I wasn’t paying enough attention for a split second”, not this sort of planned out and executed multiply sort of thing.

    • QuarterSwede@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Apparently the husband asked for her to not be imprisoned and the Judge took that into consideration.

      • BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.net
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        8 months ago

        Yeah, if I’m being honest, I don’t care a lick about what someone who was being actively poisoned for months wants for their attempted murderer in this sort of incident. It shouldn’t even have been a remote consideration.

        Dynamic like this, wouldn’t surprise me if he’s been worn down over the years and just accepts the situation… I’m not saying I have any sort of insight here, but really bad calls all around either way.

        • Paddzr@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Domestic abused people often are manipulated to think THEY’RE the problem and they caused it.

          That guy needs help. A seriously good therapist. But we don’t work that way. He’d have to pay out of pocket because mental health is a joke.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      We don’t take rehabilitation seriously in our justice system. If we did, addicts wouldn’t be incarcerated.