teresa asked her mother, who lived near ray, to check on him. when teresa s mom got to the house, she found ray unconscious. she called teresa, who alerted 911. no, i need an ambulance. okay. he s down. barely not it s my husband. all right. i ll send the ambulance. all right. thank you. teresa phoned beth and raced to be with ray. what did she say had happened? that her mom had found him on the floor naked, unresponsive. the ambulance arrived at the house around the same time as teresa. emts scrambled to stabilize ray. teresa rode with her husband to the nearest hospital. there an emergency room team struggled to revive him, but whatever ailed ray, it was too serious a case for the local hospital. he was taken to a level two trauma center in erie, pennsylvania, and he was barely
years after ray s death, officers surrounded teresa s house. we knocked on the door early in the morning, told teresa that we had a warrant for her arrest and she was under arrest for the murder of raymond kotomski. she didn t look surprised. she kissed me and she was going she almost started balling, but something god came over her and she was okay. i was crazy happy. it was like, wow, we finally got somewhere. after a few days in jail, teresa was released on bond. law enforcement officials knew the case had problems. ohio attorney general mike dewine s people gave ray s family a depressingly realistic appraisal. we told them all along this is going to be a tough case, be prepared. be prepared for a loss. we might not win this? we might not win this case. coming up proof teresa is innocent or proof of the perfect crime?
ray was dying. in the gallery monica wept as her younger sister, kimberly, testified how teresa ended life support for their father without consulting ray s side of the family and the terms she said teresa dictated for releasing ray s body to her. the conditions were that i had to have him cremated and that she wanted to make sure i wouldn t be the beneficiary. it was all part of a pattern, prosecutors argued, that added up to murder. the state contends there was absolutely no evidence that it was all reasonable to conclude that anyone other than the defendant, mrs. kotomski, is the one who provided that antifreeze to her husband. when the defense had its turn, attorney hentemann told the judge the state had no case, not a scrap of evidence. he got the fbi agent who took teresa s initial statement to concede she may have been confused about whether she was
to the hospital, teresa told the doctors to let him go. her son, josh, watched teresa make that agonizing decision. she was devastated, absolutely devastated. i could see it in her face. hard to do? uh-huh. ray s death was referred to dr. eric vey, the medical examiner in the erie county coroner s office. by the time mr. kotomski got to you, antifreeze poisoning was already suspected so you were looking specifically for that? my job at autopsy was just to confirm the presence of the crystals in the kidney which clearly indicated he had ethylene glycol on board. and he had those crystals, there was no question? no question, slam dunk. the medical examiner determined that the cause of death was ethylene glycol poisoning but the manner of death was listed as undetermined. teresa said ray told her he drank something sweet around the time he got sick, and antifreeze had a very sweet taste.
substance for human consumption. the judge reads the first count, tampering with food. yeah. not guilty. uh-huh. and you think, well, that s it? yeah, we re done. she got away with it. it is a moment monica will look back on for the rest of her life. were you looking at teresa? yeah. and thinking what? i have hate. i did. the judge reads the second count. the court finds that the state has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, teresa kotomski, is the person who administered the antifreeze to raymond kotomski. the court finds the defendant guilty of murder. mrs. kotomski, do you wish to make a statement at this time? your honor, i want you to know i did not hurt my husband. i did not give him poison. i did not give him anything to harm him at all. i loved my husband.