BabyGirl
03-15-2005, 01:44 AM
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`Black Widow' Gets 5 Years In Prison
CLEARWATER - A Canadian woman who was convicted of killing one husband, and was suspected of killing another, pleaded guilty Monday to stealing from a man whose health deteriorated after she moved in with him.
Melissa Friedrich, 69, was sentenced to five years in prison as part of a plea agreement between her attorney, an assistant public defender, and the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office.
Friedrich was convicted of seven charges - three counts of grand theft from a person 65 years or older, two counts of forgery, and two counts of uttering.
Investigators say she stole roughly $20,000 from Alexander Strategos, 73, after meeting him on a dating website, driving down from her native Canada, and moving into his Pinellas Park condominium last year.
``I think it's fair,'' said Strategos of the sentence Monday after Friedrich entered her plea before Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge W. Douglas Baird.
Strategos' health deteriorated after Friedrich moved in, with repeated trips to various hospitals, and initially Pinellas Park detectives accused her of poisoning him. But that could not be proven, said Pinellas Park Detective Mike Lynch.
In Canada, Friedrich, who then went by the name of Melissa Stewart, was sentenced to six years in prison in the 1991 death of her then-husband, Gordon Russell Stewart. Prosecutors then maintained Friedrich drugged Stewart and ran him over to collect his pension benefits.
A few years ago, she married Robert Friedrich, taking his last name. Robert Friedrich was a retired electrical engineer in his 80s living in Brandenton at the time.
He died less than 18 months after they married, by which time Friedrich has been made sole beneficiary of her late husband's estate. Robert Friedrich's children suspected she had slowly poisoned him, draining an estate of roughly a half million dollars down to $100,000 by the time he died, police reports state. But she was never charged.
After she serves the five years, Friedrich faces an allegation of fraud in Canada; authorities there say she essentially used two different identities to collect retirement benefits twice.
`Black Widow' Gets 5 Years In Prison
CLEARWATER - A Canadian woman who was convicted of killing one husband, and was suspected of killing another, pleaded guilty Monday to stealing from a man whose health deteriorated after she moved in with him.
Melissa Friedrich, 69, was sentenced to five years in prison as part of a plea agreement between her attorney, an assistant public defender, and the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office.
Friedrich was convicted of seven charges - three counts of grand theft from a person 65 years or older, two counts of forgery, and two counts of uttering.
Investigators say she stole roughly $20,000 from Alexander Strategos, 73, after meeting him on a dating website, driving down from her native Canada, and moving into his Pinellas Park condominium last year.
``I think it's fair,'' said Strategos of the sentence Monday after Friedrich entered her plea before Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge W. Douglas Baird.
Strategos' health deteriorated after Friedrich moved in, with repeated trips to various hospitals, and initially Pinellas Park detectives accused her of poisoning him. But that could not be proven, said Pinellas Park Detective Mike Lynch.
In Canada, Friedrich, who then went by the name of Melissa Stewart, was sentenced to six years in prison in the 1991 death of her then-husband, Gordon Russell Stewart. Prosecutors then maintained Friedrich drugged Stewart and ran him over to collect his pension benefits.
A few years ago, she married Robert Friedrich, taking his last name. Robert Friedrich was a retired electrical engineer in his 80s living in Brandenton at the time.
He died less than 18 months after they married, by which time Friedrich has been made sole beneficiary of her late husband's estate. Robert Friedrich's children suspected she had slowly poisoned him, draining an estate of roughly a half million dollars down to $100,000 by the time he died, police reports state. But she was never charged.
After she serves the five years, Friedrich faces an allegation of fraud in Canada; authorities there say she essentially used two different identities to collect retirement benefits twice.