A North Dakota woman who killed her longtime boyfriend by poisoning his iced tea with antifreeze in hopes of gaining a $30million inheritance that never existed has learned her fate.
Ina Thea Kenoyer, 48, was sentenced Wednesday to serve 25 years behind bars for the September 2023 murder of 51-year-old Steven Edward Riley Jr., Minot Daily News reports.
She had earlier changed her plea to guilty of felony murder and extreme indifference to human life, after initially denying that she had poisoned her boyfriend of 10 years in an effort to collect the large inheritance, which turned out to actually be an online scam.
Kenoyer had apparently believed she would be entitled to the money if Riley died as his common-law wife, with police saying she became irate when officers told her North Dakota law does not recognize common-law marriages.
Judge Richard Hagar ultimately accepted a joint sentencing recommendation from her defense attorney and state prosecutors on Wednesday under which she will also be required to pay Riley’s family $3,455 in restitution, according to the Minot Daily News.
Riley started feeling ill ahead of a scheduled meeting with what he thought was a lawyer to collect his $30million inheritance on September 3.
She had even rebuffed attempts from friends and family to seek medical treatment for him, claiming he was only suffering from heat stroke and she would treat him at home.
By September 5, Kenoyer told a friend Riley went to a walk-in clinic, but the friend was unable to locate him at any clinic or at the local emergency room.
Just a few hours later, paramedics responded to the couple’s home and found Riley unresponsive.
They rushed him to Trinity Hospital in Minot, and he was later transferred to a Bismarck hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
An ensuing autopsy determined he died after ingesting antifreeze, with toxic levels of ethylene glycol in his blood.
A police search of the couple’s home later revealed a Windex bottle containing what was suspected to be anti-freeze. A beer bottle and plastic mug, both suspected of containing anti-freeze, were also located in the garage.
Kenoyer was ultimately arrested on October 30, 2023, with investigators saying she had ‘financial motives’ after learning that Riley planned to break off their relationship once he had received the inheritance – which he planned to split with his five sons.
They also noted that ethylene glycol could be added to antifreeze to make it sweet to the taste, thus disguising it in sweet tea.
In court on Wednesday, Riley’s sister, Stephanie Gonzalez, and his son, Ryan Riley, provided heartbreaking victim impact statements.
Gonzalez said she was still processing how Kenoyer could take her brother’s life, lie to her nephew about the circumstances of his death and try to sell his vehicle while he was dying in the hospital.
‘This must be a heinous person with no soul,’ she said of Kenoyer, whom she told ‘stole more than a human life.
‘You stole a father from five sons, a brother from two sisters, an uncle from 12 nieces and nephews and a great uncle to eight, and many friends,’ Gonzalez said, according to KFYR-TV.
She noted that her mother is now 71 years old and has ‘to spend the rest of her elderly life, not in happiness, but in sorrow, grief and heartache.
‘Regardless of what your final sentence will be, it will be too good for you,’ Gonzalez concluded.
‘Like the family of any victim feels, the punishment should fit the crime. Fortunately for you, the Department of Corrections doesn’t put antifreeze in the iced tea.’
Ryan also spoke about how he had been trying to rekindle his relationship with his father before he was murdered.
‘I don’t think there’s anything more important than family,’ he told Kenoyer. ‘To have you take away someone so important, it’s just hurtful.
‘I can’t even find the words to describe how I feel and how much it burdens everyone,’ he continued. ‘I just wish none of this ever happened.
‘I never expected to lose my dad to something so selfish,’ Ryan said.
Kenoyer then remained silent when the judge asked if she had a statement of her own.