SYDNEY, N.S. – A 78-year-old Nova Scotia woman dubbed the “Black Widow” has been sentenced to serve two years and nine months in prison for drugging her newlywed husband.
Melissa Ann Shepard was sentenced in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court today in Sydney to a 3 1/2 year prison term, but that will be reduced because of time served in pretrial custody.
Shepard pleaded guilty Monday to administering a noxious thing and failing to provide the necessities of life to Fred Weeks while they were on a honeymoon last fall.
She was charged after Weeks fell ill at a bed and breakfast in Cape Breton.
An agreed statement of facts says Shepard slipped tranquilizers into the 76-year-old man’s coffee while they were on a trip to Newfoundland.
In his ruling, Judge Joseph Kennedy agreed with the Crown’s argument for a 3 1/2 year prison term less time served, saying Shepard’s criminal past was relevant.
Shepard is known as the “Black Widow” or the “Internet Black Widow” because she has a number of prior convictions stemming from her past relationships, including one for manslaughter.
The defence argued for a two-year jail term, saying Shepard feels remorseful.
She declined to address the court.
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Shepard was convicted of manslaughter in 1992 and served two years of a six-year sentence after killing her husband on a deserted road outside Halifax. Gordon Stewart was heavily drugged when she ran him over twice with her car.
In 2000 she married a Florida man, Robert Friedrich, who died of cardiac arrest two years later after going in and out of hospitals with mysterious fainting spells following their marriage. She was investigated in connection to his death, but no charges were laid.
In 2005 she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in prison for swindling money from her then boyfriend, Alex Strategos, another Florida man she met on an online dating site.
Strategos was hospitalized several times during their relationship and blood tests in 2005 showed he had benzodiazepine in his system.
“That’s crazy. You got funny laws up there,” said Strategos in a phone interview after hearing his ex’s latest sentence, “She should have been put away for good.”
–with files from Global News
Read the statement of facts below:
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