Georgia Woman Sentenced to Life for Poisoning Husband with Antifreeze Cocktail

A Georgia woman has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of fatally poisoning her husband with a cocktail laced with antifreeze, following a two-year investigation.

Torrii Fedrick was convicted of felony malice murder and aggravated assault last week in connection to the 2021 death of her husband, Phil Fedrick, the Thomas County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a statement on March 27.

Phil died in September 2021 after being rushed to Archbold Memorial Hospital. Emergency room staff quickly became suspicious of his symptoms and alerted authorities, suspecting he had been poisoned. He died a week later. An autopsy later confirmed ethylene glycol poisoning—a toxic chemical found in antifreeze and brake fluid.

Prosecutors argued that Torrii Fedrick mixed the chemical into a drink that ultimately led to her husband’s death. Her defense team, however, pushed back with claims that Phil may have taken his own life and that investigators never recovered the drink or any antifreeze from the home.

The case took a dramatic turn during the trial when the couple’s children, Phil Jr. and Phil’Nesia, took the stand. Prosecutors say both initially told police that Phil Jr. witnessed his father drink the poisoned cocktail. But during their court testimony, the siblings recanted key parts of their earlier statements. Phil Jr. told the court he said what investigators “wanted to hear” and denied seeing his father consume the drink.

Despite the conflicting testimony, the jury ultimately sided with the prosecution.

Fedrick’s life sentence comes with the possibility of parole, according to local outlet The Thomasville Times-Enterprise.