Tucson woman sentenced to probation for poisoning husband’s coffee with bleach for months
A Tucson woman who poisoned her husband’s coffee every day for months last year was sentenced to probation, according to court documents filed Thursday.
Melody Feliciano Johnson, 40, was sentenced to three years of probation after pleading guilty to two felony counts of adding poison or another harmful substance to food or drink. Through a plea deal, Melody was able to drop her original charges of attempted first-degree murder and attempted aggravated assault for adding trace amounts of bleach to her husband Roby Johnson’s coffee maker.
Roby told investigators in a criminal report that he believed his wife was poisoning him with bleach in an attempt “to kill him to collect death benefits.” His suspicions arose in March of 2023 when Roby, a member of the U.S. Air Force, first noticed that his coffee tasted foul while being stationed in Germany with his family. At the time, he and Melody were living together with their child but were in the process of a divorce.
Roby continued to drink the coffee for two to three weeks before using pool testing strips to determine what was causing the foul taste. Roby told detectives that after testing his family’s tap water, which generated typical readings, he tested his coffee and found that it contained “high levels” of chlorine.
Roby stated in documents that his wife knew he would prepare his coffee pot at night, so that he would only need to turn it on in the morning to make his coffee.
Court records showed that Roby pretended to drink the coffee for the rest of the time that the family was in Germany, as he did not want to alert authorities about his discovery in Europe.
When the family returned to Tucson in late June, Roby installed a camera inside their temporary housing at an Air Force base to observe his wife’s behavior. The camera recorded video of Melody allegedly putting bleach in his coffee.
Roby then filed a report with the Tucson Police Department on July 6, but officers did not investigate further because the video footage he captured did not clearly depict what liquid Melody was pouring into his coffee. As a result, Roby installed higher-quality hidden cameras in the family’s laundry room, where the bleach was, and above the coffee maker.
On July 18, Roby returned to police with new video footage that allegedly showed Melody putting bleach into a container before pouring it into the coffee maker, which he said only he used.
After a search, investigators found that the liquid inside the coffee maker allegedly smelled like bleach, and Melody was arrested.
As a part of her plea agreement, Melody could be fined or sentenced to prison, probation or prison followed by probation. Both counts to which she pled guilty carried a maximum sentence of two years in prison each.
In addition to her three-year probation sentence, Judge Javier Chon-Lopez ordered Melody to undergo a mental health evaluation, barred her from consuming alcohol and prohibited her from having contact with her husband unless they were in the presence of a legal team. With the probation sentence, Melody was set to be released from jail.
The couple were in the process of finalizing their divorce.
Madeline Nguyen is a breaking news reporter for The Republic. Reach her at Madeline.Nguyen@gannett.com and 480-619-0285. Follow her on X @madelineynguyen.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Melody Johnson of Tucson sentenced for poisoning husband’s coffee
