Life Sentence for Woman Who Poisoned Husband

She wanted to stop him from divorcing her

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A New Jersey chemist convicted of poisoning her husband to keep him from divorcing her was sentenced to life in prison Monday.

The Chinese-born chemist, Tianle Li, used thallium to poison her husband, Xiaoye Wang, in 2010, the Associated Press reports. Thallium is a tasteless, highly deadly poison that is difficult to detect in lab tests. Li, who worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb, had been researching the effect of Thallium on humans.

“This was planned, calculated and committed in a cruel and depraved manner,” state Superior Court Judge Michael Toto said in handing down the sentence.

Wang checked into the hospital with flu-like symptoms, but quickly fell into a coma and died with Li at his side. Prosecutors said Li documented her husband’s symptoms and speculated about his death in a journal she kept at the time. She wrote about how she would get away with murder.

[AP]