‘Black Widow’ pleads guilty

SydNey, N.S. A 78-yearold woman dubbed the “Black Widow” has admitted to slipping tranquillizers into her newlywed husband’s coffee while they were on a honeymoon last year.

Melissa Ann Shepard pleaded guilty Monday to administering a noxious thing and failing to provide the necessities of life after Fred Weeks, 75, became ill during a brief trip to Newfoundland last September.

An agreed statement of facts read by the Crown describes how Shepard mixed in the tranquillizers Lorazepam and Temazepam into his drinks while they were aboard a ferry from Cape Breton on their way to Port-aux-Basques, N.L.

“Shepard disclosed to investigators that she dissolved both medications in coffee that she then gave to Mr. Weeks over a period of time during the days leading up to Mr. Weeks’ hospitalization,” Crown prosecutor Gerald Macdonald told the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Sydney.

“She did this without the knowledge of Mr. Weeks.”

Blonde and bespectacled, Shepard sat calmly in court as she entered her guilty pleas. The Crown agreed to withdraw an attempted murder charge. Another charge of administering a noxious thing with intent to endanger life or cause bodily harm was reduced to the less serious charge of administering a noxious thing with intent to aggrieve or annoy a person.

Mr. Macdonald said outside court there wasn’t enough evidence to support the original charges because the Crown couldn’t prove Shepard intended to kill Mr. Weeks.

But Mr. Macdonald said media coverage of Shepard’s past brushes with the law was helpful because Mr. Weeks’s family members quickly contacted police about her and were able to prevent further harm coming to him.

“It’s only because of the public interest that this was nipped in the bud before it became something worse than it was,” he said.

Mr. Weeks, who sat in court a few seats behind Shepard, declined comment.

The agreed statement of facts also describes his rapid decline in health during their brief time together as a married couple.

The statement says a Marine Atlantic employee told investigators that when Mr. Weeks came aboard the ferry bound for Newfoundland, he was spry enough to easily walk 200 metres from his car to an elevator and was cracking jokes when he and Shepard were escorted to their cabin on Sept. 26.

But Mr. Weeks was “a totally different person” the next day, the employee said, adding that Mr. Weeks was unable to walk, couldn’t put on his sneakers, didn’t know where his car keys were and required the use of a wheelchair.

Another employee said Mr. Weeks couldn’t distinguish between the reverse and drive shifts in his car and didn’t appear to know how to start it when the time came to leave the ferry on Sept. 27.

The couple briefly stayed in a Newfoundland hotel but checked out that same day before returning to North Sydney, N.S., where they stayed at a bed and breakfast. It was there he fell out of bed and was hospitalized, the statement says.