Anthony
Super Moderator
A jury has convicted 81-year-old Helen Galli of poisoning her son’s girlfriend with antifreeze in March 2010.
Helen Galli, 81, of Pennsylvania was convicted Thursday in Luzerne County of aggravated and simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.
Prosecutors accused that in 2010 Galli used antifeeze to poison her son’s girlfriend, Dawn Simyan, 44.
Simyan spent three weeks in the hospital and several months recovering after the poisoning
Galli didn't want the victim coming between her and her son, Luzerne County Assistant District Attorney Frank McCabe said.
Prosecutors said it was clear that Galli wanted Simyan out of her son’s life so she alone could get his love, affection and money from a $1 million natural gas lease he signed.
Simyan took the witness stand Tuesday and told the court how her body shut down.
"I had no energy in my body. I was like a rubber band. I started vomiting all over myself and I had a hard time breathing," Simyan recalled. "I was kind of like paralyzed. I was feeling terrible, like I was dying."
Simyan remembers her boyfriend at the time, Victor Galli had given her a glass of juice to drink the morning of March 31, 2010, “my mother said it will make you feel better Victor said." Victor who lives next door to his mom, goes for breakfast every morning and brought the drink back with him, she said. She said she took a sip, and fell back to sleep while Victor Galli was at work. When she woke up around 11:30 a.m. she to drank the rest. She got terribly sick later in the day, she said.
Joseph Sklarosky Sr. defense attorney said Victor Galli, brought the glass of juice to Simyan from his mother's home, and he thought that didn't make sense.
"Would a loving mother give her son a glass of poison to bring home at the risk of having him drink it?" Sklarosky asked.
He also accused Simyan of poisoning herself for attention because she was jealous of Victors' relationship with his mother.
McCabe answered back to that accusation by saying, "She would have to be the dumbest person on Earth to cause that much pain to herself."
Helen Galli remains free on bail pending her sentencing scheduled for Dec. 5.
