Jealous Woman Gets 20 Years for Jagermeister Murder
Janjiri Smith faces 20 years in prison for murdering her ex-boyfriend.
July 1, 2013 — -- A Washington woman has been sentenced to prison for 20 years after pleading guilty to murdering her boyfriend with Jagermeister laced with pesticides, court documents show.
Janjira Jeffrey Smith, 56, pleaded guilty this past May to second degree murder and second degree assault for sending ex-boyfriend Roger Lewis and his girlfriend, Thanyarat Sengphrachanh, a bottle of Jagermeister spiked with the insecticide methomyl in 2006.
According to the website of the King County Superior County Court in Seattle, where the trial took place, the sentences on both charges range from 12 to 20 years.
She was sentenced to a maximum of 20 years on June 27, court records show.
Smith sent the bottle of Jagermeister a month after she and Lewis broke following his visit to the Philippines. On his return, Lewis told Smith he had found someone else he wanted to marry, according to court records. She was allegedly distraught over the news and tried to win Lewis back, the records show.
Court records maintain that Smith had called Sengphrachanh and told her Lewis liked to have a drink before dinner and that she would send over a bottle of Jagermeister. Sengphrachanh accepted Smith's offer, and Smith had a friend bring the bottle to Sengphrachanh. Lewis drank a full shot glass of the alcohol, and Sengphrachanh had half a shot glass.
Sengphrachanh, according to court records, immediately began to feel ill, temporarily lost her vision and suffered a stroke.
A friend ultimately found the couple lying in the apartment, and Lewis was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators determined the bottle of Jagermeister was laced with the insecticide methomyl. The Environmental Protection Agency has classified methomyl as a Restricted Use Pesticide because it has such high levels of toxicity. According to the EPA, it is most toxic when it is ingested orally.
Sengphrachanh could not be reached for comment
Less than two weeks after Smith sent the bottle of Jagermeister, she fled the country to the Taiwanese city of Taipei and traveled on to her native country Thailand, court records show.
Smith was arrested in London in 2008 and extradited to the United States in June 2011 to begin her trial, according to court documents. ABC Affiliate KOMO reported in June 2011 that Smith originally pleaded not guilty to the charges, but changed her plea this past spring.
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