Guilty: Marshfield woman convicted of murdering her husband

PLYMOUTH – A Marshfield woman has been found guilty of the murder of her husband.

Christine Ricci was found guilty Friday by a Plymouth County jury of second-degree murder and one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in the 2021 stabbing of Michael Ricci at their Marshfield home.

The verdict came after a six-day trial, during which multiple witnesses testified to the 49-year-old's inability to move on from an affair her husband had in 2018.

She had been charged with first-degree murder and did not testify on her own behalf during the trial.

The jury, which included four alternates, consisted of nine men and six women. They deliberated for about an hour Thursday, Aug. 1, after closing arguments were made in the case before going home for the day. The verdict Friday came after a total of 2½ hours of deliberations, according to the Plymouth County district attorney's office.

Prosecutors: Jealousy, anger over affair sparked long series of arguments

Prosecutors said Christine Ricci's jealousy and anger over the affair led to another in a long series of arguments between the couple at their home on Jan. 28, 2021. The long-simmering tensions boiled over when Christine Ricci stabbed her 51-year-old husband in the heart and shoulder, causing him to collapse, prosecutors said. He also had a long scratch along his back.

Michael Ricci, a 23-year Boston firefighter, was taken to South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, where he was pronounced dead.

Christine Ricci, who was 46 at the time of her arrest, said her husband had been suffering a manic episode for three days when he came in from shoveling snow. She said an argument ensued and that he became aggressive.

Christine Ricci told police she grabbed a knife to scare him away. He then lunged at her and the two fell to the floor with him on top. Ricci said that's when the knife she was holding went into him. Her memory of what happened did not include the stab wound to his shoulder, his back laceration and cuts and abrasions to his hands from possible defensive wounds.

Prosecutors: Not telling EMTs about possible wounds was harmful to Michael Ricci

Christine Ricci didn't mention any possible stab wounds when EMTs first arrived, which prosecutors said negatively affected how Michael Ricci was treated at the scene.

Citing doctor-patient confidentiality and other issues, Judge Diane Freniere ruled before closing arguments Aug. 1 that the defense could not use any medical or mental health records of Michael Ricci to introduce Christine Ricci's manic episode claim. Freniere also denied a defense motion to use a self-defense argument in the case, saying the actions, as detailed by Ricci, are outside of what self-defense might cover

Couple's three children testified

Highlights of the trial included testimony by the couple's three children, who range in age from their teens to 20s. The youngest of the children said his mother seemed committed to helping their father as he joined Alcoholics Anonymous in 2018 after admitting to the affair, and she was working to help him with purported memory issues.

The two other children bolstered prosecutors' claims about Christine Ricci's constant rehashing of the affair and the arguments that followed from that. Their oldest child, Michael Ricci Jr., described his mother as bringing up the infidelity on a nearly daily basis. He said his mother's behavior changed since 2018 and that she had become verbally and physically aggressive toward the family as a whole.

Defense attorney Joshua Wood said those fights, along with scratches, black eyes and other injuries that friends, family and co-workers said they had seen on Michael as a result of them, came in the six to nine months after the affair and did not happen in the immediate lead-up to whatever happened in the home that day.

The couple's teenage daughter Sophia, however, was in her bedroom at the time and said she could hear her parents' arguments but paid little to attention because she said such arguments had become the norm. She only knew something more serious had happened when her mother yelled up the stairs for her to call 911.

Michael Ricci's affair partner testifies

Janeen Bouchard, the woman with whom Michael Ricci had the six-week affair, testified about visits Christine Ricci made to her home in early 2019 and 2020, the latter of which involved police being called to get her to leave. She also discussed an ongoing series of text messages in which Bouchard said Ricci constantly asked her for more details of the affair, which Bouchard eventually stopped answering.

Bouchard said Michael Ricci told her he and his wife were separated and planned to divorce, which came as news to Christine Ricci, whose behavior toward her was "all over the place."

In his closing, Wood reminded jurors the entire incident in 2021 lasted for only about 15 minutes. While the daughter was home, she said she could not make out what was specifically being said, leaving Christine Ricci as the only surviving witness as to what actually happened. He stressed that the jury should find her not guilty if they are not absolutely certain of what happened in the home that day.

Sentencing scheduled for Aug. 22

Christine Ricci is scheduled to be sentenced at 3 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 22, in Plymouth Superior Court.

David R. Smith covers breaking, trending and restaurant news for The Patriot Ledger. He can be reached at Drsmith@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Guilty: Marshfield woman convicted of murdering her husband