By Les Stweart
The Lebanon Daily News
LEBANON, Pa. -- A jury has convicted a woman of spiking her husband’s vodka with bleach during a domestic dispute.
A jury last week convicted Melanie Houtz, 36, of 102 Greentree Village, Lebanon, of simple assault. The jury cleared her of a charge of recklessly endangering another person.
Judge Charles T. Jones Jr. sentenced Houtz to six months probation and ordered her to pay a $250 fine.
Houtz was on trial for an incident in the home she formerly shared with her husband, George Houtz, at 6 W. Chestnut St., Cleona.
State police were sent to the home about 8 a.m. on June 20 last year for a domestic disturbance. Melanie Houtz was moving her belongings out of the house at the time.
The Houtzes agreed that George would leave the property and not return until 4 p.m. that day so his wife could gather up her belongings, according to a police affidavit
Shortly before 1:30 p.m., Mrs. Houtz sent her husband a text message telling him she was done, and he could return to the house. Houtz returned home, and a few minutes before 2 p.m., he decided to drink from a bottle of vodka in the house.
As soon as Houtz swallowed the vodka, he knew something had been put in it. He smelled the bottle and thought it had an odor of bleach, according to the police report.
State police charged Melanie Houtz put one or two tablespoons of bleach in the vodka bottle.
Copyright 2011 Lebanon Daily News
All Rights Reserved