MA v. Christine Ricci: Woman Stabs Husband Before Murder Trial

BROCKTON, Mass. (Court TV) — A Massachusetts woman is on trial for the fatal stabbing that killed her firefighter husband.

(L) Christine Ricci appears in court on July 22, 2024. (Court TV), (R) Michael Ricci (Boston Fire Rescue Co. 2)

Christine Ricci is charged with murder, assault and assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the January 2021 death of Michael Ricci, 51. According to documents obtained by Court TV, emergency responders said Michael was stabbed in the heart and the back of his left shoulder.

The couple “engaged in a verbal altercation prior to the incident,” prosecutors said. In court, prosecutors also said mental health issues and Michael’s past affair drove Christine to kill him.

In court, Christine’s attorney, Joshua Wood, said: “There were mental health issues on both sides.”

Michael was an Army veteran and had been a firefighter with the Boston Fire Department for 23 years at the time of his death, according to his obituary. The couple had three children.

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DAY 1 – 25/7/24

• Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham opened the case for the Commonwealth, telling the jury that defendant Christine Ricci never got over her husband’s extramarital affair. She compared their deteriorating relationship to a pot of boiling water that boiled over on January 28, 2021, and during one of their frequent arguments, stabbed her husband to death with a kitchen knife.
• Defense attorney Joshua Wood told jurors in his opening statement that Christine Ricci never intended to kill her husband and that their confrontation occurred within a 15-minute span. During that time, she could not remember everything that happened because she was hysterical. However, in a statement, she told police that her husband lunged at her and attacked her.
• WATCH: Woman stabs husband in murder case: opening statements
• The couple’s 20-year-old daughter, Sophiya Ricci, testified that her parents’ relationship became fraught with conflict after her father revealed his affair to her and her brothers. On the afternoon of January 28, 2021, she was in her bedroom when she heard them screaming, prompting her mother to call 911. She found her father on the floor, her mother next to him.
  • Prosecutors played the 911 call, which caused Sophiya to cry. During her conversation with the 911 operator, her mother could be heard crying and screaming in the background. Sophiya testified that her mother suffered from panic attacks and that she had to calm her down by getting one of her prescription pills that she kept in her room.
  • Sophiya, who was the only other person in the house at the time of the fatal confrontation, testified that she saw no injuries on either her mother or father when she came out of her room. She told the jury that in the weeks leading up to her father’s death, her parents had argued about his drinking and extramarital affair.
  • During cross-examination, Sophiya admitted that her father was a known alcoholic, who drank every day and had memory loss, which was often the subject of her parents’ arguments. He stopped drinking after the affair and started attending AA meetings.
• Prosecutors also called Angel Ricci, the defendant’s eldest son, as a witness. Angel, 27, said he was adopted by Michael Ricci Sr. and knew him only as his father. He testified that his parents had a good relationship until his mother found out his father had cheated on her. His bedroom was in the basement, and he often heard them arguing. He said that after learning of the affair, his mother became increasingly withdrawn and angry, causing his father to take over household chores, such as cleaning and cooking.
  • Angel testified that he walked in on one of his parents’ arguments, saw things broken in the room, and described his mother as being so hysterical that she went into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and tried to stab herself in the stomach.
  • Angel said he and his father worked together to prevent his mother from harming herself.
  • During cross-examination, Angel admitted that his father was an alcoholic and drank heavily.
  • Angel also agreed with the expectation that his father’s DNA would be on the kitchen knives because he had used them himself.