A husband that has admitted to spiking his wife's drinks with drugs in an attempt to murder her has now been sentenced to jail time.
The Indiana man said that he put a poisonous 'off-white powdery substance' into his wife's Coca-Cola to kill her and marry her daughter, state court records state.
Alfred Ruf pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in July for the attempts, though he was sentenced on Monday to time in prison after coming clean to police officers in January 2022.
The 71-year-old admitted that he had been doing it to his wife for several months with a drug given to him by his wife's daughter according to USA TODAY, who obtained a probable cause affidavit.
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According to the document, Ruf's wife had called the Wayne County Sheriff's Department to tell them about her husband's actions with her drinks and provided them with a pill bottle that contained the substance.
She also gave them the can she drank out of, with the bottom containing an 'off-white residue'. A test at the hospital showed that she had tested positive for having MDMA, cocaine and Benzodiazepines in her system.
Deputies interviewed Ruf at the sheriff's office in January 2022, where he said that he had a sexual relationship with his wife's 31-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, and claimed it was her idea to start poisoning her mother's drinks in September 2021.
As the only person charged with the crimes, Ruf told deputies that the drug would sedate his wife for '13 hours or so', adding that he did it to 'eventually kill (her)'.
Shockingly, it wasn't just his wife's daughter alleged to be involved, according to the affidavit. It was claimed that one of her friends was also involved in getting Ruf to poison his wife.
They would also allegedly put on his wife's night gowns and perform 'sex acts on each other' according to the court document.
While Ruf allegedly had sex with his wife's daughter or her friend, the other would steal some of his wife's belongings.
The American later admitted that he paid them to perform sexual acts, while the victim's daughter aimed to 'get mom out of the picture' after she found out they were selling the home, also mentioning a life insurance policy to Ruf that her mother had in place.
Ruf came clean to authorities, admitting that he gave his wife the substance 12 times from September to December 2021, according to the document, while also claiming that his wife's daughter said they could get married after they 'took care' of her mother before her death.
Ruf did admit that he knew the drugs could kill his wife, saying that he did it just so her daughter and her daughter's friend could come over and have sex with him, though the guilt ate away at him.
He eventually told his wife the truth as he 'felt bad', as he took her to hospital six times due to the symptoms she was suffering from the drug, which included bad headaches, drowsiness, diarrhoea and lightheadedness.
Ruf was sentenced on Monday (26 August) to four years in prison and five years of probation, while his defense attorney, John Lawrence Tompkins stated: "Once the state changed the nature of the offense, he took responsibility for what he did wrong.
"That's the appropriate thing to do."
Joshua Nair