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Christine Ricci convicted of murdering her husband in Marshfield

PLYMOUTH – Christine Ricci will spend at least 26 years in prison following a verdict in Plymouth Superior Court Thursday afternoon after she was found guilty earlier this month of fatally stabbing her husband in the heart in their Marshfield home nearly four years ago.

Ricci, 49, was found guilty on Friday, August 2, of first-degree murder and assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the death of her husband, Michael Ricci, 51, in their Marshfield home on January 28, 2021. Michael Ricci had been a Boston firefighter for 23 years at the time of his death.

Judge Diane Freniere sentenced Ricci to no less than six years and no more than six years and one day on the dangerous weapon charge, followed by life in prison for second-degree murder with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

The state recommended that Ricci be given the maximum sentence allowed by law: life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years for the murder and eight to 10 years for the crime of dangerous weapon possession.

Ricci's attorney, Joshua Wood, asked for a lower sentence of 15 years' probation for the murder. He argued that the sentence would punish his client for her actions while giving her motivation to deal with her mental health and other issues in prison in the hope of being released back into society. He said she was unlikely to reoffend, given the very special nature of her relationship with her husband and the arguments that led to his death.

The verdict was preceded by an hour of written and oral victim impact statements from the couple's three children – all aged between late teens and 20 – as well as from Michael Ricci's mother and several of his siblings.

While the children expressed mixed feelings about their mother, often distinguishing her as the woman who raised them and the woman who murdered their father, his mother, brothers and sisters said they always found Christine Ricci to be manipulative and emotionally abusive toward her husband.

Ricci will serve her sentence at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley.

Trial gave insight into the ongoing problems of the Ricci couple

The verdict against Christine Ricci came after a six-day trial during which several witnesses testified that Ricci was unable to move on from an affair her husband had in 2018. Family members testified during the trial that the couple continued to argue about the issue.

Ricci claimed that her husband had been suffering from a manic episode for three days when he returned home from shoveling snow on the day he died. She said an argument broke out and he became aggressive. No evidence was presented at trial that he had ever suffered from such episodes.

Christine Ricci told police she grabbed a knife to scare him away, and he lunged at her and they both fell to the ground, with him on top. Ricci said that was when the knife she was holding went into him. Her memory of what happened did not include the stab wound to his shoulder, the laceration on his back, and the cuts and abrasions on his hands that may have been defensive wounds.

She was accused of first-degree murder and did not testify for her own benefit during the trial.

The jury, which also included four alternate members, consisted of nine men and six women. They deliberated for two and a half hours each day over two days.

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