doubt that the defendant, teresa kotomski, is the person who administered the antifreeze to raymond kotomskitomski, do you wish to make a statement at this time? >> your honor, i want you to know i did not hurt my husband. i did not give him poison. i did not give him anything to harm him at all. i loved my husband. i swear before god. i never, ever, would hurt anybody, especially my husband. >> the sentence was mandatory. >> which has an indefinite term of imprisonment of 15 years to life. >> i love her. i want to be with her. i have faith in her. i don't think she's guilty. >> reporter: while teresa's attorney appeals her conviction, tim shumaker, teresa's boyfriend of five years, is standing by his woman. he's raising her grandkids. and not long after teresa began serving her sentence, tim asked her to marry him. teresa said yes. you meet this woman. she's already a suspect in a murder investigation. and then she's arrested, and tried, and convicted. you could find somebody who wasn't locked up. but you don't want anybody else. you want her. >> yeah, i want her. >> reporter: why is that?

>> she was filing for life insurance, collecting life insurance from raymond kotomski. >> reporter: some of the 150-thousand dollars in insurance went to buy a house where teresa was raising her grandchildren. and, about a year after ray's death, there was a new man in her life. tim schumaker was an over-the-road trucker when he and teresa found each other. >> reporter: how'd you and theresa meet? >> on the internet. >> reporter: what'd you like about her? >> she was attentive. just a sweet lady. >> reporter: before long, tim and teresa were living together. tim gave up long distance trucking for a job closer to home. >> reporter: she tell you she was a suspect in a murder investigation? >> she told me. >> reporter: and she said, "i didn't do it. i didn't have anything to do with it." >> she didn't have to say that she didn't do it. i knew she didn't do it. >> reporter: ashtabula county's investigation may have been action. emailing, cajoling, pleading. >> i wrote letters to the ohio attorney general. then i got a phone call and they said they were looking into it. >> reporter: ohio atto