Murder trial jury deliberating fate of Marshfield woman. What judge ruled on self defense

PLYMOUTH – The Marshfield woman accused of fatally stabbing her husband at their home in 2021 declined to testify on her own behalf before closing arguments began in her case at Plymouth Superior Court on Thursday.

While the murder case against Christine Ricci, 49, took a few years to reach trial, the trial itself, which began Thursday, July 25, wrapped up in six days. The jury will now go into deliberations.

Ricci is accused of stabbing her husband, a 51-year-old Boston firefighter, with a cooking knife in the kitchen of their Marshfield home during an argument over an affair Michael Ricci had in 2018. Prosecutors said Christine Ricci was unable to get past the affair after learning about it shortly after her husband said he had ended it.

Christine Ricci said her husband lunged at her unprovoked in a manic episode after coming in from shoveling snow Jan. 28, 2021. She said she had grabbed a kitchen knife to defend herself and that he fell on top of her as she was holding it.

She either didn't know about or didn't tell first responders about his injury until they examined him at the home before taking him to South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, where he was pronounced dead.

Christine Ricci was subsequently charged with first-degree murder and assault with a dangerous weapon.

Key defense motions denied by judge

Prior to bringing jurors in to hear the closing arguments Aug. 1, Judge Diane Freniere shot down a motion by one of Ricci’s lawyers, Joshua Wood, to allow the jury to consider a self-defense argument, saying that the situation as described by Christine Ricci didn’t meet the criteria of using reasonable force to defend herself and having no other options to escape the confrontation.

The defense suffered a second blow soon after when the judge denied a request to include therapy and medical records suggesting that Michael Ricci did suffer from bipolar disorder and depression. Freniere raised issues of doctor-patient confidentiality and other factors in making her ruling.

Defense says state did not prove its case against Christine Ricci

Wood returned to a central point he made in his opening argument that it is difficult to figure out what exactly happened in the 15-minutes or so between when the argument began and when Michael Ricci collapsed from his injuries.

He said testimony given by co-workers, a neighbor and the couple’s children about times they saw Michael with injuries from scratches to black eyes occurred in the several months following the affair, but not in in the immediate lead-up to the stabbing.

“Despite the amount of dirt they were allowed to dump on Christine Ricci in this case, they didn’t prove she intended to kill him,” Wood said.

Wood suggested that testimony from a co-worker at the sprinkler company and a neighbor about Michael Ricci having black eyes and bruising may have all been from the same fight that Michael Ricci Jr., the oldest of the couple's three children, saw his parents having outside their home in late 2018 or early 2019. During that fight Michael Jr. testified that she saw his mother punch his father in the face, resulting in the black eye for Michael and a hand injury for Christine.

“Five people testified about injuries, but that doesn’t mean there were five different injuries,” Wood said.

He detailed several suicide attempts by Christine Ricci in the aftermath of the affair, suggesting the incidents showed that she was more of a threat to herself than others.

He painted a scenario in which Michael Ricci lunged at her to grab the knife she held in her hand to defend herself the day of his death. Following Christine Ricci's version of events, Wood suggested Michael fell on top of her when as he tried to wrest the knife from her. The fall, Wood theorized, was when the knife penetrated his heart. A less severe second stab wound near his shoulder could have also occurred during the struggle, he said.

In closing, Wood told the jury that if the state hadn’t proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and the evidence presented by the defense was not enough to convict Chrisitine RIcci.

“The way we say not enough (evidence) in a courtroom is by saying not guilty,” he said.

Prosecution says stabbing was culmination of rage and jealousy

Assistant District Attorney Beth Kusmin presented the state’s closing argument.

She said the stabbing was far from accidental.

“The only way to put an end to the anger, jealousy and rage that consumed her was to put an end to the person who caused that pain,” Kusmin said of Christine Ricci

She highlighted the fact that Ricci said nothing about the stabbing when EMTs first arrived at the home. Kusmin said what she described as Christine Ricci’s “self-serving” story about Michael Ricci having a manic episode and omitting the fact that she stabbed him negatively affected how the EMTs approached the situation.

“She failed miserably (in helping her husband),” Kusmin said.

Responding to the defense’s accusation that bringing in witnesses to talk about prior fights and injuries was not a distraction from what happened in the period from 4:30 to 4:45 the day of the stabbing. "

You need to know her patterns of conduct and level of hostility this woman had towards her husband,” Kusmin told jurors.

She highlighted what she described as Christine Ricci’s constant need for details of the affair, going so far as to show up at the door of Janeen Bouchard, the woman with whom her husband had the six-week affair, shortly after she became aware of it.

Kusmin noted that in her testimony, Bouchard said Chrsitne Ricci was “all over the place” emotionally, going from screaming and crying to saying she forgave Bouchard and asking for a hug, to which Bouchard consented.

Despite that, Bouchard also testified about another time when Christine Ricci showed up at her door in 2020 to again discuss the affair, at which point Bouchard's daughter called the police. Ricci left when officers arrived. Bouchard said Ricci also sent her multiple text messages asking for more information.

During the trial, jurors heard from the couple's children, who told the jury about their father admitting to both being an alcoholic and having the affair. Michael Ricci entered Alcoholic Anonymous shortly after the admission.

Michael Ricci Jr. testified that his mother, who he most often referred to as "the defendant" and "Christine," brought up the affair nearly every day and had become physically and verbally abusive towards the family. Ricci Jr. said the situation forced him to move out of the house in 2019.

The couple's teenage daughter, Sophia, was in her bedroom when the stabbing occurred. She said she could hear her parents yelling, but that had become the norm in the home since the affair.

Kusmin said what happened Jan. 28, 2021, was a continuation of Christine Ricci’s need to keep the hurt from the relationship fresh in everyone's mind

“It was the same old, same old,” Kusmin said. “She was not getting the answers she wanted and couldn’t take any more.”

David R. Smith covers breaking, trending and restaurant news for The Patriot Ledger. He can be reached at Drsmith@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Prosecutor: Ricci killed husband to end 'anger, jealousy and rage'