A North Dakota woman has been sentenced after confessing to f*tally po!soning her boyfriend, mistakenly believing he would inherit $30 million. Ina Kenoyer, 48, was sentenced to 25 years in prison, followed by 10 years of probation, on Wednesday, October 16, after pleading guilty to m*rder in May. She was also ordered to pay $3,455 in restitution to the victim’s family.
Kenoyer was charged with felony murder on October 30, 2023, nearly two months after po!soning her longtime boyfriend, 51-year-old Steven Riley Jr., by mixing antifreeze into his sweet tea on September 3, 2023. Riley died two days later.
Prosecutors said Kenoyer po!soned Riley, with whom she had been in a decade-long relationship, because she believed he was about to inherit $30 million. Friends of the couple told investigators that Riley had planned to end the relationship after receiving the supposed inheritance, which authorities later determined to be a scam, according to the Minot Daily News.
On the day of the po!soning, Riley was set to meet a lawyer at an airport to discuss the inheritance but became ill later that day. Although his friends tried to get him medical help, Kenoyer insisted he was suffering from heat stroke and took him home. The next day, when a friend checked in, Kenoyer claimed Riley had gone to a clinic, but no medical records supported this.
As Riley’s condition worsened, emergency responders were called to his home for an unconscious person, and he was airlifted to a hospital, where he died on September 5. An autopsy confirmed his death was due to ethylene glycol poisoning. Friends had told police that Kenoyer previously mentioned poisoning Riley with antifreeze.
Kenoyer claimed Riley had been drinking alcohol and was suffering from heat stroke, though no alcohol was found in his system. Court records showed she was aware of the inheritance and believed she was entitled to part of it as his common-law wife, even though the state does not recognize such relationships.
During a search of their home, authorities found various items, including a Windex bottle containing a green liquid believed to be antifreeze. Kenoyer later admitted to spiking Riley’s sweet tea with antifreeze to mask the taste.
At her sentencing, Steven Riley’s son, Ryan Riley, addressed Kenoyer in court, expressing the emotional toll of losing his father: “To have you take away someone so important, it’s just hurtful. I can’t even find the words to describe how I feel and how much it burdens everyone. I just wish none of this ever happened. I never expected to lose my dad to something so selfish.”