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Woman Sentenced To 100-Plus Years For Strangling Ex With His Favorite Tie, Poisoning His Oatmeal
Heidi Marie Littlefield allegedly enlisted the help of her adult daughter Logan Runyon to sneak into her ex-boyfriend's home and lace his food with fentanyl.
A woman has been sentenced to more than 100 years behind bars for strangling her ex to death with his favorite tie after poisoning his oatmeal amid a heated custody battle.
Heidi Marie Littlefield, 42, was sentenced Friday to a total of 115 years behind bars for the death of her ex-boyfriend Francis Kelley, 46, who was found dead in his Indiana home in January of 2021, according to Law & Crime.
Judge Michael A. Casati handed down the sentence, which equated to 60-years for murder, 35 years for conspiracy to commit murder resulting in death and 20 years for conspiracy to commit murder not resulting in death for other failed attempts to poison Kelley. The sentences will run concurrently.
Littlefield was found guilty in August after a weeklong trial that saw damaging testimony from her adult daughter Logan Runyon, who said she had helped her mother carry out the brazen plan to poison Kelley.
Runyan testified against her mother as part of a plea deal in which she received 26 years behind bars for her role in the death and another six years suspended, Oxygen.com previously reported.
Authorities accused Littlefield of repeatedly trying to kill her ex-boyfriend between October 2020 and January 2021, according to The Indianapolis Star.
The couple shared a 2-year-old daughter at the time and were in the midst of a heated custody battle when Littlefield asked Runyon to purchase fentanyl from drug dealers in Ohio.
She directed her daughter to then sneak into Kelley’s home and use the fentanyl to lace his oatmeal, which he typically prepared the night before and kept in the fridge, along with his takeout miso soup.
They poisoned his food on three separate occasions before his death.
After the third attempt on Jan. 15, 2021, Kelley began to suspect that something wasn’t right and texted Littlefield asking whether she had done anything to his oatmeal.
“You were in my fridge last night and it tasted funny after a couple bites and now I am feeling light-headed,” he wrote, according to an affidavit previously obtained by People.
“Who [the expletive] puts oatmeal in a fridge?” Littlefield responded at the time. “I don’t know anything you do or want to! Your life and the stuff you say/do is beyond me.”
She sent him other messages in response, but the final two texts were never opened, according to the affidavit, also obtained by Current in Carmel.
Runyon later testified that she and her mother snuck into the home and found Kelley face-down on the floor struggling to breathe.
Upon finding him there, Runyon told jurors that her mother asked her to break his neck, but she refused because she thought he was too heavy, according to The Indianapolis Star.
Littlefield then took matters into her own hands, according to Runyon, going upstairs to collect one of Kelley’s favorite ties and then using it to strangle him to death as she pounded his face into the floor. He was found dead by police in the home three days later.
Littlefield had also tried to enlist the help of Runyon’s boyfriend Robert Walker and, at one point, gave him $2,500 to hire a hitman. However, Runyon said on the stand that the pair spent the money on drugs, hotels and clothing instead.
Walker, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in May, was given a 10-year sentence for his role.
After his death, Littlefield became a suspect after relatives reported that she had openly disparaged Kelley and wanted him dead, telling them that she “would be failing her daughter if the dude didn’t end up dead” and saying “he’s better off dead,” according to previous reporting from The Indianapolis Star.
