Dog, woman poisoned with thallium Concord, NH (US) Incident Date: Wednesday, Jul 31, 2002 County: Merrimack Local Map: available Disposition: Not Charged Person of Interest: Adetokundo Fayemi Case Updates: 1 update(s) available

Case ID: 5544 Classification: Poisoning Animal: dog (pit-bull) View more cases in NH (US) Login to Watch this Case

Alice Minter returned to work in Sept 2005 for the first time in three years. She's in a wheelchair, has vision problems, chronic pain in her legs and other residual effects of thallium poisoning. But she's alive.

And a special prosecutor on Sept 12, 2005 said that's exactly the opposite of what her ex-fiance had planned when he allegedly poisoned Minter, 44, with the highly toxic heavy metal in late summer and early fall of 2002.

The attempted murder trial of Adetokundo "Philip" Fayemi, 55, of the 1900 block of Fairfield Drive began in mid-September before Circuit Judge Leo Zappa, and Minter was the first witness called by Charles "Chuck" Colburn of the state's attorneys appellate prosecutor's office.

Minter told Colburn she met Fayemi, a computer analyst who worked in the same state Department of Human Services building as Minter, in 1998. The two became engaged, but broke up and reconciled frequently between 2000 and the summer of 2002, she said.

"I returned the ring many times," she said.

She said Fayemi was "very possessive" and purchased a cell phone for her so he always could reach her. Then he bought a pager for her in case she didn't answer the cell phone.

Minter testified that one day in the summer of 2002, Fayemi told her that if she ever left him, she "would be six feet under."

Minter said she told Fayemi he would be in jail.

"But you'd be six feet under," she said he replied.

Under cross-examination by St. Louis defense attorney John Rogers, Minter said she and Fayemi saw each other daily through the summer and fall, and that she never broke up with him for very long during the period she experienced health problems that culminated with her falling into a coma in October.

She told the six-man, six-woman jury that she wanted to be in a relationship and wanted to be married, and that she and Fayemi were planning to build a house together.

She said Fayemi paid for repairs to the heating and air-conditioning system at her house in the 1800 block of Groth Street, and that he bought other things and did other favors for her and her three sons. She said she frequently took meals at Fayemi's house, and that he frequently ate and drank at her house.

Fayemi is accused of poisoning Minter with thallium, which is typically used in electronics such as batteries and semiconductors, as well as in photo film, dyes, optical lenses and fireworks. It also was used in rat poison until it was banned from pesticides in the United States in 1972.

Rogers, in his opening statement to the jury, said evidence will show that Fayemi had no reason to poison Minter, as the two were engaged and planning a life together. He said Fayemi urged hospital officials to admit Minter when she complained so much about pain, and that he was the one who cared for her during her illness.

He said he'll present testimony that Minter complained to Fayemi about a mouse problem she had at her house and about the cost of hiring a professional exterminator.

Rogers said Minter urged Fayemi to order the thallium, and that he gave half of what he received to her, along with instructions on how to distribute it.

"It was whatever she did or didn't do that led to the contamination of her house and the other people," Rogers said.

Minter said she never requested Fayemi's help with a rodent problem and never had been presented with any thallium by him. She said she didn't know what the substance was until she was diagnosed with thallium poisoning.

Springfield police officers testified that when they searched Fayemi's home on Oct. 17, 2002, they found thallium in liquid form, a 50-gram bottle of thallium with 20 grams in it, and a salt shaker containing the heavy metal.

Colburn called the residence "a house of poison," and police testified they found forms of cyanide, mercury, chloroform and other toxic chemicals in the home.

Colburn said he'll present evidence that Fayemi tried to poison another woman with whom he was having a rocky relationship a few years earlier, but the case never was prosecuted.

Police also found thallium in three of 54 mostly food samples taken from Minter's trash-strewn garage on Oct. 11, 2002.

Material from the garage was tested after one of Minter's sons told investigators that son Phelandis Minter's dog, a 3-year-old pit bull named "Trouble," died after being housed in the garage when Phelandis came home from attending college in Arkansas because of his mother's serious illness.

Police found trash bags torn open and trash all over the garage floor when they came to the house on Oct. 10. Minter already was hospitalized and had been diagnosed with thallium poisoning by that date.

Fayemi allegedly ordered the odorless, colorless and tasteless thallium online from a company in Florida in late July and received it Aug. 23, just about the time Minter began feeling sick.

A Nigerian native who has U.S. citizenship, Fayemi also is charged aggravated battery for allegedly poisoning Minter's children, Phelandis, 26; Tavius Minter, 21; and an 11-year-old son; Remoundose Cortez McNutt, her nephew; Rene Stewart, a neighbor who came to her house to care for her when she became ill; Karen Pendergrass, a customer of Minter's home beauty salon; and Andrea Adeniji, Minter's niece and a beauty-shop customer.

The state alleges that those people, although not intended poisoning targets, became ill after eating or drinking something at Minter's home.

The Sangamon County state's attorney's office requested a special prosecutor handle the poisoning case because State's Attorney John Schmidt's wife handled an earlier criminal case against Fayemi and is a potential witness in the current prosecution.

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