Man Gets 20 Years for Pouring Bleach in Wife's Mouth

A northwestern Indiana man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for pouring bleach into his wife's mouth while she was sleeping.

Thirty-eight-year-old Ronald Kownacki of Highland was sentenced Monday in a Lake County court. He pleaded guilty Sept. 14 to charges of aggravated battery and neglect. He originally had been charged with attempted murder and battery in the March 2008 attack.

Jennifer Kownacki told officers she woke up to her husband pouring bleach over her face and into her mouth, and that he beat her as she resisted. She says she was diagnosed with a stroke and acute respiratory syndrome as a result of the attack.

Kownacki told police that he and his wife drank the bleach and swallowed pills together because they wanted "to all die together," the Northwest Indiana Times reported last year.

Deputy Prosecutor Judith Massa said the woman is lucky to be alive.