Ina Kenoyer

A Minot woman accused of poisoning her boyfriend with antifreeze has pleaded not guilty to a charge of Class AA felony murder after waiving her preliminary hearing.

Ina Thea Kenoyer, 47, Minot, was charged in October with the murder of her longtime boyfriend, Steven Edward Riley Jr., 51, Minot, and had been scheduled to appear Thursday for her preliminary hearing and arraignment.

According to court documents, Riley and Kenoyer had both believed he was to be the recipient of a $30 million inheritance. Investigators said multiple friends and family of the couple had heard Riley state he planned to leave Kenoyer once he had the money and that Kenoyer had talked about poisoning Riley with antifreeze on multiple occasions leading up to his death on Sept. 4.

When questioned by investigators, Kenoyer said she believed she was due to receive half of the supposed inheritance herself as his common-law wife, and she became distressed when informed North Dakota law does not recognize common-law marriages. Investigators have since stated they do not believe the inheritance was genuine.

Kenoyer’s next hearing is a pretrial conference scheduled for Feb. 14.