Man Sentenced to Life for Fatal Nicotine Poisoning A Kansas man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for fatally poisoning his wife with nicotine in 1994 and collecting on her life insurance policy. Paul Marshal Curry, of Salina, Kansas, was sentenced Friday for murder more than two decades after his wife, Linda Curry, died in bed. Curry was a suspect but the case went cold and he moved to Kansas after collecting more than $500,000 on his wife's life insurance policy. In 2007, new evidence arose and Curry was arrested in Kansas in 2010. During the trial in Orange County Superior Court, Curry's former wife testified that she was often ill while married to Curry, but after they divorced, her health improved.