diff --git a/src/row.rs b/src/row.rs
index 67c7c87..9847a76 100644
--- a/src/row.rs
+++ b/src/row.rs
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ impl<'stmt> Row<'stmt> {
     /// 16 bytes, `Error::InvalidColumnType` will also be returned.
     pub fn get<I: RowIndex, T: FromSql>(&self, idx: I) -> Result<T> {
         let idx = idx.idx(self.stmt)?;
-        let value = self.stmt.value_ref(idx)?;
+        let value = self.stmt.value_ref(idx);
         FromSql::column_result(value).map_err(|err| match err {
             FromSqlError::InvalidType => {
                 Error::InvalidColumnType(idx, self.stmt.column_name(idx).into(), value.data_type())
@@ -262,7 +262,7 @@ impl<'stmt> Row<'stmt> {
         // returns) to `ValueRef<'a>` is needed because it's only valid until
         // the next call to sqlite3_step.
         let val_ref = self.stmt.value_ref(idx);
-        val_ref
+        Ok(val_ref)
     }
 
     /// Get the value of a particular column of the result row as a `ValueRef`,
diff --git a/src/statement.rs b/src/statement.rs
index 19837f0..d3be4c4 100644
--- a/src/statement.rs
+++ b/src/statement.rs
@@ -601,10 +601,10 @@ impl Statement<'_> {
         Statement { conn, stmt }
     }
 
-    pub(crate) fn value_ref(&self, col: usize) -> Result<ValueRef<'_>> {
+    pub(crate) fn value_ref(&self, col: usize) -> ValueRef<'_> {
         let raw = unsafe { self.stmt.ptr() };
 
-        Ok(match self.stmt.column_type(col) {
+        match self.stmt.column_type(col) {
             ffi::SQLITE_NULL => ValueRef::Null,
             ffi::SQLITE_INTEGER => {
                 ValueRef::Integer(unsafe { ffi::sqlite3_column_int64(raw, col as c_int) })
@@ -624,7 +624,8 @@ impl Statement<'_> {
 
                 // sqlite3_column_text returns UTF8 data, so our unwrap here should be fine.
                 let s = s
-                    .to_str()?;
+                    .to_str()
+                    .expect("sqlite3_column_text returned invalid UTF-8");
                 ValueRef::Text(s)
             }
             ffi::SQLITE_BLOB => {
@@ -652,7 +653,7 @@ impl Statement<'_> {
                 }
             }
             _ => unreachable!("sqlite3_column_type returned invalid value"),
-        })
+        }
     }
 
     pub(crate) fn step(&self) -> Result<bool> {