thedrifter
08-22-07, 09:29 AM
New sentencing date set for convicted murderer
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Aug 22, 2007 10:11:02 EDT
SAN DIEGO — A woman who was convicted of murdering her Marine husband with arsenic and using his $250,000 military death benefit to pay for breast implants and a party lifestyle will appear for sentencing Oct. 23, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Cynthia Sommer, 33, faces an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. She was found guilty in January after a jury trial of first-degree murder by poisoning and for financial gain.
Her attorney, Allen Bloom, has asked for a new trial. He has said there is “zero” evidence linking his client to any arsenic source and has also ordered DNA tests to determine whether poisoned tissues presented in Sommer’s trial in fact belonged to her late husband.
Superior Court Judge Peter Deddeh said he wanted to wait for those results before hearing the motion for retrial, which will be presented at the Oct. 23 hearing.
Prosecutors argued Sommer wanted a more luxurious lifestyle than she could afford on the $1,700 monthly salary her husband brought home and saw the military life insurance policy as a way to “set herself free.” The case turned on circumstantial evidence of Sommer’s financial debt and later spending sprees to show that she had a motive to kill her 23-year-old husband.
Todd Sommer, a Marine sergeant, was in top condition when he collapsed and died at the couple’s home on the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., on Feb. 18, 2002.
His death was initially ruled a heart attack. Heavy-metals testing by military labs more than a year after the Marine’s death found levels of arsenic 1,020 times above normal in preserved tissue.
Ellie
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Aug 22, 2007 10:11:02 EDT
SAN DIEGO — A woman who was convicted of murdering her Marine husband with arsenic and using his $250,000 military death benefit to pay for breast implants and a party lifestyle will appear for sentencing Oct. 23, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Cynthia Sommer, 33, faces an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. She was found guilty in January after a jury trial of first-degree murder by poisoning and for financial gain.
Her attorney, Allen Bloom, has asked for a new trial. He has said there is “zero” evidence linking his client to any arsenic source and has also ordered DNA tests to determine whether poisoned tissues presented in Sommer’s trial in fact belonged to her late husband.
Superior Court Judge Peter Deddeh said he wanted to wait for those results before hearing the motion for retrial, which will be presented at the Oct. 23 hearing.
Prosecutors argued Sommer wanted a more luxurious lifestyle than she could afford on the $1,700 monthly salary her husband brought home and saw the military life insurance policy as a way to “set herself free.” The case turned on circumstantial evidence of Sommer’s financial debt and later spending sprees to show that she had a motive to kill her 23-year-old husband.
Todd Sommer, a Marine sergeant, was in top condition when he collapsed and died at the couple’s home on the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., on Feb. 18, 2002.
His death was initially ruled a heart attack. Heavy-metals testing by military labs more than a year after the Marine’s death found levels of arsenic 1,020 times above normal in preserved tissue.
Ellie