Posted on 01/30/2007 10:41:44 AM PST by BladeLWS
Edited on 01/30/2007 11:49:41 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A woman accused of poisoning her Marine husband with arsenic to cash in on his $250,000 life insurance policy was convicted of murder on Tuesday.
Prosecutors argued Cynthia Sommer, 33, wanted a more luxurious lifestyle than she could afford on her 23-year-old husband's $1,700 monthly salary and saw the military life insurance policy as a way to ``set herself free.''
Sommer's friends and co-workers testified during the trial that she threw wild parties, got her breasts enlarged and had casual sex with multiple partners in the weeks after her husband's collapse. Todd Sommer was in top condition when he collapsed and died at the couple's home on the Marine Corps' Miramar base in San Diego. His death was initially ruled a heart attack. Tests of his liver later found levels of arsenic 1,020 times above normal.
With no direct evidence that Sommer was the source of the arsenic detected in her husband's liver, Deputy District Attorney Laura Gunn relied heavily on circumstantial evidence of Sommer's financial debt to show that she had a motive to kill Sgt. Todd Sommer.
Gunn asserted that the defendant was the only person with the motive and access to poison the Marine.
Cynthia Sommer faces life in prison. Her attorney, Robert Udell, told jurors that his client had lost her ``knight in shining armor.''
She is now engaged to a former Marine she met two months after her husband's death. She was extradited last March to California from her current home in West Palm Beach, Fla.
She's gonna burn.
Must have missed that piece.
I dont think the evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt. The evidence that it was arsenic was weak.
Don't know how and when. I just know it was in small amounts using arsenic. If I had to guess it was in his food.
How: With arsenic.
When: Dinner time.
No, no, no ~ when, exactly? And what was the "form" of arsenic used ~ the chemical compound?
I'm suddenly picturing Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff....
Remember, she not only had to poison him, she had to avoid poisoning the four children as well, and not leaving behind any residue on the counter, table, floor, in the rugs, etc.
Now true enough arsenic sublimates but if it was in a compound the other elements would show tell-tale traces.
I simply don't think she's smart enough to pull it off.
I was speaking about where she'll be headed after she dies in prison.
C'ya!.
Apparently the harshest punishment she can get is life in prison. Hope she gets it.
I haven't been following the trial closely, but I did see her on the witness stand briefly. In my opinion, she appeared innocent. I'm assuming the rest of the evidence was damning. The "experts" on CourtTV are shocked and disappointed in the verdict.
Well, she'll have the plasti-boobs to keep her company in jail.
Oh, she was really good, but I think she was crying because she knew she was going to get nailed.
I would like to see the Jury system be required to explain their verdict the same way a judge explains their opinions.I hope that those on the jury find themselves in the same boat
I would like to be clued into who Cynthia Sommer is and where is she from.
Do you have a picture of her and details of what this case was all about?
As was I...granted the girl had no morals when it came to sleeping around and in her actions (wet t-shirt contests, thong contests) after the death of her husband, but that does not make her a murderer. It just makes her a person with very poor judgement and I do not believe the prosecution made their case for murder in the first.
As one of the "experts" on Court TV said, this verdict from a state where a jury found O. J. innocent with ALL the evidence they had in that case, and then find this girl guilty when there was no evidence. It's a shame our justice system has come to the point where you are actually considered guilty until proven innocent and you cannot do that without the money, power and resources to buy the best lawyers around.
This girl is going to prison for life without possibility of parole and leaves behind 4 young children. I am very disappointed in the verdict also.
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