Rhino
07-12-2006, 12:22 PM
Wife will stand trial in Marine's arsenic poisoning
By Allison Hoffman
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:38 p.m. July 11, 2006
SAN DIEGO – A woman accused of fatally poisoning her Marine husband and using money from his life insurance policy to shop, party and get her breasts enlarged will face trial on murder charges, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Cynthia Sommer, 32, pleaded not guilty in March to charges that she killed her husband, 23-year-old Sgt. Todd Sommer, in 2002 for financial gain.
Prosecutor Laura Gunn described Todd Sommer's death alleging that Cynthia Sommer dosed her husband with arsenic to cash in on the “Marine Corps lottery” – the standard-issue $250,000 life insurance policy provided to all enlisted troops.
“We have the motive, and we have the opportunity,” Gunn said in her closing argument to the court. “After (Todd's) death, she acted like she had been set free to be the real Cindy Sommer. But the picture of the real Cindy Sommer isn't pretty.”
Military investigators testified over two days of preliminary hearings before Superior Court Judge Peter C. Deddeh that neighbors said Cynthia Sommer threw wild parties at her home and engaged in casual sex with multiple partners in the months immediately following her husband's death.
According to court documents, she enrolled with an online “adult dating community” days before the Marine first exhibited gastrointestinal complaints, a common symptom of arsenic poisoning. Witnesses said she used life insurance proceeds to pay for a $5,400 breast enhancement surgery at a clinic in San Diego's upscale La Jolla area. The surgery was scheduled before her husband died.........http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060711-1538-ca-marinewidow.html
By Allison Hoffman
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:38 p.m. July 11, 2006
SAN DIEGO – A woman accused of fatally poisoning her Marine husband and using money from his life insurance policy to shop, party and get her breasts enlarged will face trial on murder charges, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Cynthia Sommer, 32, pleaded not guilty in March to charges that she killed her husband, 23-year-old Sgt. Todd Sommer, in 2002 for financial gain.
Prosecutor Laura Gunn described Todd Sommer's death alleging that Cynthia Sommer dosed her husband with arsenic to cash in on the “Marine Corps lottery” – the standard-issue $250,000 life insurance policy provided to all enlisted troops.
“We have the motive, and we have the opportunity,” Gunn said in her closing argument to the court. “After (Todd's) death, she acted like she had been set free to be the real Cindy Sommer. But the picture of the real Cindy Sommer isn't pretty.”
Military investigators testified over two days of preliminary hearings before Superior Court Judge Peter C. Deddeh that neighbors said Cynthia Sommer threw wild parties at her home and engaged in casual sex with multiple partners in the months immediately following her husband's death.
According to court documents, she enrolled with an online “adult dating community” days before the Marine first exhibited gastrointestinal complaints, a common symptom of arsenic poisoning. Witnesses said she used life insurance proceeds to pay for a $5,400 breast enhancement surgery at a clinic in San Diego's upscale La Jolla area. The surgery was scheduled before her husband died.........http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060711-1538-ca-marinewidow.html