California wife poisoned Marine for breast implants

By Staff
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LOS ANGELES, Jan 31 (Reuters) A California woman was convicted on Tuesday of poisoning her Marine husband with arsenic to cash in his 250,000 dollars life insurance policy and pay for breast implants and a party lifestyle.

Cynthia Sommer, a 33-year-old mother of four, faces life in prison without parole for the 2002 death of her husband Todd, 23, at the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, near San Diego.

In a largely circumstantial case, prosecutors said Sommer had at first convinced people she was a widow grieving the loss of her husband, whose official cause of death was given as a heart attack.

But prosecutors told the jury Sommer made four inquiries about money within five hours of her husband's death.

In the next few weeks, she paid 5,400 dollars for breast implants, had sex with three male Marines and a woman, hosted loud parties at her house and participated in a wet T-shirt and thong contest in the Mexican border town of Tijuana, they said.

It was not clear how the poison was delivered but prosecutors said Sommer may have used the bait in retail ant traps. Tests in 2003 showed Todd Sommer had more than 1,000 times the normal level of arsenic in his liver.

Sommer, who was arrested in 2005, said she had her breasts enlarged to help herself feel better about her husband's death.

She is currently engaged to a former Marine she met about two months after she was widowed.

Sommer was found guilty of murder, murder for financial gain and murder by poison. Prosecutors had decided not to seek the death penalty. She will be formally sentenced in March.

Reuters DH VP0517

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