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Marine's Widow Gets New Trial
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Published: December 1, 2007
SAN DIEGO - A judge ordered a new trial Friday for a Florida woman who was convicted of poisoning her Marine husband with arsenic and then using his life insurance to pay for breast implants.
The judge found that Cynthia Sommer, 34, received ineffective representation from her former defense attorney. San Diego Superior Court Judge Peter Deddeh said the lawyer's errors allowed prosecutors to introduce evidence about Sommer's wild partying immediately after the sudden death of her 23-year-old husband, Sgt. Todd Sommer, on Feb. 18, 2002.
Sommer's former attorney, Robert Udell, told the judge that he committed tactical errors, including a failure to call witnesses to adequately refute prosecutors' theories about the source of the arsenic.
Udell did not respond immediately to a telephone message after the ruling.
Sommer was convicted in January of first-degree murder by poisoning and for financial gain.
The Associated Press
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