Sommer - Links

[Pauli]

Judge still considering new trial for woman convicted of Marine husband's death

http://www.courttv.com/graphics2/photos/trials/sommer/inside/lede/sommer-inside-011607.jpg
Cynthia Sommer was found guilty in January of murdering her husband, Todd Sommer.



SAN DIEGO — Cynthia Sommer, a woman convicted of poisoning her Marine husband with arsenic, sat nervously Tuesday morning, her stomach in knots, as she waited to hear whether a judge would sentence her to life in prison without parole or grant her a new trial.


That decision has been delayed yet again.


After two days of hearings, Judge Peter Deddeh announced Tuesday morning that he could not make a ruling until both sides were given the opportunity to question the defendant's former attorney about alleged mistakes he made at trial.


"The ineffective assistance of counsel issue really requires Mr. Udell come and talk to us about his representation and allow you to examine and cross-examine him," Deddeh told the attorneys.


Robert Udell, who has not been present at the appeals hearings but is still considered co-counsel, is expected to testify when the hearing resumes Nov. 30.

Sommer's new attorney, Allan Bloom, argued over two days that the month-long murder trial had been marred by "fuzzy science," inadmissible "lifestyle evidence," potential juror misconduct, and "blunder after blunder" by Udell, making it impossible for Sommer to receive a fair trial.


"It's good news," Bloom said after court Tuesday, "because Judge Deddeh is clearly indicating that he's reviewing our claims, which are very strong."


Bloom told reporters that Sommer's stomach "turns over and over" each day she walks into court, hoping for a resolution to her case.


"It is common and understandable in a case like this to want to have a do-over with a new attorney," Deputy District Attorney Laura Gunn argued.
"But there is not anything here that is new or rises to the level of a new trial being granted."


On Jan. 30, a panel of seven women and five men deliberated for about 12 hours over three days to find Sommer guilty of first-degree murder and the special allegations of administering poison and murder for the purpose of financial gain.


The guilty verdict (http://www.courttv.com/trials/sommer/013007_verdict_ctv.html) drew national attention to a case that revealed one salacious detail after another about a young, handsome soldier killed by his pretty wife.


Prosecutor Gunn said that she was regularly approached in the courthouse hallways by people who wanted to discuss how they would have tried the case.


Judge Deddeh received numerous e-mails from people telling him how he ought to rule.


"They do not play any role in my deliberations," he said Monday, "and they are completely inappropriate."


Todd Sommer, a vibrant 23-year-old Marine, collapsed in his wife's arms on Feb. 18, 2002, at the Marine Corps Air Station home they shared with their infant son and her three children from a previous marriage.


His death was initially ruled cardiac arrhythmia and samples of his vital organs and tissues were retained for future testing, per Navy policy.


Sommer collected $250,000 in insurance benefits. She put about half into trust accounts for her children and spent $5,400 on breast implants, just two months after Todd's death, a decision that prosecutors presented at trial as an enduring symbol of her guilt, as she could not have afforded the surgery while Todd was alive.


More than a year after Todd's death, Army scientists found elevated levels of arsenic in his tissues: more than 1,000 times the normal level in his liver and 230 times the acceptable level in his kidneys.


Cynthia Sommer was arrested and charged with his murder in November 2005.


Prosecutors admitted they had no evidence linking Sommer to arsenic, but what they did have was a portrait of a widow who grieved like she was celebrating: Sommer partied until sunrise in the home they once shared, courting a string of new boyfriends.

The defense failed to put on psychology experts to shed light on her style of grieving.


In two days of appeals hearings, Bloom never used the legal phrase "ineffective assistance of counsel" when referring to defense attorney Udell, but the implication was clear.


"He blew it," Bloom argued.


Udell, for his part, remains supportive of Sommer and filed two declarations admitting a level of failure in his representation.


"Bob Udell, being a passionate defense attorney, has at least come forward and said, 'I made these mistakes and they weren't for tactical reasons,'" Bloom said.

A major mistake, according to Bloom, was allowing Sommer's mother to testify about finding her grieving daughter lying in bed in a fetal position, inconsolable after Todd's death.


That comment opened the floodgates for the prosecution to bring in evidence that Sommer was also found lying in bed with a series of lovers after her husband's death. It gave the prosecution an opportunity to call former friends who testified about a trip to Tijuana and a wet T-shirt contest, where Sommer showed off her new breasts.


The prosecution's case successfully revolved around Sommer's inappropriate behavior, her inability to live within her financial means, and the assumption that if Todd died from arsenic poisoning, his wife was the only one close enough to dose him with the lethal poison.


But expert witnesses on both sides testified at trial that they struggled with the inconsistent distribution of arsenic in Todd's samples. The significantly high levels in his liver and kidney should have resulted in elevated levels in his blood, urine, brain and other organs.


Bloom argued Monday that Udell failed time and again to object to the prosecution's "cherry picking" of the science to support a case held together by evidence that was "razor thin" and "incredibly underwhelming."


Witnesses were never questioned, for instance, about holes in the chain of custody of Todd's tissues, which left hours and even days of their whereabouts unaccounted for, a fact that may have raised doubt about whether the positive arsenic result was due to contamination.


The defense's appeal for a new trial also alleges juror misconduct.
"If one juror is influenced by improper information, then it's a trial by 11, rather than a trial by 12," Bloom argued.


The one juror, a retired detective sergeant on the San Diego Police Department known only as Juror No. 10, denied Monday that he violated the court's rules.
An alternate juror acc
used Juror No. 10 of considering information during deliberations that was not presented at trial — that Sommer initially fought extradition from Florida after her arrest.
The retired officer agreed Monday that he believed Sommer's decision to fight extradition confirmed her guilty conscience, but he denied knowing about it until after the verdict.


In a tense cross-examination, the former detective denied doing personal research on Sommer's case, and seemed to dodge the issue of when he knew what he knew.


"I just don't understand what you're trying to ask me," he finally said.
Attorney Udell is unlikely to face such acrimonious examination, but he will have to answer difficult questions about his competency in representing Sommer.


Bloom has delicately referred to Udell as a passionate attorney who was blinded by his belief in his client's innocence.


"Bob Udell's thoughts are that Cindy is innocent," Bloom said after court Tuesday. "He knows that down to his core."



http://www.courttv.com/trials/sommer/111907_ctv.html?page=2

[Pauli]

Allegations of juror misconduct delay sentencing for wife convicted of killing her Marine husband

SAN DIEGO — Hearings on alleged juror misconduct have delayed sentencing for Cynthia Sommer, a 34-year-mother of four who was found guilty last January of poisoning her Marine husband with arsenic in order to collect his veteran's benefits.

A witness testified Wednesday that several jurors discussed the case before deliberations and that one juror, a former police officer, sought out and considered improper information during deliberations, which influenced his interactions with the panel.

"I saw a clear bias and it seemed self-serving," alternate juror Lorie Cosio-Azar testified. "I was very upset."

Defense attorney Allan Bloom is appealing the guilty verdict, claiming that, in addition to juror misconduct, Sommer's former attorney failed to object to speculative science and inadmissible "lifestyle evidence" that assassinated the defendant's character, making it impossible for her to receive a fair trial.

"Ms. Sommer faces a lifetime in prison, having had little more than a shell of a defense as it relates to some of the most critical evidence against her," Bloom stated in a 50-page motion for a new trial.

Witness testimony will continue Monday before Judge Peter Deddeh, who will decide at the conclusion of the hearings whether to sentence Sommer to life in prison without parole or grant a new trial.

The 2002 sudden death of Todd Sommer, a healthy 23-year-old Marine, was initially ruled the result of cardiac arrhythmia. But more than a year later, Army scientists found elevated levels of arsenic in his tissue samples. Cynthia Sommer was arrested for murder in November 2005.

With no evidence linking Sommer to the poison, the prosecution's case revolved around her seeming inability to live within her means, the $250,000 insurance and monthly veteran's benefits she collected, and the breast-implant surgery she had two months after Todd's death.

During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Laura Gunn called Sommer's former friends and lovers to the stand to describe her sexual encounters with four different men and a trip to Tijuana with girlfriends, where she flashed her new breasts to strangers in a wet T-shirt contest.

"It had a powerful and shocking impact, but added nothing to a claim that Cindy killed Todd. It cast Cindy with a 'Scarlet Letter' as a wanton woman," the defense argued in its appeal.

Sommer's conviction (http://www.courttv.com/trials/sommer/013007_verdict_ctv.html) Jan. 30 sparked nationwide interest and debate about whether the widow was guilty of a greed-driven murder or victim of an inappropriate libido.

One person who strongly disagreed with the verdict was alternate juror Cosio-Azar, who contacted the defense after a parking-lot conversation with Juror No. 10, a retired detective sergeant with the San Diego Police Department.

Juror No. 10 allegedly revealed to Cosio-Azar that he knew Sommer fought extradition from Florida to California, which proved her guilt in his mind because "if she wanted to tell the world she was innocent, she would have come back willingly."

Bloom told reporters Wednesday that Sommer was acting on the bad advice of a Florida attorney who believed the case against her was so weak that charges would be dropped. The information, however, was not presented at trial.

Cosio-Azar testified that Juror No. 10 also claimed to have used his career expertise to "connect the dots and fill in the holes" for the other jurors, because he didn't want to see another criminal get away with murder.

Cosio-Azar, who was not part of deliberations, said she was so distraught that she discussed it with her husband and co-workers and made a note of the conversation in her jury notebook.

Her husband and co-workers also testified Wednesday, confirming her recollections.

However, alternate juror No. 2 testified that he was present during the parking-lot conversation and extradition did not come up.

"She and I remembered it very differently," he said.

Two other jurors testified Wednesday that Juror No. 10 did not take a leadership role in the deliberations, nor did he discuss her extradition fight until two weeks later when he brought it up in a group e-mail to the panel, only expressing at that time that it helped to confirm her guilt in his mind.

Gunn is expected to call Juror No. 10 to the stand Monday to refute the accusations.

Prosecutors admitted at trial that they uncovered no evidence linking Sommer to arsenic, but suggested she could have retrieved a lethal amount from just two and a half packages of ant killer.

Bloom claims this was one example of the shoddy science Sommer's defense failed to object to, noting in the appeal that it would have taken three pounds of ant killer ingested in a matter of minutes for the prosecution's theory to match the level of arsenic found in Todd's tissues.

"The thought of Cindy buying 150 ant stakes, opening each of them, scraping the poison out, molding it into a great big 'cookie of bait' and feeding Todd a three pound giant candy bar of Bait Gel and saying 'here honey, I've got your evening snack, be sure to munch it all down' is utterly and totally ridiculous," the motion states.

Sommer sat quietly by her attorney's side Wednesday. Bloom told reporters she was nervous, but was bolstered by prison visits from family, and her daughter, who just turned 16. Supporters in the audience wore blue ribbons on their lapels, Sommer's favorite color.

Todd Sommer's father sat somberly on the opposite side of the aisle, with a Marine pin and a tiny gold angel affixed to his own lapel.



http://www.courttv.com/trials/sommer/111407_sentencing_ctv.html

[Pauli]

Attorney In Poisoned Marine Case To Testifyhttp://www.10news.com/2006/0830/9759060_240X180.jpg (http://www.10news.com/news/14653103/detail.html#)




POSTED: 2:38 pm PST November 20,
SAN DIEGO -- The trial attorney for a woman convicted of poisoning her Marine husband will testify next week about decisions he made that allowed damaging character evidence to go before a jury, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The ruling by Superior Court Judge Peter Deddeh came as Cynthia Sommer, 34, sought a new trial based on ineffective assistance of counsel, questionable scientific data and alleged juror misconduct.

Deddeh said he wants Florida-based attorney Robert Udell to testify on why he made the decisions he did in Sommer's trial, which ended Jan. 30 with a jury finding her guilty of first-degree murder and special circumstances in the death of 23-year-old Sgt. Todd "Yes, it's good news, because Judge Deddeh is clearly indicating that he's reviewing our claims, which we think are very strong, and he's reviewing them very seriously," defense attorney Allen Bloom said outside court.

Udell has already filed declarations with the court on what prompted him to make certain trial decisions. He is expected to testify Nov. 30."Bob Udell's thoughts are that Cindy Sommer is innocent. He knows that down to his core," Bloom told reporters. "He knows Cindy is innocent. He feels terrible as to the verdict. He feels responsible in the way that he handled it and he wants that to come out. He wants that to be known."Bloom told the court Monday that Sommer's defense at trial was "spotty at best.

"Bloom said Udell should have presented experts to rebut a doctor's findings on how arsenic was distributed throughout the victim's body.

Udell also mistakenly put the defendant's mother on the stand, who testified her daughter was grieving and in a "fetal position" on a bed holding her husband's sweater shortly after he died.

That testimony opened the door for prosecutors to introduce evidence that Sommer paid $5,400 for breast implants, had sex with Marines, participated in a wet T-shirt and thong contest in Tijuana, and hosted loud parties after Todd Sommer's death on Feb. 18, 2002.

Bloom said Udell fought very hard to establish Sommer's innocence but overlooked a lot of things during her trial.

"That passion caused him to look past some of the things that he should have done to represent Cindy the right way in the case," Bloom told reporters Tuesday. "This is one of those very, very rare circumstances where the passion of the defense counsel caused him to lose sight of some of the things that are around him.

"Bloom said the process of waiting to see if Deddeh will grant a new trial has been difficult for the defendant."It's very emotional for her," Bloom said.Todd Sommer's death at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar was originally found to be from natural causes and a possible fluttering heart. But a test for heavy metals by a military lab in 2003 revealed arsenic levels more than 1,000 times normal in his liver and 250 times above normal in his kidneys.

Bloom said the laboratory that found the heavy metals used a method that is not accepted in the medical community.

"The defense had an opportunity to present this, and they blew it," Bloom told the judge.The attorney said there were also questions on how the victim's tissue samples were handled at the laboratory.

Bloom charged that Udell also failed to investigate the source of the arsenic that killed Todd Sommer.

Prosecutors theorize that Cynthia Sommer used ant stakes, or something else, to poison her husband so she could collect his $250,000 life insurance payout.Bloom said prosecutors presented no evidence directly linking the defendant to buying arsenic.

"The people undoubtedly knew this case was razor thin," the defense attorney said.The amount of arsenic it would take to kill a person using ant stakes didn't match the amount of arsenic found in the victim's system, Bloom argued.

The attorney also contended that at least one juror committed misconduct by having information before deliberations about the defendant's extradition.

But Deputy District Attorney Laura Gunn said Cynthia Sommer got a fair trial.Gunn said Udell challenged the prosecution's claim that the defendant somehow got the arsenic and gave it to her husband. Udell also proclaimed at the beginning of the trial that the defense was "going to let it all hang out" in terms of character evidence that might go before the jury, she said.

The prosecutor said experts disagreed during the trial on the amount of arsenic the victim took in and how long that would take to kill him. She said there was nothing wrong with the methodology scientists used to come up with their arsenic findings.

It is hard to believe that an otherwise young, healthy Marine "just up and died," the prosecutor said.

Gunn said an alternate juror alleging misconduct by a deliberating panelist didn't say anything about it at the time of the verdict.Judging by e-mails she wrote to other jurors, the alternate juror had a strong belief that the verdict was wrong, Gunn said.

f the motion for a new trial is denied, Sommer, a mother of four, faces a sentence of life in prison without the of parole.

http://www.10news.com/news/14653103/detail.htmlpossibility

[Pauli]

News 8 Investigation: New Evidence In Miramar Marine Poisoning Case

Last Updated:
11-30-06 at 3:34PM
She's charged with poisoning her Miramar Marine husband, but did the arsenic that killed Sergeant Todd Sommer come from his wife, or someplace else? News 8's Phil Blauer uncovers new evidence in this local murder mystery.

Naval Air Facility El Centro, winter home of the Blue Angels. More than 600 enlisted and civilian personnel live here. It's also home to toxic waste sites, arsenic contaminated landfills and polluted groundwater.

On Feb. 8, 2002, Miramar Marine Sgt. Todd Sommer traveled there. Sergeant Sommer and three other Marines drove from San Diego to El Centro to conduct a site survey for landing exercises planned for their helicopter squadron.

Ten days later, Sergeant Sommer lay dying in the bedroom of his home at Miramar, his wife Cindy screaming for help to a 911 operator. After three years of investigation, Cindy Sommer would eventually be charged with murdering her husband Todd.

Prosecutors say Cindy Sommer poisoned her husband with arsenic to collect his $250,000 life insurance policy, and spent some of the money on breast implants.

The case relies almost entirely on Cindy Sommer's financial problems, spending habits, and party lifestyle.

"She slept around, she had wild parties, she neglected her children. She basically ran around looking like she thought she was a rock star," said Deputy District Attorney Laura Gunn.

During the preliminary hearing, a Navy investigator tells the court they have no evidence whatsoever linking Cindy Sommer to arsenic. The agent also testifies there's no way Todd Sommer could have been exposed to arsenic while working at Miramar.

During the Navy murder investigation, NCIS agents take a hard look at the Miramar Marine Base. They find no evidence of arsenic there, but a News 8 review of records in the case shows agents never looked at their own base, the Navy base in El Centro.

Turns out, Sgt. Sommer did a site inspection at the Naval Air Facility in El Centro on the same day prosecutors say he was poisoned. The El Centro base has 11 toxic waste sites, five of which test positive for toxic levels of arsenic. The worst site is the Magazine Road Landfill, where 30,000 cubic feet of arsenic contaminated waste is buried underneath a layer of gray gravel.

The arsenic buried there comes from planting waste, and thousands of gallons of pesticides and solvents. For more than 20 years, this toxic mixture contaminated groundwater in the area before the Navy finally put a cap on the dump in 1998.

How does all this relate to the death of Sgt. Todd Sommer in 2002? Consider this: the dose of arsenic that killed Todd Sommer was 250 milligrams, about the same size as an aspirin pill. In a telephone interview, the prosecutor in the case told News 8 she doesn't believe the arsenic that killed Sgt. Sommer came from a toxic dump in El Centro.

She also said, "The arsenic would have to be ingested. [Sgt. Sommer] would have to consumer large amounts of soil. It was ingested and nobody else in his unit got sick, nobody."

The Navy claims it has reviewed Todd Sommers' actions prior to his death. Even so, agents have not turned over any written reports showing they investigated what Sgt. Sommer actually did on the El Centro base that day, or whether he may have been exposed to arsenic there.

Meanwhile, prosecutors are going on the theory that Cindy Sommer poisoned her husband after he returned home to San Diego.

A toxicologist with the state agency overseeing the clean-up of the base at El Centro told News 8 it is "highly unlikely" Sgt. Sommer was poisoned there.

Cindy Sommer faces life in prison if convicted at her trial in January.
http://www.cbs8.com/features/special_assignment/story.php?id=71952

[Pauli]

November 14, 2007: New Twist In Case Of Wife Convicted Of Killing Marine (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/14599555/detail.html)
October 31, 2007: Woman Convicted Of Poisoning Marine Spouse Back In Court (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/14741898/%20http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/14476625/detail.html)
August 21, 2007: Convicted Marine Widow Wants New Trial (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/14741898/%20http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/13945085/detail.html)
July 19, 2007: Wife Of Convicted Marine Makes Tearful Plea (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/14741898/%20http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/13716079/detail.html)
March 5, 2007: Fallen Pendleton Marine Receives Silver Star (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/14741898/%20http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/11177284/detail.html)
February 1, 2007: Killer Gives Jailhouse Interview to NBC 7/39 (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/14741898/%20http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10892739/detail.html)
January 31, 2007: Wife Faces Life Sentence For Killing Marine (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/14741898/%20http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10872198/detail.html)
January 31, 2007: Wife Faces Life Sentence For Killing Marine (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10872198/detail.html)
January 27, 2007: Jurors To Meet In Murder Trial Of Marine Widow (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10860807/detail.html)
January 26, 2007: Grieving Marine Widow Or Coldhearted Killer? (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10846825/detail.html)
January 25, 2007: Men Describe Affairs With Marine Widow (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10836741/detail.html)
January 23, 2007: Witnesses Say Marine Widow Partied After Husband's Death (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10828337/detail.html)
January 22, 2007: Lurid Details Come To Light At Marine Widow's Trial (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10817188/detail.html)
January 18, 2007: Marine Widow's Mother Testifies In Court (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10788464/detail.html)
January 17, 2007: Marine Widow Weeps During Testimony (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10777537/detail.html)
January 17, 2007: Widow Testifies About Poisoned Marine's Death (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10775843/detail.html)
January 16, 2007: Law Enforcement Officials Testify In Marine Widow's Trial (http://www.nbcsandiego/news/10766525/detail.html)
January 11, 2007: Former In-Law Testifies At Marine Widow's Murder Trial (http://www.nbcsandiego/news/10727224/detail.html)
January 8, 2007: Witnesses Testify About Wife's Actions In Wake Of Marine's Illness (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10699098/detail.html)
January 5, 2007: Prosecutor: Widow In Poisoning Trial Talked Of Life Insurance (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10674503/detail.html)
January 2, 2007: Judge Bars Evidence Of Marine Widow's Sex Life (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/14741898/%20http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10654890/detail.html)
January 2, 2007: Widow Charged With Poisoning Marine Due In Court (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10651999/detail.html)
August 30, 2006: Widow Accused Of Killing Marine Won't Face Death (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/9758714/detail.html)
August 2, 2006: Trial Date Set For Widow Accused Of Killing Marine To Pay For Implants (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/9616684/detail.html)
July 12, 2006: Wife Will Stand Trial In Marine's Poisoning (http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/9503752/detail.html)

[Pauli]

Widow Accused Of Killing Marine Gets New Trial


POSTED: 4:26 pm PST November 30, 2007
UPDATED: 5:14 pm PST November 30, 2007

SAN DIEGO -- A woman found guilty of poisoning her Marine husband has been granted a new trial, NBC 7/39 reported.

The decision came after Cynthia Sommer's former defense attorney, Robert Udell, spent Friday testifying about errors he said he made during the first tria

The prosecution argued that Udell was an experienced criminal defense attorney in Florida, having handled over 100 homicide cases, some of them very high profile. But Sommer's new defense attorney said Udell failed to challenge evidence that the defendant's husband was poisoned and failed to include data from scientists that could have been crucial to the defense.

Last week, the judge also heard testimony about alleged juror misconduct.

Sommer was convicted in January 2007 of first-degree murder with special circumstances counts of poisoning and for financial gain in the death of her husband Todd Sommer in 2002. Shortly after her conviction, she maintained her innocence during an interview, which took place at Las Colinas Women's Detention Center in Santee.

On Friday, the judge presiding over the case decided Sommer did not receive proper defense by her original attorney. If she had not been granted a new trial, Sommer would have been sentenced to life in prison. Sommer broke out in tears following the judge's ruling.

Sommer will remain in custody as she awaits her new trial.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/14741898/detail.html

[DIBBS]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20071212-1229-bn12sommer.htm


By Dana Littlefield
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

12:29 p.m. December 12, 2007

SAN DIEGO – A judge denied a defense request Wednesday to set bail for Cynthia Sommer, a woman accused of fatally poisoning her Miramar Marine husband in 2002.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Peter Deddeh said that because Sommer is charged with murder by poison and murder for financial gain, state law requires that she be held in jail without bail.


Advertisement
Sommer's lawyer, Allen Bloom, had argued that bail should be set at $400,000, in light of what he described as the prosecution's “razor-thin” evidence in the case.

The 34-year-old mother of four, has been in jail for two years.

After a month-long trial, a jury convicted Sommer on Jan. 30 of murdering her husband, Sgt. Todd Sommer, 23.

Sommer died Feb. 18, 2002, after collapsing at his home at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

At first, doctors believed he had died of natural causes, but tests later revealed high levels of arsenic in his liver and kidneys.

Witnesses testified during the trial that Cynthia Sommer slept with other men just two months after her husband's death, partied heavily and used some of her husband's life insurance money to pay for breast implants.

On Nov. 30, Deddeh granted Sommer a new trial, citing evidence that her former lawyer, Robert Udell of Florida, had made several mistakes.

Deddeh, who has been reassigned to a supervising department at the El Cajon courthouse, will not be available to retry the case, so it will likely be assigned to another judge next week.

Bloom said Wednesday that he hopes the new trial will begin in May.

End of quote

So a new Judge !

[hisgirl_2455]

Marine Widow Seeks To Have Evidence Excluded In Retrial

POSTED: 11:24 am PST January 26, 2008
UPDATED: 12:29 pm PST January 26, 2008


SAN DIEGO -- A woman convicted of poisoning her Marine husband will seek to have some evidence barred from her retrial.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
View Images | Watch Video: Jailhouse Interview
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Cynthia Sommer was convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstances counts of poisoning and for financial gain. But a judge granted her a retrial because her lawyer made mistakes during the trial process.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/15145260/detail.html?dl=headlineclick

[Pia]

I hope this is the right place to post this. Cindy will be doing a live interview tomorrow night on Expressions Live! with Artis White. I have seen many of his interviews and they are absolutely wonderful and in depth. Please join us.

Thursday April 24 at 8 PM EST

Expressions Live! Cynthia Sommer (http://pointers.audiovideoweb.com/asxfiles-live/ca25winlive2146.asx)


You will need Windows media player which you can find here:
Windows Media Player Download (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.mspx)

[lyndawitha"y]

Cindy Sommer back in court
Posted: 02:45 PM ET
NEW YORK — Cindy Sommer will be back in court Friday as her attorney argues that a pending murder charge should be dismissed with prejudice, meaning she could never face a retrial. Sommer was convicted of the arsenic poisoning of her husband, Todd, an active duty Marine, in January 2007. She was never sentenced to the mandatory term of life without parole because the judge ordered a new trial after finding her trial attorney made errors that tainted the process. The new trial was scheduled to begin last May but in April the San Diego District Attorney suddenly moved to dismiss the charges without prejudice. The mother of four had been in jail since November 2005 for a crime she says she did not commit. She was immediately released and has been living with relatives in northern California since then.

Earlier this year, in preparation for the new trial, the District Attorney had discovered more tissues from Sommer’s husband, taken at autopsy, and stored separately from tissues tested and used at the first trial. If Sommer had, indeed, murdered her husband by feeding him arsenic-laced food or drink, then these new tissues should have tested positive for arsenic. But they did not. There was no arsenic in any of the tissues which, incidentally, were taken from the same organs as those used at trial where arsenic was present. The difference was in how they were stored. Some samples were preserved in formaldehyde and others were frozen. The new tissues had been preserved in a third way, in paraffin blocks. . The tissues used at trial were analyzed at a government lab. The new tissues were analyzed at a private lab in Quebec.The defense has always maintained that the samples used at trial were contaminated.

A new judge, John Einhorn, is hearing the motion to dismiss but Sommer’s attorney, Allen Bloom, wants the matter to go back to the original trial judge, Peter Deddeh, who is currently assigned to a different courthouse. The District Attorney’s position is that since the case was dismissed a few months ago there is no matter pending before Judge Einhorn and, hence, he has no jurisdiction to consider the motion. Sommer’s attorney, Allen Bloom, says that Einhorn or Deddeh has jurisdiction to hear it and that the court can consider not only evidence introduced at the trial but also the new evidence of arsenic-free tissues from Sommer’s husband that led to her release from jail.

–Beth Karas, In Session correspondent

Filed under: Beth Karas • Trials

http://insession.blogs.cnn.com/

Cynthia Sommer is Back in Court as posted today by Beth Karas

[RayStar]

I can't find an update. I'll keep looking.

[RayStar]

CS has to go back before Judge Dehhah(sp). Update on :
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/...bn18sommer.html I can't get link to work but the update is on this site under metro news. Next court date 9-26.
I tried,so I apologize to all if this post may cause a problem.

[BettyChand]

CS has to go back before Judge Dehhah(sp). Update on :
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/...bn18sommer.html I can't get link to work but the update is on this site under metro news. Next court date 9-26.
I tried,so I apologize to all if this post may cause a problem.

Trying the link:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080718-1304-bn18sommer.html

[RayStar]

Trying the link:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080718-1304-bn18sommer.html
:happy0158:Thanks