Prosecutor: Widow In Poisoning Trial Talked Of Life

Cynthia Sommer, 33, told an emergency worker that she had kidded with her husband about his $250,000 military life insurance policy but added that she "never thought (she) would actually see it," Deputy District Attorney Laura Gunn told a jury in opening statements.

According to Gunn, Sommer stayed out late with friends, paid $5,400 to have her breasts enlarged and quickly found a new boyfriend after her husband, Todd Sommer, 23, collapsed and died at their home in February 2002.

His death was initially ruled a heart attack. Tests of his liver later found levels of arsenic 1,020 times above normal.

Cynthia Sommer has pleaded not guilty to charges that she murdered her husband for financial gain. She was extradited last March to California from her current home in West Palm Beach, Fla., and faces life in prison if she is convicted.

Her defense attorney, Robert Udell, said her seemingly carefree behavior was consistent with a woman who had lost an ideal partner.

"The crash, the fall, is exactly consistent with someone who lost the love of their life," Udell said.

In his opening statements in Superior Court, Udell said love letters between the couple showed that Cynthia believed Todd was her "knight in shining armor" when she met him after her first marriage failed, leaving her with three small children he seemed glad to care for as his own.

The pair married in 1999 and had another child.

"This was a godsend -- he was the man of her dreams," Udell said.

Gunn said the Sommers were financially strapped and living well beyond their means at the time of Todd Sommer's death. She said Sommers started making plans for her breast enhancement before her husband's death.

"The medical record shows she did the paperwork, had a before picture and was quoted a price of $5,400," Gunn said. "Her bank balance that day -- $280."

Witnesses called by the prosecution in hearings last summer described Cynthia Sommer as a spendthrift who drained her husband's small trust fund and had to ask his parents for financial help buying a new car.

Gunn said that Sommers' behavior right after her husband died was not that of a grieving widow. When a Navy official spoke with her right after the death, "He said her first question: 'Am I going to have to give back his bonus?'" Gunn said.