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A California woman who poisoned her husband to claim a 250,000-dollar life insurance policy that she used to help pay for a breast implant operation was on Tuesday convicted of murder.
Cynthia Sommer, 33, faces life in prison without parole after being found guilty at San Diego court of of murdering her 23-year-old US Marine husband Todd Sommer in February 2002.
Sommer was also found guilty of separate charges of murder by poisoning and murder for financial gain.
Prosecutor Laura Gunn told the court that Sommer had initially convinced friends and family she was a grieving widow devastated by the loss of her husband, but that her later actions reflected a different reality.
Gunn said Sommer made four inquiries about money in the first five hours after her husband's death, and within weeks had paid 5,400 dollars for breast implants. She also had a string of sexual relationships, hosted loud parties at her house and participated in a wet T-shirt contest in Tijuana.
Prosecutors said Sommer was the only person who could have poisoned her husband, saying she could have obtained the poison from bait used in rat traps.
Sommer's defence lawyers said there was no evidence to suggest that arsenic poisoning was to blame, and that she wanted to get breast implants to feel better about herself.
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AFP 302304 GMT 01 07
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