CONVICTION OVERTURNED CA - Sgt. Todd Sommer, 23, fatally poisoned, San Diego, 18 Feb 2002

[nanandjim]

...Those in the military may very well use it for a high...

I think that accidental death is not on the table as a viable option, is it? She is the one with the motive and the one who benefitted from his death.

I think that if arsenic were found in the home, she will be convicted. However, I thought that I heard that there was no arsenic found in the home. I could very well be wrong on that point and hope that I am.

If there is nothing to tie this woman to the crime, she may very well be found not guilty. I think the jury will believe that she did it, but they may not have enough proof to convict her of the crime.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

I think that accidental death is not on the table as a viable option, is it? She is the one with the motive and the one who benefited from his death.

I think that if arsenic were found in the home, she will be convicted. However, I thought that I heard that there was no arsenic found in the home. I could very well be wrong on that point and hope that I am.

If there is nothing to tie this woman to the crime, she may very well be found not guilty. I think the jury will believe that she did it, but they may not have enough proof to convict her of the crime.

I am sure that the defense has looked high and low for any other arsenic besides what was found in TSs body and on the pills found in his home and they have come up with a big goose egg imo.

The MP or medic testified that TS had urinated. and that is probably how the pamphlet became wet with arsenic but he never said the pills were soaked. In fact he made a point to say he saw one capsule on the floor and flushed it down the toilet so that the children would not pick it up and eat it. If there were more pills on the floor he would have picked them up as well to flush so that the children would not get them. But that is not what he said he saw or did ....he saw one pill on the floor and threw it down the toilet.

If they had taken the pills left on the floor they would have taken all of them there including the one he threw away imo. I think what they took was meds/ OTC and prescription that they found sitting around in the bedroom.

The doctor who testified in the PH said it would take 30 minutes to 4 hours for him to feel symptoms of acute arsenic poisoning. She came in a 10:30 that night...he drank beer and according to her a half glass of wine which imo was laced with arsenic then they went to bed around 11:30 pm........he awoke at 3 am with terrible stomach cramps. The time line fits perfectly and imo there was no one there with him but his wife and children when he was poisoned.

IMO

Ocean

 

[Amraann]

That does not mitigate someone else being there before the wife came home.
nor him taking it for a high.

Just playing devils advocate here.. But I do not think her wanting (however many newspapers that sells) equates to her doing this.

I am confused about the above quote about an MP flushing a pill down the toilet??
DO you mean that they went to a crime scene and flushed evidence and then tried to say it was so the kids would not eat it?? (like who is letting a kid near a crime scene???)

 

[nanandjim]

...DO you mean that they went to a crime scene and flushed evidence and then tried to say it was so the kids would not eat it?? (like who is letting a kid near a crime scene???)

I don't think that they considered it a crime scene. Also, it wasn't just the breast enhancement--which, BTW, he didn't want her to have. It was the entire lifestyle. She had loud parties right after he died, had a new boyfriend and had a breast enhancement. She wasn't smart enough to play the grieving widow. Had she laid low, pretended to grieve and taken care of her children, she wouldn't even be on trial.

This verdict could go either way. However, as I previously said, I think that she killed him.

 

[Amraann]

I don't think that they considered it a crime scene. Also, it wasn't just the breast enhancement--which, BTW, he didn't want her to have. It was the entire lifestyle. She had loud parties right after he died, had a new boyfriend and had a breast enhancement. She wasn't smart enough to play the grieving widow. Had she laid low, pretended to grieve and taken care of her children, she wouldn't even be on trial.

This verdict could go either way. However, as I previously said, I think that she killed him.

When anyone that young dies isn't it a crime scene?
I do not know if not grieiving equates to murder either.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

That does not mitigate someone else being there before the wife came home.
nor him taking it for a high.

Just playing devils advocate here.. But I do not think her wanting (however many newspapers that sells) equates to her doing this.

I am confused about the above quote about an MP flushing a pill down the toilet??
DO you mean that they went to a crime scene and flushed evidence and then tried to say it was so the kids would not eat it?? (like who is letting a kid near a crime scene???)

Who in the world ingest lethal dosages of arsenic to get high?

Todd himself when describing his symptoms never mentioned he felt like he was high. When he died he had no drugs or alcohol in his system.

I have never heard of people taking arsenic to get high. Even the most ignorant knows arsenic is a deadly poison.

I am not sure what you are saying about "getting high", sorry.

If that were the case and he had used arsenic of all things to get high he would have died from chronic arsenic poisoning not acute arsenic poisoning.

They are drug tested continuously in the military. They do so randomly and without advance notice. Imo there is nothing in evidence that shows he was taking this poison willingly. Even Udell isnt trying to sell that one.

He is doing this knowingly yet he goes to the Doctor where he knows they will pull blood and leaves himself wide open for that to be detected? That makes no logical sense to me. He sure wouldn't keep it a secret getting worse and worse. Better to leave the Corps with a dishonorable discharge rather than in an urn any day.

I think Todd was a good Marine. He was probably at home that night with the kids and sat there..... watched tv..... had a few brews and then had a half a glass of wine with his wife when she got home and drank hers. Little did he know he had only days to live when he went to bed at 11:30 on the 8th.

Oh I do positively agree with you this wasnt all about the boob job. It was about power, greed and control. Freedom to have the fake then........freedom to partake in her wild parties.........freedom to meet someone else with a Trust Fund. It was many things and she wanted it all.

 

[SadieMae]

I dated an Army sergeant when I was in college who was divorced from a woman 6 years his senior who had married him for his benefits. She married him and then almost immediately began cheating on him. They were married for only a year.

I see a lot of that here at Fort Hood. Very sad. One "lady" who ran our office just left her hubby when he returned from Iraq. She'd been having an affair all while he was gone. The man lived with her while her husband was gone. I surely don't approve of that.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

When anyone that young dies isn't it a crime scene?
I do not know if not grieving equates to murder either.

It seems the only time it makes a difference is when defense attorneys are trying to make up this excuse for despicable behavior done by murder defendants.

Remember this is a woman who said her husband was her knight in shinning armor. He wasn't just any guy according to her.

So her lewd and bizarre behavior does not fit at all imo with what her mouth said. (according to Udell in OS)

I dont think a woman would morn her knight in this way.

IMO

Ocean

 

[Amraann]

Who in the world ingest lethal dosages of arsenic to get high?

Todd himself when describing his symptoms never mentioned he felt like he was high. When he died he had no drugs or alcohol in his system.

I have never heard of people taking arsenic to get high. Even the most ignorant knows arsenic is a deadly poison.

I am not sure what you are saying about "getting high", sorry.

If that were the case and he had used arsenic of all things to get high he would have died from chronic arsenic poisoning not acute arsenic poisoning.

They are drug tested continuously in the military. They do so randomly and without advance notice. Imo there is nothing in evidence that shows he was taking this poison willingly. Even Udell isnt trying to sell that one.

He is doing this knowingly yet he goes to the Doctor where he knows they will pull blood and leaves himself wide open for that to be detected? That makes no logical sense to me. He sure wouldn't keep it a secret getting worse and worse. Better to leave the Corps with a dishonorable discharge rather than in an urn any day.

I think Todd was a good Marine. He was probably at home that night with the kids and sat there..... watched tv..... had a few brews and then had a half a glass of wine with his wife when she got home and drank hers. Little did he know he had only days to live when he went to bed at 11:30 on the 8th.

Oh I do positively agree with you this wasnt all about the boob job. It was about power, greed and control. Freedom to have the fake then........freedom to partake in her wild parties.........freedom to meet someone else with a Trust Fund. It was many things and she wanted it all.

Arsenic during the turn of the century was used much like todays illegal drugs.

As for the "knight in shining armor" comment ... that in itself sounds like an immature thing to say which would explain her immature reaction to his death.

 

[Jeana (DP)]

I agree with Amra. First, there is nothing linking her to arsenic. She got her job back at Subway making crap, so she wasn't planning on living hight on the hog. Moreover, she opened her entire home and life to investigators. If she had anything to hide, she wouldn't have done so. She may have done the deed, but I think there is more than enough reasonable doubt.

 

[Amraann]

I agree with Amra. First, there is nothing linking her to arsenic. She got her job back at Subway making crap, so she wasn't planning on living hight on the hog. Moreover, she opened her entire home and life to investigators. If she had anything to hide, she wouldn't have done so. She may have done the deed, but I think there is more than enough reasonable doubt.

Hey Jeana!! That is what I meant... I really think on one hand her lawyer should have no problem proving reasonable doubt. On the other hand if she is guilty and acting not-so-much like the widow in mourning then the DA maybe should have waited and let her hang herself as IMO they usually do.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

I agree with Amra. First, there is nothing linking her to arsenic. She got her job back at Subway making crap, so she wasn't planning on living hight on the hog. Moreover, she opened her entire home and life to investigators. If she had anything to hide, she wouldn't have done so. She may have done the deed, but I think there is more than enough reasonable doubt.

I may tend to agree with you if that was the night that he first ingested the lethal dose but he had been very sick for 10 days and it would be foolish to think she left any evidence behind in the home 10 days later imo.

Dr. Spitz said a lethal dosage around 300 times and above the normal level could kill someone and IIRC he said the arsenic amount would be about the size of a regular aspirin. What was there to remove from the home if she crushed all the arsenic up and put it in his glass of wine? All she had to do is wash the glass with scalding hot water and that would be that.

IMO

Ocean

 

[KatK]

Arsenic during the turn of the century was used much like todays illegal drugs.

As for the "knight in shining armor" comment ... that in itself sounds like an immature thing to say which would explain her immature reaction to his death.

Really? Where did you hear that? Arsenic was used in small doses as a medicine, and put in wine by wives to deter their husbands from drinking. (Sometimes this practice ended up being lethal, but usually it just gave the man a bellyache and put him off the booze for a time.) It was also used in cosmetics, (they also used sulpheric acid in hair dye, and mercury in other makeup compounds too though.) and in special preparations the person intended to give to their enemy. I know there have been cases of "arsenic eaters" but I never heard they did so to get high. I suppose it would make sense that this would be why. I know some got a high tolerance to it, and have heard legends of people whose spouses were arsenic eaters, and they got the food their spouse meant to eat by mistake.

 

[Peter Hamilton]

KatK--actually, its true that arsenic was used as a recreational drug in England in the late 1800's--One of the chief suspects in the Jack The Ripper case, a cotton merchant(I forgot his name), was an arsenic addict--His wife eventually murdered him by overdosing his arsenic and then the Jack The Ripper murders stopped--As far as this case goes, the fact that this guy's liver contained 1000 times the normal amount will absolutely reasonate with the jury--and also her partying, boob job and subsequent affair are all pretty damning--I have been watching this case live on Court TV--

 

[Amraann]

Thanks Peter!!


LOL that was the exact case I was going to quote. Although I disagree that the wife killed him. (in the Ripper case)
That evidence was lacking.

 

[Amraann]

I may tend to agree with you if that was the night that he first ingested the lethal dose but he had been very sick for 10 days and it would be foolish to think she left any evidence behind in the home 10 days later imo.

Dr. Spitz said a lethal dosage around 300 times and above the normal level could kill someone and IIRC he said the arsenic amount would be about the size of a regular aspirin. What was there to remove from the home if she crushed all the arsenic up and put it in his glass of wine? All she had to do is wash the glass with scalding hot water and that would be that.

IMO

Ocean

My huge issue with this is that it took 3 years to charge her. I also do not like the media portrayal that "he would not let her go party"
First off ..... what the hell is this 1942?? Let??
I also do not believe that immature behavoir of grieving equates to murder.
My MIL acted like a total fruit loop after my FIL died from cancer.
She spent the money wildly and did not have pictures of him in the house.
I suppose that had he not died in a hospital her behavoir would seem suspicious.

 

[Peter Hamilton]

Amraan, yes I should have mentioned that the wife was never convicted of anything and she subsequently moved to Conn and lived a long life

 

[Amraann]

Amraan, yes I should have mentioned that the wife was never convicted of anything and she subsequently moved to Conn and lived a long life

I thought she was convicted and spent time in jail then moved to CT?

 

[Peter Hamilton]

lol--geez I can't remember so I'll defer to you

 

[Amraann]

lol--geez I can't remember so I'll defer to you

Well I can't either so now who do we defer to???