SAN DIEGO -- A mother of four, who is accused of poisoning her Marine husband so she could collect a $250,000 military life insurance payout, testified Wednesday that she got breast implants less than two months after he died.

Cynthia Sommer said her deceased spouse, 23-year-old Sgt. Todd Sommer, knew about her plans to get breast augmentation surgery and was "in favor of it."

Prosecutors theorize that Cynthia Sommer poisoned the victim with arsenic at their home at Miramar. He died the morning of Feb. 18, 2002.

Neither side directly asked the 33-year-old defendant if she killed her husband.

Defense attorney Robert Udell showed his client a 2002 Valentine's Day card she received from her husband, in which he called her his "princess."

The lawyer asked her to read the words written inside the card. "My life is so happy," the defendant read.

She said her husband also wrote that maybe next year she could get a "set of boobies."

"It was never a secret," Sommer testified.

She said she wrote a personal check from the couple's joint account to a La Jolla plastic surgeon in the amount of $5,400 prior to undergoing the surgery on April 18.

Later that night, while recuperating at home, Sommer said she met another Marine to whom she is now engaged.

She testified that she met the victim, who was her second husband, in January 1999 in Camp Lejeune, N.C., through a Marine friend with whom she corresponded online.

Six months later, she and Todd Sommer were married, the defendant testified.

"I loved him," the defendant said. "We had a lot of fun together. Our relationship grew quick."

Sommer testified that her husband started to get sick on Feb. 8, 2002, after a military trip to El Centro. He appeared to be getting better when he collapsed at the foot of their bed 10 days later, she said.

Sommer conceded that she was riding with a military policewoman on the way to hospital when she requested they stop for cigarettes. The defendant said she did feel a sense of urgency to get to the hospital but knew she wouldn't be able to see her husband right away.

On cross-examination, Sommer told Deputy District Attorney Laura Gunn that she loved her new fiance in ways she never loved Todd Sommer.

She said she wrote an e-mail to the new boyfriend about that subject.

"I couldn't see five years into the future with Todd," the e-mail read. "Baby, I see 50 (years) with you."

The prosecutor asked the defendant what she meant by the e-mail.

"I never saw myself being old with Todd," the defendant testified.

A defense expert testified this afternoon that Cynthia Sommer and her family suffered a significant financial loss as a result of her husband's death.

Udell told the jury earlier that his client did not benefit from the victim's death and had no motive to kill him.

The victim's death was originally classified as resulting from natural causes, but a subsequent test in 2003 for heavy metals found lethal levels of arsenic in his kidneys and liver, Gunn told the jury.

Sommer faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of murder by poison and murder for financial gain.

Testimony will resume Thursday in the courtroom of Judge Peter Deddeh. Closing arguments are expected early next week.