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Authorities: Wife Killed Marine Spouse For Breast Enhancements

Sommer Resists Extradition

POSTED: 9:03 am PST January 4, 2006
UPDATED: 7:05 am PST January 5, 2006

San Diego prosecutors are working Wednesday on the extradition of a woman in Florida accused of poisoning her Miramar-based Marine sergeant husband, then using his life insurance to pay for breast enhancement.

A hearing was scheduled Wednesday for 32-year-old Cynthia Sommer, who is being held in a West Palm Beach jail and resisting extradition. That hearing was postponed and rescheduled for March 6.

Sommer moved to Florida from San Diego in 2002 with a new boyfriend, an ex-Marine, just weeks after an autopsy performed by a military pathologist found her husband had died of a heart attack, according to the Los Angeles Times.

But further toxicology tests determined that Sgt. Todd Sommer, 23, had died of acute arsenic poisoning, the newspaper reported.

Todd Sommer was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar when he died Feb. 18, 2002, after complaining of nausea for several days.

Cynthia Sommer was arrested in Palm Beach County, Fla., in late November 2005, shortly after new tests and an additional investigation were completed.

"This is the coldest homicide I've had, in terms of being absolutely coldblooded," Deputy District Attorney Laura Gunn said in remarks reported by The Times.

San Diego prosecutors have filed for special circumstances -- murder by poisoning -- which could lead to the death penalty, if Sommer is convicted.

Court documents filed by prosecutors allege Sommer was eager to get her husband's life insurance of more than $250,000 and the monthly survivor payments of nearly $1,900.

Her neighbor at Miramar told investigators that after Todd Sommer's death, his wife threw loud parties and showed the results of her $5,400 breast augmentation.

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