EL CAJON, Calif. (KGTV) - A husband pleaded guilty Tuesday to trying to poison his wife with a heavy metal at their East County home, court officials said.
Race Uto, 27, admitted to three counts of premeditated attempted murder in an El Cajon courtroom, according to San Diego County District Attorney's office spokesperson Tanya Sierra.
Prosecutors said Uto gave his wife thallium, a metal found in rat poison and ant killers.
RELATED: Warrant reveals troubled marriage in poisoning case
10News obtained a search warrant indicating Brigida Uto became mysteriously ill in September 2017. She suffered weakness and hair loss, and was eventually near death, according to the warrant. Friends also indicated in a GoFundMe account she suffered nerve and organ damage.
Investigators with the FBI, NCIS and San Diego County HazMat determined Brigida had been poisoned by someone with access to her food and drinks.
The warrant also showed that Race had an affair while he was deployed in the Navy, and that the couple had gone through counseling.
Race Uto was arrested in March 2018. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Mar. 14.
Brigida Uto is a special education teacher in the Mountain Empire School District and the mother of a young boy, according to the GoFundMepage. She met her husband at her high school prom when she was 18 and the couple married at 25.
