LAS VEGAS — Margaret Rudin, convicted earlier this month of murdering her millionaire fifth husband, has three words for supporters: "It's not over."

The so-called Black Widow said Tuesday in a jailhouse interview that she is convinced she will be exonerated if she is granted a new trial.

"I believe the things that will be presented will definitely, definitely win an acquittal," she said. The 57-year-old former socialite is to be formally sentenced to life in prison in August, but her recently appointed public defenders are expected to petition for a new trial. "I refuse to think about [a life sentence]. I'm so optimistic."

High hopes are nothing new for Rudin. She planned a victory party while the jury deliberated, only to be disappointed when the panel convicted her of shooting real estate developer Ron Rudin to death to get at his $11 million fortune. During the interview Tuesday, she acknowledged being stunned by the first-degree murder conviction.

"I didn't do it. I didn't do it. How could this have happened?" she recalled thinking as the foreman read the verdict. She added, "Some days, I feel like this is all a dream I'm still going to wake up from."

Rudin's nine-week trial was the talk of Sin City, partly because of the antics of defense lawyer Michael Amador and the unusually public jury deliberations. Amador moved for a mistrial because of his own incompetence early on in the proceedings, and later enraged the trial judge with a zealous but bumbling courtroom performance. During jury deliberations, the foreman wrote long unsolicited notes to the judge, relaying details of the jury's discussions. And one female juror who initially held out for an acquittal sobbed during the reading of the verdict and mouthed, "I'm sorry" to Rudin afterwards.

In the latest in a round of media interviews — "Is it my fourth? Fifth?" she asked her lawyer Tuesday — Rudin maintained her innocence and renewed charges that Michael Amador was using drugs during the trial. Wearing a navy jumpsuit, hot pink lipstick and mascara and carrying a clipboard of notes, Rudin alluded to a list of 100 things pointing away from her guilt, but refused to discuss them or the evidence against her in detail.

"That's probably not something I should get into," she said of testimony that she turned the bedroom she shared with her husband into an office before his body was discovered.

Of the fact that Rudin was killed with a gun only he and his wife had access to, she said, "It's something that will have to come out at the next trial when the attorneys will let me say more."

Prosecutor Gary Guymon said he was surprised by Rudin's press interviews.

"She had her moment to have a conversation with this community from the witness stand, and she elected not to," Guymon said. "She had every opportunity to assert her innocence in trial where she would've been subject to cross-examination."

Rudin said Tuesday that she regretted not taking the stand. She said she did not testify because she believed the prosecution had not proven its case and was worried that she would not perform well as a witness.

"I don't do well in a crowd. I knew that I wasn't going to present myself well because I was so upset and so frightened," she said.

She described the trial as "convoluted" and "ungodly stressful" for all involved.

"I don't like to think it's the norm in any state's judicial systems," she said.

She laid much of the blame at Amador's feet. She said he wasn't prepared for such a complicated case.

"He got in over his head," she said. "I hope he gets his life together. I hope he does."

Amador has denied using drugs during the trial, but Rudin said she saw signs in him, including sweats, jitteriness and dilated eyes.

"I've never done a drug in my life, never even smoked a whiff of marijuana so I didn't know what to look for," she said. "I made excuses for him."

She says she has much more faith in her new lawyer, public defender Curtis Brown. Brown sat across from her during the interview at the Clark County Detention Center, frequently waving his arms to signal her not to answer questions.

Several times during the interview her voice broke and she dabbed the corners of her eyes with a tissue. One such display came as she discussed her relationship with Ron Rudin.

"I still miss him," she said. During the trial, Rudin's estate lawyer testified that his client feared his wife might kill him for his money. "We had a lot of good moments in our marriage. I don't care what people say."

After 14 months behind bars, Rudin has gotten used to the pace and procedures of jail life. She knows the guards, the visiting hours and the policies on phone calls and mail. What she hasn't grown accustomed to, she said Tuesday, is the lack of sunlight.

"You are never allowed to be outside. There is never a time when the sun hits your face and your body. I miss that," she said.