911 Call
This official transcript shows Cynthia Sommer reported that her 23-year-old husband collapsed in their home on Feb. 18, 2002.- Information
This charging document accused Cynthia Sommer of first-degree murder for alleged arsenic poisoning. - NCIS Declaration
Rob Terwillinger of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NICS) outlines how the investigation of Todd Sommer's death evolved from a heart attack to a homicide. - Search Warrant
This search warrant authorized Florida police to seize evidence, spefically computers, from the Palm Beach County home where Cynthia Sommer resided in November 2005.
SAN DIEGO — When accused killer Cynthia Sommer received more than $250,000 in her Marine husband's life insurance benefits, prosecutors say she partied, went on shopping sprees and bought herself the breast implants she always wanted.
"In the short term, she did financially benefit from his death," forensic accountant April Riel testified Friday at Sommer's first-degree murder trial.
Prosecutors have no evidence linking Sommer to the arsenic that appears to have caused the mysterious death of her 23-year-old husband, Sgt. Todd Sommer, on Feb. 18, 2002.
The prosecution's strongest evidence against Sommer is her bizarre behavior after her husband's death and her seeming obsession with money.
But an analysis of Sommer's spending habits, as recounted by the witness Friday, may simply reveal a financial portrait of a young mother of four who is unable and unwilling to live within her means.
Riel told jurors that before his death, Todd's monthly income brought the couple about $1,700 a month at most. They had free housing and medical care on base, and were able to buy discounted food at the base market. Sommer worked at a Subway sandwich shop at the time and earned a little over $7 an hour.
After Todd's death, Sommer had to leave the base, but she received checks ranging from $1,300 to $7,900 a month in social security and VA benefits, in addition to a lump sum $250,587 insurance payment.
She exhausted the insurance money before the end of the year. But what exactly did she spend it on?
Riel analyzed the disbursements from Sommer's life insurance account and determined that 49 percent of the money was put into trusts for Sommer's four children. Another 24 percent went directly to Sommer in the form of $35,000 worth of personal checks she wrote to herself and an additional $25,000 that was put in a trust in her name, controlled by her in-laws.
The rest was used to pay off credit cards, a car loan, a computer, the IRS, and other miscellaneous expenses.
Riel conceded during cross-examination that Sommer did not purchase expensive furs, jewelry, vacations or other luxury items.
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