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 — A woman accused of feeding arsenic to her 23-year-old Marine husband took the stand Wednesday at her first-degree murder trial and broke down in tears as she recounted the night her husband collapsed dead on their bedroom floor.
"He said his heart had fluttered. I asked him if he was okay and if he needed to go to the doctor or go to the hospital. He said he was okay," Cynthia Sommer testified about her last conversation with Sgt. Todd Sommer, her husband of almost three years.
The couple said "I love you" to each other, said their prayers and went to bed, Sommer told jurors. (VIDEO )
At about 1:30 a.m. that night, Feb. 18, 2002, Sommer woke up to find Todd acting and walking "strange," she said. He told her he was all right, and then he fell down.
Sommer held a tissue to her eyes as her attorney played her frantic 911 call for jurors Wednesday.
Todd Sommer was pronounced dead at the hospital at 2:34 a.m. His autopsy revealed nothing, and his cause of death was listed as cardiac arrhythmia.
A year later, military scientists found elevated levels of arsenic in his tissues. Investigators determined that the otherwise healthy Marine was not exposed to any known environmental sources of arsenic on the job or at home.
Sommer, a 33-year-old mother of four, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and the special circumstances of murder for financial gain by the administration of poison.
She was arrested Nov. 30, 2005, in West Palm Beach, Florida, where she was living with former Marine Ross Ritter. She met Ritter two months after Todd's death.
Ritter sat in the audience Wednesday, giving Sommer supportive glances and half-smiles, his hands tightly clasped in his lap. Sommer identified him as her fiancé.
Deputy District Attorney Laura Gunn asked Sommer during cross-examination if she and Ritter hit it off right away. The defendant said that they did. Gunn asked if they had sex the day they met. Sommer flinched and said they did not.
Gunn read from e-mails Sommer wrote to Ritter.
"You say, 'I told you that when I was with Todd, I couldn't see five years into the future with him. Baby, I see 50 years with you,'" Gunn read.
Sommer said she never saw herself growing old with Todd, but that she loved him when they were together.
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