US: Woman, 75, sentenced to life in prison for killing husband 40 years ago

[webfact]

Wyoming woman, 75, sentenced to life in prison for killing husband 40 years ago

A JUDGE in Wyoming has sentenced a 75-year-old Missouri woman to life in prison for killing her husband with a rifle in the mid-1970s and throwing his body down the shaft of an abandoned gold mine, where it remained for nearly 40 years.

Defendant, Alice Uden, sobbed gently as she addressed the court about the death of her third husband, Ronald Holtz, then 25.

“I’ve tried to atone for it,” Alice Uden said. “I wish that I never would have met him so that none of this ever would have happened. He was a very frightening man.”

Jurors in Cheyenne didn’t buy Uden’s argument that she shot Holtz in the head to defend her daughter, a toddler at the time, from him. In May, they found her guilty of second-degree murder.

Uden killed Holtz in late 1974 or early 1975 in Cheyenne, where he was living with her and her 2-year-old daughter. Uden testified that she shot him with a rifle after he flew into a rage over the girl’s crying and was inches away from attacking her in bed.

Laramie County District Court Judge Steven Sharpe said he considered possible mitigating factors, including Uden’s lack of prior criminal history.

“This was very much a cold, calculated murder,” Sharpe said. “The jury heard all of the evidence that was before the court and the jury rejected the defence that it was self-defence.”

Full story: http://www.news.com.au/world/wyoming-woman-75-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-killing-husband-40-years-ago/story-fndir2ev-1227037237132

-- News.com.au 2014-08-26

[Scott]

I wonder how they found the body after this many years?

[NeverSure]

There are a lot of people opening up old gold mines. There is new technology since back then to locate and process gold from the dirt.

Gold tends to run in veins. Miners follow those veins. When they reached the end of a vein they'd quit and abandon the mine. But if it was the earth shifting that separated the vein, then it continues on undiscovered. The continuation of the vein is now known to be worth looking for, and there is technology to help.

I know 3 guys who are gold miners, working areas that played out in the 1800's or early 1900's. So far they are just making a good living, but they sleep with big dreams.

[timmyp]

There is an awesome country song in this story!

[neverdie]

I wonder how they found the body after this many years?

Scott,

Somebody went down the mine shaft and found the bones. Not too technical.

?

[Strangebrew]

Well in Thailand it would have been called suicide

[slipperylobster]

He sure got shafted.

[ukrules]

Laramie County District Court Judge Steven Sharpe said he considered possible mitigating factors, including Uden’s lack of prior criminal history.

Yet she gets life anyway, I'd hate to see this judge on a bad day.

After reading a little more on this case is seems she killed him 'in cold blood' while he was sleeping

[ToYoungToRetire]

Wyoming is a large desolate place. She choose her location poorly, and she must have admitted to it. That many years and all evidence would be gone.

Anyhow she's 75, she'll be dead in prison in no time. Hardly a just punishment for the crime if it wasnt self defense.

[Phil Water]

There is an awesome country song in this story!

Earl had to die

[GentlemanJim]

I wonder what the evidence was and who testified? Body at the bottom of a mine shaft with a bullet hole in the head. Dead men don't talk...so who did? Time for a google.

edit: google is your friend! Seems Alice was married to her soul mate for the last 35 years or so. Her most recent husband was arrested last year for the 1980 murder of his wife and 2 young children! Seems they might have been made for each other.

I assume from what is written the jury went against her as the chance of her AND her husband being done for separate murders was too much of a coincidence.

Edited August 26, 2014 by GentlemanJim

[NeverSure]

I doubt that the husband's murder case which happened at a different time would be admissible. It fails that test by being irrelevant, and by being prejudicial.

"For evidence to be admissible, it must be relevant, without being unfairly prejudicial, and it must have some indicia of reliability. The general rule in evidence is that all relevant evidence is admissible and all irrelevant evidence is inadmissible."

LINK

[Lex Talionis]

"Prosecutors have not drawn any link between the two cases." Huh? You mean they both coincidentally murdered former spouses and hid their bodies in abandoned mines? Must be an old Wyoming tradition. The big reveal must have been an interesting moment. A match made in heaven, er... ok the other much hotter place.

[lee b]

Good, shes been free for 40 years, now its time to pay the price. Shame she wasn't caught all them years ago though.

[rotary]

Too bad they did not give her the death sentence then do it the next weekend.