El Cajon
A former supervisor at the San Onofre nuclear power plant was sentenced Tuesday to 17 years to life in state prison for killing his wife in 1987.
The sentence handed down to Richard Shaputis, 53, was the same one given to him three years ago after his first trial.
Shaputis, who has always maintained the shooting of his wife, Erma Shaputis, 49, was accidental, had his second-degree murder conviction reversed by the 4th District Court of Appeal in 1989.
His retrial was held last month and his second jury returned an identical verdict on May 1.
Erma Shaputis, the defendant’s wife of 23 years, was fatally shot through the throat in the couple’s El Cajon home on Jan. 24, 1987.
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