CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN JOSE : Woman Arrested in Slaying of Mother

When Gail Ann Ransom walked into the jail lobby and approached the desk officer, witnesses said, she used only four words to confess her crime: “I offed my mother.” The 39-year-old nurse from Clovis was in custody for investigation of murder after her mother’s body was discovered by police. She had apparently been strangled. Authorities believe Ransom followed her mother, 61-year-old Lucille Boomer, to San Jose from Fresno with the intention of killing her. “She (Ransom) said she had driven here from Clovis to do this,” said Lt. Michael Bernal of the Santa Clara County Department of Correction. “She said her mother had been abusing her and her children for quite awhile,” said Bernal.