LOS ANGELES : Widow Sentenced to Death in Murder of Husband
A judge on Thursday sentenced a Westwood auto shop owner’s widow to death for contracting her husband’s murder so that she could collect on a $400,000 life insurance policy.
Catherine Thompson showed no reaction as Superior Court Judge George Trammell told her he could think of no good reason to reconsider a jury’s recommendation of death. Melvin Thompson was gunned down in 1990 in the bathroom of Kayser’s Service, the auto shop he had owned for 20 years on Santa Monica Boulevard near Greenfield Avenue.
Last September, a jury recommended that Thompson die for masterminding the murder. After months of legal maneuverings to persuade the judge to overturn the sentence, Thompson was ordered to Death Row.
“He loved her. He trusted her,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Katherine Mader. “He never had a clue that she wanted him dead.”
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