Sacramento Landlady Sentenced to Life Term for Killing 3 Tenants
Dorothea Puente, whose Victorian-style boardinghouse was home to the lonely and disabled, was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for murdering three of her tenants.
Puente, 64, a slight, white-haired woman in tennis shoes and a jail sweat suit, showed no emotion as Superior Court Judge Michael J. Virga pronounced the sentence. The former bed-and-board manager said only one word during the brief proceeding, answering “yes” when Virga asked if she understood her legal rights.
The sentence was the only one that Virga could impose; a jury deadlocked Oct. 13 on whether to send her to the gas chamber.
Puente, who ran a three-story boardinghouse a mile from the state Capitol, was accused of killing nine of her tenants in the 1980s, but jurors convicted her in August in only three deaths after 24 days of deliberations, a California record for a murder trial.
Prosecutors said she exploited her tenants by cashing their government benefits checks and keeping their money.
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