Woman Sentenced to Death for Killing Her Four Sons

A judge Wednesday sentenced a 35-year-old San Marcos woman to be executed for the murder of her four sons during a drunken rage.

Superior Court Judge Joan Weber, in a Vista court, accepted a jury’s recommendation that Susan Eubanks should die for gunning down her sons, ages 4 to 14, after a drunken argument with a boyfriend Oct. 26, 1997. Eubanks, a former hospital technician, will become the 11th woman on California’s death row; there are 527 men.

Eubanks pleaded with Weber to spare her life, saying that her perceptions had become so clouded by drugs and alcohol that “the unthinkable seemed reasonable to me.” But Weber said the viciousness of the crime made the death penalty appropriate.