Appeals Court Upholds Soto’s Murder Verdict
A state appeals court Tuesday upheld the murder conviction of a 40-year-old battered woman who fatally shot her sleeping husband and cut up his remains with a table saw.
Gladis Soto, who admitted killing her husband in December 1999, appealed her first-degree murder conviction on grounds that the judge made errors that prejudiced the jury.
She also argued that a California weapon-enhancement law, which doubled her 25-year-to-life sentence, is cruel punishment.
But the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Ventura rejected those claims. In a written decision, the court found no judicial error and concluded that the firearms law was appropriately applied.
During the trial, defense lawyers argued that Soto suffers from battered-woman’s syndrome after being beaten and raped by her husband, and could not have formed the intent to kill.
But jurors concluded that Soto deliberately planned and carried out the killing. Soto is now serving 52 years to life in prison.
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