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Woman, 75, gets life for killing her husband 40 years ago
Defendant Alice Uden wore wire glasses, a court-supplied hearing aid and a blue suit, and sat quietly in her wheelchair before speaking at the hearing.
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She sobbed gently as she addressed the court about the death of her third husband, Ronald Holtz, then 25.
'I've tried to atone for it,' Uden said.
'I wish that I never would have met him so that none of this ever would have happened. He was a very frightening man.'
Jurors in Cheyenne didn't buy Uden's argument that she shot Holtz in the head to defend her toddler daughter from him. In May, they found her guilty of second-degree murder.
Uden killed Holtz in late 1974 or early 1975 in Cheyenne, where he was living with her and her two-year-old daughter.
Uden testified that she shot him with a rifle after he flew into a rage over the girl's crying and was inches away from attacking her in bed.
Laramie County District Court Judge Steven Sharpe said he considered possible mitigating factors, including Uden's lack of prior criminal history.
'This was very much a cold, calculated murder,' Sharpe said.
'The jury heard all of the evidence that was before the court and the jury rejected the defences that it was self-defence.'
District Attorney Scott Homar argued the killing was a thoughtful, deliberate act that rid Uden of Holtz.
'Her way out was to take Mr. Holtz's life while he was sleeping and then dispose of it in a way that it wouldn't be found for 39 1/2 years,' Homar said.
Police arrested Uden and her fourth and current husband, Gerald Uden, 72, both of Chadwick, Missouri, last fall in southwest Missouri, accusing them of killing former spouses in separate attacks.