California: Jury Rules 62-Year-Old Moreno Valley Woman Should Receive Death Penalty for Killing Husband

A jury recommended a Moreno Valley woman be put to death for fatally shooting her husband in 2009 after evidence was presented suggesting he was not the first husband she had killed, officials said Friday.

Lorraine Alison Hunter, 62, was convicted of first-degree murder in the death her truck driver husband, Albert Thomas, on Aug. 21, according to a statement from the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.

At that time, the jury also found that she had killed Thomas for financial gain and committed the crime while lying in wait.

Though she was prevented from collecting the money, prosecutors alleged that Hunter was aware of more than $1 million available in life insurance policies in Thomas’ name in the event he was murdered.

In determining whether the 62-year-old should be given the death penalty, jurors were shown evidence that another husband of hers was murdered in 1996 in Inglewood. That time, it appears she collected around $312,000 in life insurance funds, officials said.

No one was ever charged in that case.

Thomas was found shot to death in the sleeper section of the semitruck he drove for work on Nov. 4, 2009. The vehicle was parked in a dirt lot near the intersection of Eucalyptus and Edgemont avenues in Moreno Valley at the time, officials said.

Though law enforcement interviewed Hunter in the immediate aftermath of the discovery, she was not arrested until 2011.

Hunter originally testified she was not aware of any life insurance policies in her husband’s name, but investigators later determined she had already spoke to the trucking company that employed him and learned of two policies totaling $225,000 that would double if he were murdered.

“The administrator at the trucking company told detectives that Hunter, prior to Thomas being found dead, had personally been told about the policies and that they doubled in the case of a murder,” DA’s officials said in the press release.

A relative also provided further information that led to her arrest and helped authorities bring charges in the killing, according to prosecutors.

Briuana Hunter, the defendant’s daughter, testified under a plea deal that she and her mother spent months plotting Thomas’ death, according to the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

“She told me, `We need to figure something out,” the 23-year-old told the court, the newspaper reported. “She said that we needed the money. At first, I didn’t know what she meant, but later on, it became clear.”

Detectives also learned that, in addition to the $450,000 available through Thomas’ job if he were murdered, Hunter forged her husband’s signature in attempt to secure another life insurance policy in the amount of $750,000 six months before his killing.

However, her inability to obtain a certified copy of the death certificate prevented her from collecting any of the money.

Hunter is expected to be sentenced on Dec. 8. The DA’s office said it seeks to sentence her to death in the case.

Source: KTLA5 News, Erika Martin, September 16, 2017

Death recommended for Moreno Valley woman who killed her husband for $1 million in life insurance

A Riverside jury on Thursday recommended the death penalty for a Moreno Valley woman who fatally shot her 56-year-old husband to collect more than $1 million in life insurance proceeds.

Jurors deliberated two days before reaching a unanimous decision as to the fate of Lorraine Alison Hunter, 61.

The same panel last month convicted her of first-degree murder and found true special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and killing for financial gain in the 2009 execution-style slaying of Albert Thomas.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mac Fisher is expected to follow the jury’s recommendation when he sentences Hunter on Dec. 8 at the Riverside Hall of Justice. She’s being held without bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center.

The penalty phase of the defendant’s trial lasted roughly two weeks and was preceded by the evidentiary phase, which culminated in guilty verdicts on Aug. 21.

The prosecution’s key witness was Hunter’s now-23-year-old daughter, Briuana Lashanae Hunter, who confessed to plotting with her mother to kill Thomas.

Briauana Hunter pleaded guilty last year to three counts of attempted murder and one count of voluntary manslaughter. She’s slated to be sentenced to 18 years in state prison on Sept. 25.

The young woman, who’s being held without bail at the Indio Jail, testified that her stepfather was a “calm, quiet person,” who was “never overly aggressive” in the seven years that she and her mother lived with him in Moreno Valley.

Briauana Hunter stated that he held down two jobs — one as a short-haul trucker and another as a clerk at a Moreno Valley Auto Zone.

The witness said her mother frequently argued with Thomas about not having enough money to spend. According to Deputy District Attorney Will Robinson’s trial brief, the elder Hunter was “money hungry” and not interested in holding down a job to contribute to the household.

Briauana Hunter said she aided her mother in filling out at least three life insurance applications, naming her stepfather as the insured party and Lorraine Hunter as the principal beneficiary. The woman forged Thomas’ name on each application.

Hunter took out a $750,000 policy, as well as a $10,000 policy, Robinson said. Thomas additionally had a $450,000 policy through the trucking company for which he worked, according to court papers.

In the two months before he was gunned down, Lorraine Hunter attempted to shoot Thomas three times — twice on walks through their neighborhood in the area of Day Street and Eucalyptus Avenue, and another time outside the victim’s workplace. Briuana Hunter admitted being present on each occasion.

On the evening of Nov. 3, 2009, Thomas and the defendants left their apartment and strolled to his big rig, where he wanted to grab a sweatshirt that he had bought for his then-15-year-old stepdaughter, according to trial testimony.

The three of them climbed into his truck, and Thomas ducked into the rear sleeper compartment to find the shirt, while Hunter and her daughter sat in the front seat.

Robinson said Lorraine Hunter pulled a small-caliber handgun she’d stolen from a member of her church and shot the victim point-blank in the back of the head twice, then shot him twice in the upper back as he knelt in the compartment. He died in a kneeling position.

Hunter and her daughter fled the scene with the help of a relative, and the case went cold for two years, until the same relative confessed everything she knew to investigators after being arrested herself for an unrelated offense.

Source: PE, September 14, 2017

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde