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Sentencing/Post Conviction

75-year-old woman gets life in prison for 1970s slaying of her then-husband

A 75-year-old woman was sentenced to life in prison on Monday after she was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1970s shooting death of her third husband.

Prosecutors in Laramie County, Wyoming, had requested a sentence of up to 26 years in prison for Alice Uden, but Judge Steven Sharpe imposed a life sentence instead, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports. Uden sat in a wheelchair in court and used a court-supplied hearing aid, according to the Associated Press.

“This was very much a cold, calculated murder,” Sharpe said. “For 40 years, this crime went unpunished; that ends today.”

Uden’s lawyer, Don Miller, had requested probation. He argued that Uden shot Ronald Holtz because he abused Uden and threatened to kill her and their daughter. At the time, it was difficult for battered women to find help, Miller told the court.

Uden’s fourth husband, Gerald Uden, also has a rap sheet. He pleaded guilty to murdering a previous wife and her two children and was sentenced to life in prison in November, the stories say. Those murders occurred in 1980.

Hat tip to @CBSAndrew.