Biochemist gets life for killing husband by stuffing him in vat of acid

FRESNO - A biochemist convicted of killing her estranged husband by knocking him out and stuffing him into a vat of acid - possibly while still alive - was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Larissa Schuster, 47, of Clovis, was convicted in December of murdering Timothy Schuster with the special circumstance that the murder was committed for financial gain.

His half-dissolved remains - intact from only the belt buckle down - were found a few days after he was reported missing in July 2003 in a 55-gallon barrel concealed inside a storage unit his wife had rented.

Kristin Schuster, the couple's adult daughter, told a Fresno County Superior Court judge at today's sentencing hearing that she felt safer knowing her mother would be behind bars.

"I've been living for five years not knowing if I would have to worry for my own safety," she said. "In your quest to become a dominating power freak, you became your own demon. You have hurt me for so many years and probably smiled inside, but look who's smiling now."

The judge also rejected defense attorneys' request for a new trial in the gruesome case, which took nearly five years to prosecute.

Defense attorney Roger Nuttall did not immediately return calls seeking comment after the sentencing.

Prosecutors said Schuster and her former lab assistant, James Fagone, first immobilized Timothy Schuster with a stun gun and a chloroform-soaked rag. Then they bound his hands and feet, before dumping him head first into the barrel and pouring bottles of hydrochloric acid on the body, they said.

In December 2006, a Fresno jury convicted Fagone of first-degree murder and burglary for his role in the slaying, but he was acquitted of kidnapping. He also was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But Larissa Schuster's high-profile case had to be moved to a Los Angeles County court after a Fresno County judge decided an impartial jury couldn't be found locally.

A researcher for the defense said more than 85 percent of local residents had heard of the case.

The Schusters were in the middle of a divorce after nearly 20 years of marriage when Timothy Schuster disappeared from his tony Clovis home in July 2003.

Fagone testified during his two-week trial that he had stopped working at the chemistry lab by that time, but Larissa Schuster intimidated him into kidnapping and burglarizing her husband.

Prosecutors said Fagone accepted $2,000 from his former boss in exchange for help with the slaying.

In Schuster's case, prosecutors presented cell phone records, orders for three cases of hydrochloric acid and other evidence showing that she had engineered and participated in her husband's murder.

Fresno County District Attorney Elizabeth A. Egan called the Schuster case "especially gruesome" in a statement issued today.

"Even in light of the human depravity we witness on a daily basis, the grotesque nature of this crime stands out," Egan said.


from: http://www.mercurynews.com
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