Woman sentenced to life at 25 for killing mother in Huntington Beach

A 70-year-old woman was sentenced Thursday to 25 years to life in prison for killing her 92-year-old mother in Huntington Beach.

Cynthia Roberta Strange was convicted of first-degree murder in June for killing her mother, Ruth Strange, on Sept. 4, 2018, at 6812 Vista Del Sol Drive. However, the jury rejected the charge of murder for financial reasons due to special circumstances.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Lewis Clapp rejected requests from Strange’s attorney, Sara Ross of the Orange County Public Defender, to reduce her conviction to involuntary manslaughter and place her on probation because of her health problems and age.

Discussion of the motion to reduce the charge led Clapp to also consider whether it was second-degree murder, which would have carried a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.

Clapp previously denied Ross’ request for a new trial based on allegations of problems with the jury. Three jurors said they now questioned the verdict, lawyers argued.

In court papers, Ross said her client, who relies on a wheelchair, “has a number of medical problems, including lack of mobility, reduced use of her left shoulder and right arm, asthma, chronic arthritis, sinus problems and problems with her kidneys.” , neuropathy, osteoarthritis in both ankles and both feet, surgery for salivary gland cancer and a nasal septum perforation
2017. In addition, she suffers from significant mental health problems.”

Clapp noted during the hearing that Strange was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2009.

The victim suffered stab wounds to the head, but the cause of death was drowning in her swimming pool, so questions were raised during the hearing as to how Strange was able to maneuver her mother into the water.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Nick Thomo argued there was evidence of premeditation and deliberation to bear the burden of first-degree murder. He pointed to internet research, several visits to her mother’s house on the night of the murder and the fact that she had apparently bought gloves at a drugstore 30 minutes from where she lived.

“This is someone who carefully planned this murder,” Thomo said. “This is someone who is angry, jealous and motivated by money,” he argued.

When Clapp asked why there weren’t more traces of blood to the pool, Thomo speculated that the victim might have bled to death and the blood had clotted as she was walked over to the pool with the help of a walker.

“She doesn’t have to pick them up like the Hulk,” Thomo said.

The victim’s other daughter, Amy Hamilton, arrived around 10 a.m. on the day of the victim’s murder to pick up her mother for a doctor’s appointment, Thomo said in his opening statement at the trial. She saw a small garage door open and an interior door leading to the house locked, which she thought was suspicious.

When her mother didn’t return her calls, Hamilton called police to do a welfare check.

Officers asked them to stay as they searched the home and found a bathroom “covered in blood” and bloody footprints leading to a blood-spattered chair in front of a sliding glass door to the outdoor patio, Thomo said. When they searched the backyard, they found the victim in the swimming pool. The cuts and lacerations on the victim’s head were considered “superficial” and her death was caused by drowning.

Thomo said Strange killed her mother to inherit money and avoid repaying a debt.

In court documents, Thomo said Strange received additional income from her mother after she told her she was getting a divorce. In fact, she never divorced and continued to receive benefits from a member of the U.S. Navy while also making a profit from selling her Oceanside home and moving to Irvine, which angered her mother.

On Sept. 3, 2018, Strange went to her mother’s house around midnight, prompting her mother to repeatedly attempt to call Hamilton and leave voicemail messages asking for help and a call back, Thomo said. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to help me,” the victim told Hamilton in a voicemail played to the jury.

Eventually, Ruth Strange let Cynthia in before Hamilton called her back and threatened to call the police, so the defendant left, Thomo said.

The day before her mother died, Cynthia Strange made several voice queries to Google, searching the Internet for information on topics such as the difference between bruises from a fall and a blow. She wanted to find out on the Internet how old a woman dies on average in the United States, about choking, how air in a needle can kill someone and how to break someone’s neck, Thomo said.

Police made their case against Strange using surveillance video and cell phone tracking, Thomo said.

On the day of the murder, the defendant’s cellphone showed no movement from her Irvine residence, leading investigators to believe she left it there because surveillance video showed her at about 5:32 a.m. at a Walgreens at 19581 Beach Blvd. shows where she had bought some blue latex gloves, said Thomo.

“She went straight back to the victim’s house,” Thomo said, when the victim would typically get up to get his morning newspaper.

The defendant can be seen on doorbell videos driving through the neighborhood with his headlights off, Thomo said. The car is then not seen again until around 8 a.m. and leaves the area.

Strange was seen at her bank at 10 a.m. wearing different clothing than what she wore to the Walgreens, Thomo said. “She changed her clothes after the murder.”

When Strange went to police for questioning, she was wearing a sling, even though a doctor had told her it was no longer necessary, he said.

Ross said Cynthia Strange was a geologist and active in her senior community, where she was known as “kind” and “gentle.” She said Strange had undergone complete shoulder surgery shortly before the murder and was suffering from arthritis in his right wrist.

However, Ross said her client’s sister, Hamilton, “had two million reasons to want her mother dead,” referring to the money she was expected to inherit. Hamilton “hates working to the limit,” so she relied heavily on her mother for income, Ross said. “She had significant debts that far exceeded her capacity.”

The lawyer also described Hamilton as “abusive, aggressive, hostile, lazy and greedy.”

Before 2016, the two sisters got along well, but that changed in April of that year when Cynthia Strange moved from Oceanside to Irvine to be closer to her mother, Ross said. In December of that year, Hamilton persuaded her mother to buy a condo for her, but despite the monthly income and missing house payment, her daughter continued to accumulate debt, Ross said.

“She’s in so much debt that she’s starting to cash out on stocks her mother gave her a year before,” Ross said.

When Ruth Strange became ill, Hamilton convinced her mother that Cynthia had made her sick, Ross said. At that time, Ross claimed, she persuaded her mother to change the family foundation that her parents had set up in 1992.

The Huntington Beach home would be shared by the three daughters – the eldest daughter lives in Massachusetts – and the rest of the property would be shared by the four siblings (one brother lives in Minnesota), Ross said. But Hamilton convinced her mother to name Hamilton as the beneficiary of a stock account worth about $1.66 million, Ross said. Adding $100,000 from an IRA and the money from the sale of the house, Hamilton’s total inheritance comes to $2 million.

Cynthia Strange showed up at her mother’s house around midnight on Sept. 3 because she had an unpleasant encounter with a “creepy person,” her attorney said.

Ross said it was Hamilton who acted suspiciously on the day of the murder, calling 911 rather than 911 when she arrived to pick up the victim, who did not answer the phone. “That’s what you do when you’re scared? “You’re calling the non-emergency number, not 911,” she wondered aloud.

When officers told Hamilton that her mother had been found in the pool, Hamilton asked, “Was she stabbed?” according to Ross.

“They didn’t know she was stabbed until after the autopsy, but she knew right away,” Ross said.

Ross also said police “failed” to adequately investigate Hamilton, who had a box of latex gloves in her car that were never tested.