18 September 2017 :
A Riverside jury today recommended the death penalty for Lorraine Hunter, 61, Black, who fatally shot her husband to collect more than $1 million in life insurance proceeds. 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 Nov. 3, 2009 execution-style slaying of Albert Thomas, 56. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mac Fisher is expected to follow the jury’s recommendation when he sentences Hunter on Dec. 8. 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.
