A woman who claimed she accidentally shot her husband while playing with a gun in their Whittier home was sentenced Friday to 40 years to life in prison.
Linda Doreen Gwozdz, 57, was convicted in January of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Patrick Duffey, 50, on April 26, 2007. Gwozdz, then known as Linda Duffey, insisted the gun went off accidentally while she was handling her husband’s .38-caliber revolver in their home in the 15800 block of Sharon Hill Drive.
Patrick Duffey was shot twice in the head, prosecutors said.
A separate jury last year deadlocked in the case, but Gwozdz was convicted at a retrial.
“This was a horrible accident, and I’ve been aware of everyone’s pain from day one,” Gwozdz told Superior Court Judge John A. Torribio in Torrance before she was sentenced.
Sheriff’s officials investigated the case for five years, during which the defendant moved to Mississippi and remarried. She was charged with murder in May 2012 and brought back to Los Angeles.
—City News Service