A Van Buren County woman has been sentenced for murdering her husband in 2007.
Linda Stermer’s conviction was thrown out in 2018 because the court found she had an ineffective defense attorney, but the retrial had the same result. The verdict this week was guilty after Stermer’s house in Van Buren County burned down and her husband was found burned with lacerations to his head in January of 2007.
Judge Kathleen Brickley was not sympathetic to Linda’s defense when reading the sentence this week.
“For the heinous acts you’ve committed in burning your husband alive and in leaving your children with that imprint forever, the sentence of the court is life without the possibility of parole,” Brickley said.
Family members gave statements calling Stermer evil and an awful human being. In her defense, Stermer said investigators had a witch hunt against her.
Prosecutors says Stermer and her husband, Todd, had been married for 14 years but were going through a divorce. The prosecution says on the day of Todd’s death, Linda told the kids to go outside and then set Todd on fire. She’s then accused of running him over with a van as he ran from the home.
Stermer claims she was in the basement when the fire started and was trying to go for help in the van when she hit her husband.
