CIA Heiress to serve 60 days for killing -- Summary of Susan Cummings’ trial
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HEIRESS TO SERVE 60 DAYS FOR KILLING
By Christine Montgomery
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
WARRENTON, Va. (May 13) ---- Fauquier County jury agreed with Susan Cummings
that she killed her boyfriend, Roberto Villegas, in the heat of passion but
didn't completely buy her story of self-defense.
The jury yesterday found the arms heiress guilty of voluntary manslaughter and
recommended she spend 60 days in the Fauquier County Jail and pay a $2,500
fine.
"We are eternally grateful, we're stunned, we're very grateful," said her
attorney, Blair Howard.
The jury could have recommended the heiress spend as much as 10 years in prison
for the manslaughter charge -- or
even convicted her of first-degree murder and recommended she spend the rest of
her life in prison.
Instead, she will serve what amounts to about 30 days -- counting time off for
good behavior -- in the small county jail less than five miles from her
mansion.
Prosecutor Kevin Casey had urged the jury to give Miss Cummings a stiff prison
sentence. "Do not forget she shot
another human being four times. I beg you, do not forget Roberto Villegas."
Mr. Casey would not comment on the jury's decision, but the clearly
disappointed commonwealth's attorney said
sarcastically that because voluntary manslaughter is a felony, Miss Cummings
"will [never] become president of the United States."
The jury also found Miss Cummings, 35, not guilty of the charge of using a
firearm in a felony, which spared her a
mandatory sentence of three years in prison.
Miss Cummings said only a few words publicly, most of them muffled by her soft
speaking voice and the large gaggle of media and onlookers gathered to see her
reaction to the verdict.
"I would like to let you know how deeply appreciative I am," she said, her eyes
ringed with dark circles and her face
bereft of any makeup. "I feel very happy."
Trial watchers are still left with questions, and the unusually reticent
lawyers didn't offer much in the way of answers. Did Miss Cummings learn a
lesson from the trial?
"Don't shoot your boyfriend," Mr. Casey offered.
Friends of the dead man were angered by the verdict.
"He wasn't the type of person who has been portrayed in court," said Suzanne
Worsham, who, along with her husband, befriended Mr. Villegas eight years ago.
"We're just sick."
Judge Carleton Penn agreed to let Miss Cummings out on bail until 6 p.m.
Saturday so she can attend a memorial service for her father, who died just a
few days before the trial began.
Arms mogul Samuel Cummings never knew about Mr. Villegas' death or his
daughter's hand in it.
After the memorial service in Washington, Miss Cummings will be returned to the
county jail, a small red brick facility just behind the courthouse.
The story Miss Cummings told the jury during the five-day trial was that in
early September last year she endured a
weekend of terror and threats from Mr. Villegas after she told him she would
not marry him or bear his children. She said she ordered him to leave her farm.
On the morning of Sept. 7, she said, he grabbed her by the throat and pressed a
knife to her cheek.
"He said, 'No one is ever going to tell me what to do.' He said, 'I'm going to
teach you lesson,'" and then slowly slashed the knife across her forearm, she
testified.
She said she placated Mr. Villegas, and when he released her she moved toward a
cabinet where she kept her gun. With her back to him, she reached for the gun
and heard a chair scrape on the floor. She said she turned to see an enraged
Mr. Villegas moving toward her and began firing.
Mr. Villegas was hit four times.
Witnesses testified the Argentine polo player had taunted her in the months
before she killed him, several times
threatening to "put her out of her misery."
Her supporters, mostly those she met here in horse country, spent about
8-and-a-half hours waiting for the jurors to decide the case.
"The waiting, that's the hardest part," said Jane Rowe, a friend of the
Cummings family. "It's tedious."
The scene outside the Fauquier County Courthouse yesterday looked like a
hospital waiting room, with people
pacing, sleeping, reading and sipping coffee while they waited for the jury to
deliver its verdict.
Miss Cummings spent most of the time inside the courtroom with her attorney,
sister and mother.
The only emotion her family showed came a little later from Miss Cummings' twin
sister, Diana, whose voice wavered as she spoke about the sister's relationship
to jurors before they went off to deliberate on her sister's punishment.
The Cummings matriarch, Irma, spoke publicly for the first time about her
daughter when Mr. Howard called her to the stand to offer jurors a mother's
view of the woman they had just convicted of manslaughter.
"As a teen-ager, she had some school friends, not what you would call
boyfriends," Mrs. Cummings said.
She mentioned her daughter's love of animals, her good behavior as a young
girl, and her devotion to her family,
especially her father.
A heavy sigh and a glance at the ceiling were the most reaction any of the
Cummings family showed --and that didn't come until the jury came back and
announced its recommended punishment of the small fine and 60-day jail
term.
Jurors declined to talk immediately after court was adjourned, but an anchor
for Court TV, who found the murder
trial in Virginia's wealthy horse country fascinating, said the light sentence
suggests it was a compromise verdict.
"There are only two people who really know what happened," said Court TV anchor
Jamie Floyd.
Such cases are often a battle of expert witnesses who can't confirm whether it
was self-defense. They only can tell how the victim died and then it becomes a
question of which set of experts the jury believes, Mrs. Floyd said.
Mrs. Floyd also noted that allowing Miss Cummings to go to her father's
memorial service was very unusual.
"If it was the average Joe convicted of voluntary manslaughter, they're not
going to any memorial service," Mrs.
Floyd said.
After serving her sentence, Miss Cummings will "return to Ashland Farm and
return to her life," Mr. Howard said.
Leslie Koren contributed to this report.
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COMMENTS
Susan Cummings’ decision to murder her Argentine boyfriend because he
"mistreated her" is a typical example of the superior attitude held by of those
associated with the CIA. Her story exposes the CIA, not merely as an
intelligence organization, but as a sick cult group whose members attain
orgasmic pleasure from drinking and swimming in the blood of their murder
victims. Ms. Cummings is the daughter of multi-billionare Samual Cummings
(deceased), retired CIA employee and international arms dealer. Ms. Cummings,
35, is accused of murdering her boyfriend, Roberto Villegas, 38, because he
"mistreated her." What a crock. Villegas was from Argentina, not a exactly a
country known for its progressive attitudes towards women. In fact Argentine
men have an international reputation for mistreating women. They are the S in
S&M. If CIA princess Cummings didn’t want to be mistreated, she should have
found a boyfriend from another country. In typical CIA fashion, Ms. Cummings
simply said to herself, "I’m tired of Roberto. I think I’ll kill him. My
lawyers will get me off." And she did.
She only received 60 days for cold-blooded calculated murder. Looks like
another case of "might makes right."
Dave Sharp