PAW PAW, Mich. — A woman accused of setting her husband on fire then driving a van over his burning body in Van Buren County was sentenced to life in prison Monday for murder after failing a second jury convicted her of the crime.
Since Todd Stermer's death nearly 20 years ago, Linda Stermer has been imprisoned then released while winning an appeal and getting a new trial. But now she's back in custody with a no-parole sentence.
“Murder is by it’s nature a monstrous deed," Van Buren County Judge Kathleen Brickley said. "But the one you’ve committed is more gruesome than most. I cannot fathom the suffering he endured in his last moments of life.”
Prosecutors alleged Stermer doused her husband with gasoline and set him on fire on January 7, 2007, a day after he learned she was having an extramarital affair. According to prosecutors, Stermer hit her husband with an object in his sleep before setting the blaze at their Lawrence, Michigan home. Todd managed to run out the front door with his upper body engulfed in flames before Linda allegedly ran him over.
Stermer insisted it was an accident, telling insurance investigators that Todd had an oil lamp and candles burning in the house. She maintains she was in the basement doing laundry when the fire broke out.
She was first convicted in 2010. But a federal appeals court in 2020 granted her a new trial, saying her rights were violated when her attorney didn't do enough to counter the arson theme described by prosecutors.
One of the judges on the three-judge panel strongly disagreed and said an accident wasn't plausible. All that was missing, Judge Jeffrey Sutton said at the time, “was a film of the mariticide.”
Stermer, 60, stuck to her claim of innocence Monday.
“While I stand before you, innocent and wrongfully convicted, I’m prepared for the battle ahead,” she said.
