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Woman Who Smothered Her Kids and Killed Husband With Sword to Be With Lover Gets Death Penalty

Manling-Tsang-Williams.jpg
Manling Tsang Williams (Booking photo)

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A 32-year-old Rowland Heights woman has been sentenced to death for the brutal 2007 murders of her husband and two young sons. Manling Tsang Williams was convicted in 2010 on three counts of first-degree murder for taking the lives of her family members while they slept so that she could be free to be with her lover, according to City News Service.The details of the killings are grim: Williams, 29 at the time, "put on a pair of gloves, took a
pillow and held it over her 3-year-old son's mouth and nose until he lost consciousness," described prosecutors. She "then climbed the bunk bed stairs to her oldest son's bed and put the pillow over his nose and mouth" and ended the 7-year-old's life.

Before killing her husband, however, Williams took the time to pause to sign on to MySpace to check her boyfriend's profile page, then went out with friends, and returned home and "chose the heaviest, sharpest sword in the house to attack her sleeping husband." During Williams' trial, testimony from the medical examiner indicated her husband, Neal, "had been slashed and stabbed more than 90 times with a Samurai sword."

The next morning, she called police to tell them she'd come home from grocery shopping to find her family dead. Williams was taken into custody the next day.

Williams' lover had told her he would end their relationship because she was burdened with a husband and kids. The woman had reportedly been "infatuated with" her boyfriend since their high school days.

Today, Pomona Superior Court Judge Robert Martinez rejected a motion for a new
trial before handing down Williams' death sentence.

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