A woman previously sentenced to death for killing her four children in San Marcos was re-sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Susan Eubanks, now 60, was convicted and originally received the death penalty for the 1997 slayings of her sons Brandon Armstrong, 14; Austin Eubanks, 7; Brigham Eubanks, 6; and Matthew Eubanks, 4.
All four children were shot in the head. Eubanks unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide after the killings but survived a gunshot wound to the stomach.
Eubanks was sentenced to death in 1999, and that sentence was later upheld by the California Supreme Court.
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In 2011, Eubanks' lawyers cited a number of problems in her 1999 trial in an appeal, claiming that the jurors were improperly required to be English-proficient, that police illegally searched her San Marcos home and that the prosecution's expert witness conclusions were wrongly presented as scientific facts. That appeal was unanimously denied.
Since then, Eubanks' attorney filed a nw petition claiming her original trial attorney had been ineffective, which could have led to a retrial.
The San Diego County District Attorney's Office said that prosecutors opted to move forward with Friday's re-sentencing "in the interests of justice" and "to ensure the defendant will never be released from prison."
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San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan said in a statement that some factors prosecutors weighed for pursuing the re-sentencing included California's moratorium on the death penalty and preventing the victims from having to undergo another trial.
"As prosecutors, we are constantly making difficult decisions based on what is in the furtherance of justice and the protection of crime victims," said Stephan, who said the various considerations "all factored into our decision to accept this agreement which is guaranteed to keep this murderer behind bars for the rest of her life."
The re-sentencing also resolves dueling appellate petitions in state and federal court that challenge Eubanks' original murder conviction and sentence, according to the D.A.'s Office.
