Convicted killer, 82, will get 40-year prison sentence

Kim Smith

Monday, April 1, 2002 | 9:11 a.m.

An 82-year-old Sandy Valley man will be sentenced to 40 years in prison next month after being convicted Friday in the death of his 80-year-old wife.

Jurors rejected Fred Huston's claims that he accidentally shot his wife of four years in the eye while they grappled over a semiautomatic pistol she pulled on him. They convicted him of first-degree murder, with use of a deadly weapon, of a victim 65 or older.

Huston has agreed to allow District Judge Michael Douglas to sentence him May 16 instead of the jury. In exchange, Chief Deputy District Attorney L.J. O'Neale promised to recommend Huston receive a 40-year to life sentence instead of a no-parole life sentence, although it was largely a symbolic gesture, given Huston's age.

Eldona Huston died Sept. 24 at the end of a 20-minute recorded phone conversation with a Metro Police 911 operator. Fred Huston can be heard in the background threatening several times to pull the trigger and ordering his wife to say goodbye.

The tape was played for the jurors and was considered the most crucial piece of evidence against Huston.

As Huston was led from the courtroom Friday afternoon, Eldona Huston's grandson, Joe Thomson, yelled out, "Rot in hell, Fred," after her son, Ray Campbell, called out "Jerk!"

Afterward Campbell said he couldn't believe Huston claimed that Eldona Huston was abusive or that she pulled a gun that day.

"My daughter was holding me back, I was becoming unglued," Campbell said.

The two men were among a dozen other family members to fill the courtroom.

Campbell said he had feared the jury would feel sorry for Huston because of his age and convict him of a less serious crime, such as manslaughter.

"The sentence is fine. He's got 40 years to rot in hell," Campbell said.