The Associated Press

Sat, May 17, 2008 (12:42 a.m.)

A biochemist was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Friday for killing her estranged husband by knocking him out and stuffing him into a vat of acid, possibly while he was still alive.

Larissa Schuster was convicted in December of murdering Timothy Schuster with the special circumstance that the murder was committed for financial gain. At the time of his death in July 2003, the Schusters were in the middle of a divorce after nearly 20 years of marriage.

Just days after Timothy Schuster was reported missing, his half-dissolved remains _ intact from only the belt buckle down _ were found inside a 55-gallon barrel concealed in a storage unit his wife had rented.

Kristin Schuster, the couple's adult daughter, told the judge that she felt safer knowing her mother would be behind bars.

"I've been living for five years not knowing if I would have to worry for my own safety," she said. "In your quest to become a dominating power freak, you became your own demon. You have hurt me for so many years and probably smiled inside, but look who's smiling now."

At the sentencing hearing for the 47-year-old Schuster, the judge also rejected her attorney's motion for a new trial.

Prosecutors said Schuster and her former lab assistant, James Fagone, first immobilized Timothy Schuster with a stun gun and a chloroform-soaked rag. Then they bound his hands and feet, dumped his body headfirst into a barrel while he was still breathing and poured hydrochloric acid on him.

Fagone has already been sentenced to life in prison without parole for first-degree murder and burglary.