With no eyewitnesses and no confession, prosecutors built a circumstantial case.
Investigators say the murder weapon was a .25-caliber automatic pistol they found in a blue bag in an abandoned house that belonged to Mrs. Newton's parents. The blue dress Newton wore that night was found to have possible gunpowder residue on it.
Three weeks before the deaths, she had taken out 50-thousand-dollar life insurance policies on herself, her husband and her daughter -- with herself as beneficiary. A day before her arrest, she applied for the death benefits. Prosecutors say the insurance money was her motive.
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