San Diego

A 61-year-old woman who shot her husband to death was sentenced to six years in state prison in what the prosecutor called a case of “battered-husband syndrome.”

Probation was denied Thursday for Lisa Herrmann, who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter Aug. 19 in the April 2 death of her husband of 40 years, Hubert Herrmann, 61.

Herrmann, a retired language instructor at San Diego State University, was shot with a rifle, apparently while he slept in the couple’s Paradise Hills home.

Lisa Herrmann’s attorney, Richard Boesen, told San Diego Superior Court Judge Frederic A. Link that her husband had abused her in the past and had beaten her the night of the shooting.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Victor Nunez responded: “It’s not a battered-woman case. It’s more of a battered-husband syndrome.”

Nunez told the judge that police responded in 1987 and 1989 after Hubert Herrmann received injuries from his wife, but that the husband did not want to press charges.

Link read a court document that said Herrmann “was awakened by his wife hitting him in the head with a coffee pot” in 1987. He was reportedly beaten with a cutting board in 1989.

Boesen urged the judge to impose no more than a six-year term. Nunez asked for 10 years.