GUILTY CA - Gretchen DeStefano, 96, fatally shot, Rossmoor, 28 Aug 2014

Family members and neighbors told KTLA that the mother and daughter, identified by authorities as 71-year-old Christine Reynolds, had a contentious relationship.

Reynolds was detained at the scene.

She was described as being frantic and yelling when deputies arrived, according to neighbor June Schaar. “She was very combative and they were trying to get her to calm down and get her into the back seat,” Schaar said.

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The Rossmoor woman allegedly shot and killed by her daughter Thursday is being remembered as a devoted mother, one of the original Disney “Ink and Paint girls”...

Gretchen DeStefano, 96, had a traditional and strong Catholic upbringing, and when she married Mark DeStafano, she gave up her job as a colorist for Disney to raise a family, said a long-time family friend who did not want to be identified.

She said DeStefano, born Gretchen Caspary on Dec. 28, 1917, to Jacob and Marie Caspary in Los Angeles according to records, was an elegant and strong woman who, much like the women of the Golden Age of Hollywood, was always perfectly coiffed and impeccably dressed.

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An Orange County Superior Court jury deliberated for less than a day before finding 72-year-old Christine Reynolds guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a firearm in the 2014 slaying of Gretchen DeStefano...

The killing marked the culmination of years worth of resentment and anger Reynold’s apparently held toward her mother... After years of struggling with alcoholism, Reynolds moved in with her mother and brother about a year before the killing. Family members told authorities that the two women bickered constantly, with Reynolds often fixating on age-old family grudges...

Donahue opted to order Reynolds to return to court on Dec. 18 to give the probation department time to put a pre-sentencing report together. Reynolds faces a maximum sentence of 50 years to life in prison.

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A 72-year-old woman who gunned down her 96-year-old mother in their Rossmoor home was sentenced Friday to 50 years to life in prison.

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