A 73-year-old Southwest Baltimore man was sentenced yesterday to 30 years in prison for the fatal shooting last year of his estranged wife.

Baltimore Circuit Judge John C. Themelis also sentenced James Hunter of the first block of S. Monastery Ave. to a consecutive 20-year term for the use of a handgun in the commission of a violent crime.

Last month, a Circuit Court jury found Hunter guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting of his wife, Verna Hunter, 65, who died two days after being shot twice in the face and once in the buttocks at the couple's home.

Hunter -- who was under a court order to stay away from his wife -- said he returned to the house June 9, 1997, to retrieve clothes. He said he shot her in self-defense after they got into an argument.

She died two days later at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Pub Date: 7/25/98