Ex-Thousand Oaks Teacher Wins New Trial in Slaying of His Wife

Robert Hughes, the former Thousand Oaks teacher who has been twice convicted in Delaware of murdering his wife, has been granted a third trial by the Delaware Supreme Court.

The court ruled Monday that questioning of potential jurors by the judge in the second trial was inadequate to screen several persons who knew of Hughes’ first conviction and of a lie detector test Hughes had taken, said Hughes’ attorney, Gerald Street.

There was no discussion of either the first conviction or the lie-detector test during the second trial, Street said.

Possible Appeal

Delaware Atty. Gen. Charles M. Oberly III said Tuesday that Hughes would be prosecuted a third time in the August, 1976, murder of Serita Ann Hughes, 27. Oberly said, however, that the retrial could be delayed by an appeal of the Delaware court’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Oberly said he remained convinced that Hughes would be convicted a third time. “No court ruling has questioned the sufficiency of the evidence,” he said.

Hughes, now 37, a former teacher at Ascension Lutheran School in Thousand Oaks, has received the financial and moral support of fellow Lutherans and others nationwide.

At least $500,000 has been raised from Lutheran, Methodist and other congregations for Hughes’ defense and bail funds, according to Hughes’ mother, Florence Hughes of Thousand Oaks.

Hughes’ supporters organized rallies and other events when Hughes returned to Thousand Oaks in late 1981 after his first conviction was overturned by the Delaware Supreme Court, which cited misstatements made to the jury by prosecutors.

‘Feel Very Confident’

“We feel very confident and very ‘up’ at this point,” Florence Hughes said. “We have waited so long.”

Florence Hughes said her son would return to Thousand Oaks on bail, possibly by his March 11 birthday.

Street said Hughes took the news of the decision by a three-judge panel of the Delaware Supreme Court happily.

“He was very elated, very relieved,” Street said. “But you can also tell he’s one tired puppy.”

Hughes has spent nearly five years at the Delaware Correctional Center since his first conviction in 1980 and his second in 1982. Both resulted in life-without-parole sentences.

Street said that, in its latest ruling, the Delaware high court strongly recommended that questioning of prospective jurors be more thorough at the third trial and that the judge consider sequestering the jury, which was not done at either the first or second trial. Street said the judge in the second trial had only questioned potential jurors in a body for two hours before a panel was selected.

Trial Site Changed

The court also ordered the trial moved from Kent County to New Castle County, in the northern part of the state. Milford, Del., where the murder occurred, straddles Kent and Sussex counties, in the southern part of state.

Street said the third trial probably will not begin until late summer or early fall. He said the defense team “will certainly explore the possibility” of a plea bargain.

The Hughes case has been highly publicized in Delaware.

Hughes was arrested shortly after the body of his beaten and strangled wife was found outside the couple’s home in Milford. A grand jury refused to indict Hughes, ruling that there was not enough evidence.

Hughes and his two sons moved to Thousand Oaks in 1977, taking a middle-grades teaching job at the Ascension Lutheran School. In December, 1978, another Delaware grand jury indicted him on a charge of first-degree murder and he was arrested at the school.

$150,000 in Bail Money

His new Thousand Oaks friends, convinced that Hughes wasn’t capable of such a crime, raised $150,000 bail.

Hughes claimed that he put his sons to bed and then went to sleep himself the night before his wife’s body was found. Hughes said he awoke the next morning to find his wife’s body in the driveway of the home.

No motive was ever established for the murder, but accounts of the court proceedings attributed the two convictions to the prosecution’s success in discrediting Hughes’ explanation of of his actions and whereabouts on the night of the murder.