Jan. 27 Trial Set for Overton on Charges That He Poisoned His Wife With Cyanide

A Superior Court judge on Friday set a Jan. 27 trial date for Richard K. Overton, who has been charged with killing his wife with cyanide.

Overton, a 63-year-old part-time college professor, was indicted by a grand jury on Oct. 1 in the death of Janet Overton, a South County school official.

Last week, Overton pleaded not guilty to the charge and was released on $250,000 bail.

On Friday, more than half a dozen reporters and television news crews attended the brief hearing before Judge David O. Carter.

Overton, who was escorted from the courtroom and past the media by his attorney and a bailiff, declined to comment on the allegations against him.

According to recently released court affidavits, sheriff’s investigators believe that Overton poisoned his wife because she was having an extramarital affair and possibly to gain access to a $100,000 inheritance that she had received.

Janet Overton, 46, died on Jan. 24, 1988, as she prepared to go on a family outing. The Dana Point mother of one and stepmother to five others had been an active member of the Capistrano Unified School District board.

At first, the cause of her death was undetermined. Six months later, however, investigators received a tip that her death might have involved foul play. In December, 1989, the coroner officially ruled that cyanide was the cause of death.

Several startling allegations were made in the court affidavits unsealed this week. One was that Richard Overton’s first wife, Dorothy Boyer, alleged that Overton had tried to poison her shortly after their divorce in 1969 because he was upset over their separation.

Another was that Richard Overton apparently led a dual life in the late 1960s, using an assumed name to marry another woman while still being married to Boyer.

The investigation into Janet Overton’s death was one of the most extensive in recent history for the Sheriff’s Department. During the three-year inquiry, dozens of people were interviewed and several locations searched, including Overton’s house.

Investigators speculate that Overton tried to slowly poison his wife with selenium--a potentially toxic substance causing severe rashes and lesions on her body. But on the day of her death, they believe, Janet Overton was poisoned with cyanide, possibly slipped into her morning coffee, according to court affidavits.