Legal Maneuvering Delays Murder Trial

Strategic defense maneuvers have delayed the beginning of the long-awaited murder trial of Richard K. Overton, the part-time college professor and computer consultant accused of slipping his wife a lethal dose of cyanide.

Last week, a mini-trial of sorts took place in Department 44 of Orange County Superior Court to determine whether key prosecution evidence will be allowed to be presented to the jury in Overton’s trial.

The legal debate over defense motions is expected to continue this week, and a jury may not be picked for several weeks, attorneys said.

The most important pretrial motion so far has been the defense’s attempt to suppress evidence alleging that Overton, 63, not only murdered his wife with cyanide but also tried to chronically poison her with another substance over several years, as prosecutors contend he did to a previous wife.

Janet L. Overton, 46, a trustee of the Capistrano Unified School District, died Jan. 24, 1988, while preparing to go on a family outing. Before her death, she suffered mysterious sores, rashes and lesions. Prosecutors allege that the ailments resulted from chronic poisoning administered by her husband before he administered a fatal dose of cyanide.

Defense attorney Robert D. Chatterton is trying to suppress potentially volatile testimony from Dorothy Boyer, Richard Overton’s first wife, who alleges that she was poisoned by the defendant in the early 1970s and suffered illnesses similar to Janet Overton’s.

Boyer testified last week that her ex-husband poisoned her beverages with selenium--a toxic metal--shortly after their divorce because he was angry with her.

She filed a complaint, which was investigated by a Sheriff’s Department detective who verified that a milk sample she brought in contained selenium.

Richard Overton, when confronted by the sheriff’s investigator in 1973, admitted that he sneaked into his ex-wife’s house and put prescription drugs and Drano in her coffee and milk, according to court documents. He was never prosecuted on the charge at Boyer’s request, prosecutors have said.

Chatterton has argued that Boyer’s poisoning allegation is not true, adding that it is also highly prejudicial and unrelated to Janet Overton’s death.

It was Boyer who, six months after Janet Overton’s death, called investigators and helped them focus on Richard Overton as a suspect.

Coroner’s investigators, who still had not determined the cause of death, retested body samples and discovered that Janet Overton had indeed been poisoned with cyanide.

Chatterton has questioned Boyer’s credibility as a witness, noting that she went to court and sought back child and spousal support of $100,000 after she called authorities.

In another motion, Chatterton is attempting to quash parts of an interview between Richard Overton and investigators, which took place before his client’s arrest last October.

In particular, the defense is seeking to exclude references to the fact that Richard Overton was a bigamist.

Orange County Superior Court Judge David O. Carter has not yet ruled on any of the motions, except one reducing Richard Overton’s bail from $250,000 to $150,000.