Overton Thought Coffee Spiking Was ‘Neat Joke’ in 1973 : Trial: Murder defendant testifies he tampered with first wife’s beverage. He’s charged with fatally poisoning his third wife.

Richard K. Overton, on trial for fatally poisoning his wife, testified Wednesday that he thought secretly spiking a previous wife’s coffee with old prescription drugs was “a neat joke” at the time.

The 64-year-old computer consultant’s comments came during the second day of an intense cross-examination by the prosecutor, who tried to show that Overton had a pattern of poisoning women he hated.

Appearing tired and somewhat annoyed by the lengthy examination, Overton, who is charged with first-degree murder, admitted that he had a “love-hate” relationship with his third wife, Janet L. Overton of Dana Point, but repeatedly insisted that he did not give her a lethal dose of cyanide Jan. 24, 1988.

Overton, however, elaborated on earlier testimony about an alleged poisoning involving his first wife, Dorothy Boyer, which occurred nearly 20 years ago. He acknowledged “adulterating” her coffee with prescription drugs because he was upset at the way she treated their daughters after their divorce. In particular, Overton said, he was bothered that Boyer ignored the complaints of one daughter who said she had stomach pains.

The Dana Point man told the Superior Court jury that he thought putting the drugs in her coffee “might be a neat joke of the type (Boyer) had pulled” on others.

After that statement, Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher J. Evans bore into Overton, asking him if he thought Boyer would think it was “funny.”

“No,” Overton replied. He explained that it would be “neat in the sense that it would give her a taste of her own medicine.”

“Did you smile to yourself and think, ‘Oh this is going to be good’?” Evans asked.

“No,” responded a frustrated Overton.

He later said the adulteration was an “impulsive” act, and that he “had some misgivings all through this stupid thing.”

But, he added: “I didn’t think of it as a crime, I considered it more a prank.”

Earlier in the trial, Boyer testified that she frequently became “violently ill” in 1973 after drinking coffee, tea and wine at her Capistrano Beach house. She said symptoms included painful rashes, sores and lesions. She said she suspected that her ex-husband was sneaking into her house and tampering with her beverages.

Boyer’s suspicions were confirmed that same year by a sheriff’s investigator who found Overton’s fingerprints on a coffee canister. The investigator, who also testified during the trial, said Overton initially denied the tampering, but later confessed that he put prescription drugs in the coffee and Drano in her shampoo because he was angry over losing his dream house during the divorce. Overton denied that he put Drano in the shampoo.

Overton testified Wednesday that he was not as upset about the house as he was at “losing the children” in the divorce. He said he had “matured” since that incident with Boyer and insisted that he “did nothing faintly resembling that with Jan (Overton).”

But Evans disputed that.

The prosecutor contends that Overton chronically poisoned Janet Overton, 46, with selenium or some other toxic metal, much the same way he did Boyer, before killing Jan Overton with cyanide. But instead of being angry about a house, Evans maintains, Overton was furious over repeated sexual affairs his wife had during the course of their 19-year marriage.

“Weren’t you punishing Jan for her affairs?” Evans asked.

“That’s a malicious lie,” Overton shot back.

In other testimony, Overton said that in the year after his wife’s death, he considered “the possibility of a reconciliation” with Boyer. He said he thought of remarrying her because he believed that she “had mellowed a lot” since their divorce in 1969. He added that she had been “extremely sympathetic” to him after Janet Overton’s death.

Boyer, however, testified earlier that she was not interested.