Death Penalty Recommended for Fullerton Couple’s Killer : Court: Jury was unswayed by man’s claim of suffering drug-induced hallucination at time of 1982 stabbings.

A Superior Court jury recommended the death penalty Monday for Richard Delmer Boyer, who claimed that he killed a friend’s parents because a drug-induced hallucination made him think he was a character in a horror movie.

Sentencing for the 34-year-old El Monte man, who displayed no emotion when the verdict was read, was set for Sept. 11. The sentence will be automatically appealed.

Boyer was tried a total of three times on charges that he stabbed to death Aileen Harbitz, 68, and her 67-year-old husband, Francis, at their Fullerton home in 1982. A 1984 trial ended in a hung jury; the results of a second trial, during which he was convicted and sentenced to death, were overturned on appeal in 1989. Last month, Boyer was convicted again.

After his arrest, Boyer told police that he had been taking PCP and cocaine when he decided to get more money for drugs by robbing the Harbitzes, the parents of one of his friends, who had invited him into their home. While in the house, Boyer said, he suddenly thought he was a character under attack in the movie “Halloween II.” Boyer said he stabbed the couple numerous times and fled with their wallets, which contained about $50.

During the penalty phase of the trial, Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles J. Middleton introduced evidence suggesting that Boyer had killed another elderly Fullerton resident--a killing for which he was never charged. Middleton claimed that Boyer killed 75-year-old John Houston Compton, whose body was found in a clump of bushes near a Fullerton College bookstore in 1980.

Middleton said he was both pleased and relieved by the verdict. He said he had become somewhat concerned when the jury’s deliberations, including some half days, stretched over a week.

“Obviously, they took a long time analyzing all of the facts, and especially going through the Compton case,” he said.

Boyer’s attorney, James G. Merwin, said he was “obviously disappointed” by the jury’s recommendation.

“Richard all along has expressed to me the view that there’s no difference between (life without parole and death) as far as he’s concerned,” Merwin said, “so he’s probably less disappointed than I am. . . . They’re both a form of death. One is lingering death, and one is more immediate. . . . I know he was expecting it.”

Juror Jerry Pommerenck, 45, of La Habra said the “savage” nature of the crime overcame any mitigating factors when he had to decide between the death penalty and life without parole. Another juror, Janice Stopher of Santa Ana, said that “the brutality of the crime” prompted her to vote for death.

Because Judge Donald A. McCartin, who heard the case, was on vacation, the verdict was taken by Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald.