Man Who Killed Fullerton Couple Sentenced to Die

An El Monte man was sentenced Friday to die in the gas chamber for the “unbelievably vicious” robbery and slaying of an elderly Fullerton couple who had befriended him.

Richard Delmer Boyer, 34, showed little emotion as Santa Ana Superior Court Judge Donald A. McCartin refused to grant him leniency. Boyer was convicted in June for the Dec. 7, 1982, stabbings of Aileen Harbitz, 68, and her 67-year-old husband, Francis.

“It’s difficult for the court to imagine a more heinous type of crime,” McCartin said. “The thing that troubles me, Mr. Boyer, is that these people were friends. They lent you money. You took advantage of this friendship. They were elderly, vulnerable.”

Boyer said he was high on PCP and cocaine when he decided to rob the Harbitzes for drug money. While at the Harbitz home, Boyer said he hallucinated that he was being attacked by a character from the movie “Halloween II,” and killed the couple in a drug-induced frenzy. Boyer stole about $50 in cash.

During the sentencing hearing Friday, defense attorney James G. Merwin asked McCartin to grant a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Merwin, who also asked for a new trial, said Boyer was a changed man who had begun dabbling in art and writing poetry.

“He’s not just someone who sits around and occupies jail space,” Merwin said. “He spends his time writing poetry and doing art, which he sends to friends or trades with inmates. . . . I think Robert is someone whose life ought to be spared.”

McCartin refused the defense requests, saying the crime was “unbelievably vicious” because the victims were repeatedly stabbed and there were signs of a bloody struggle.

Boyer knew the Harbitz couple through his acquaintance with their son. The couple also hired him to do gardening and other chores, and believed Boyer to be a friend, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles J. Middleton.

“When he went there that night, they offered him dinner,” Middleton said, adding that the couple lent Boyer money on occasion.

Boyer was tried three times in the double murders. A 1984 trial ended in a hung jury. A second trial, which resulted in a death sentence for Boyer, was later overturned on appeal in 1989. The third jury recommended the death penalty in August.

Boyer becomes the 346th inmate on California’s Death Row, and the 25th Death Row inmate sentenced in Orange County, said Christine May, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections. Under state law, Boyer’s sentence will be automatically appealed, Middleton said.

During the most recent trial, prosecutors introduced evidence suggesting that Boyer may have killed another elderly Fullerton resident, John Houston Compton, 75, although he was not charged in that slaying.

Boyer suffered neglect and sexual abuse as a young child, but was later adopted by a woman who provided an outstanding home for him, McCartin said during the hearing.

But the judge said circumstances that might warrant leniency, such as Boyer’s drug use or his home life, did not outweigh the seriousness of the crime.

The prosecutor said he did not believe that Boyer has reformed since his incarceration. Boyer told investigators recently that he did not get a fair trial, because bikers, prostitutes and dope fiends--his “peers”--were not present on the jury, Middleton said.

Boyer also told investigators that “he’d rather die than be sentenced to life in prison so he wouldn’t have to put up with the (expletive) of everyday life,” Middleton said.