Jury Excused After Yearlong Recess

Jurors in the long-recessed murder trial of Richard K. Overton said Tuesday they were disappointed that a mistrial forced them off a case that had intrigued them with allegations of marital infidelity and vengeful poisonings.

“It was like watching a movie, only it was real. I really wanted to sit through the rest of it,” juror Frank Richards of Placentia said.

On Tuesday, Orange County Superior Court Judge David O. Carter excused jurors because a state appeals court on Aug. 2 ordered a mistrial.

The trial had been recessed for more than a year because Overton’s attorney suffered severe depression requiring in-patient treatment in a hospital psychiatric ward. The delay and the attorney’s medical condition prompted the mistrial.

Overton, 65, is charged in the Jan. 24, 1988, cyanide poisoning death of his wife, Janet, a popular trustee of the Capistrano Unified School District, because he was said to have been upset over her alleged extramarital affairs.

During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Overton spied on his wife and documented his hatred of her in computer files and journal entries. Other apparently damaging evidence came from Overton, who admitted on the witness stand just before the case recessed that he spiked a previous wife’s coffee with prescription drugs.