Pohlmeier Is Guilty, Jury Says

After deliberating less than two days, a Ventura County jury found 92-year-old Alfred Pohlmeier guilty of second-degree murder Wednesday for strangling his elderly wife to death to silence her nagging cough.

Pohlmeier, the oldest defendant in county history, showed no expression as the verdict was read aloud in Superior Court.

After the jury left the courtroom, he turned in his wheelchair and waved to his adult children seated in the back row before being led back to a holding cell. The small gesture drew tears from Pohlmeier’s two daughters, who testified about their father’s gentle nature during the two-week murder trial.

Outside the courtroom, family members and Pohlmeier’s defense attorney, Susan Olson, declined to discuss the verdict, which carries a mandatory sentence of 15 years to life in prison.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn said he was pleased with the verdict, even though he had pushed for a first-degree murder conviction.

“This [case] obviously had an overwhelming sympathy factor with a 92-year-old man,” Glynn told reporters outside the courtroom. “I can understand why they would reject first-degree murder.”

The retired Fillmore postal worker admitted to authorities that he strangled his wife of 62 years on the morning of Sept. 13, 1995, to quiet her incessant coughing.

In two tape-recorded Sheriff’s Department interviews played for the jury, Pohlmeier explained that his wife’s “hacking” had kept him awake for months.

Prosecutors sought a first-degree murder conviction, arguing that the slaying of 86-year-old Lidwina Pohlmeier was premeditated. Glynn pointed to admissions Alfred Pohlmeier made during interviews with authorities four hours after the killing.

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“I just about went nuts,” he told a sheriff’s detective, according to court testimony. “I just decided I was going to strangle her and that was it.”

In an earlier conversation with his son, which was also taped by the Sheriff’s Department, Pohlmeier said he had been thinking about killing his wife for “a couple of days.”

But Deputy Public Defender Susan Olson urged the jury to return a lesser verdict of voluntary manslaughter on the grounds that her client “snapped,” choking his wife to death in a moment of desperation to end her misery.

“This was not a murder,” Olson said in her opening statement. “This was a misguided act of love.”

If Pohlmeier had really intended to kill his wife, Olson added, he would not have strangled her in such a rash and violent manner.

The jury’s decision landed in between the verdicts sought by each side, but Glynn said he did not consider their decision to be a compromise vote.

The verdict virtually guarantees that Pohlmeier will spend the rest of his life in custody. But whether he is incarcerated in a state prison or mental hospital remains a question.

Pohlmeier pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. A separate phase of the trial must now be held to determine whether he was temporarily insane when he strangled his wife.

“The test is, does he know right from wrong?” Glynn explained.

The jury was ordered to return on March 10 for what is expected to be a weeklong sanity phase. The panel was admonished by Superior Court Judge Allan L. Steele not to discuss the case until the second phase concludes.

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Attorneys plan to call various experts to the witness stand, including psychologists and a neurologist to testify about Pohlmeier’s state of mind at the time of the killing.

The 12-member jury returned about 2 p.m. Wednesday, silently walking into court, looking sullen and uncomfortable. Earlier in the deliberations, they asked questions about the definitions of premeditation and malice.

The second-degree verdict indicates they believe the killing was done with malice, but not premeditation.

As they took their regular seats in the jury box, some stared at the sprinkling of spectators seated in the gallery and others shot quick glances at the white-haired defendant seated in his wheelchair.

The verdict forms were quickly passed to the court clerk, who read the panel’s first finding--not guilty of first-degree murder. Then the clerk read the final verdict--guilty of second-degree murder.

The jury also found true a special allegation that Pohlmeier inflicted great bodily injury on his wife when he strangled her for more than five minutes with his bare hands in the bedroom of their mobile home.

The jury’s decision may finally bring closure to a painfully public case that has haunted Pohlmeier’s five adult children, several of whom attended the two-week trial and testified for the defense.

The case took 17 months to reach a courtroom, delayed first when Pohlmeier was hospitalized after falling in his cell, and later by scheduling conflicts.

During that time, he has lived in a medical ward of the County Jail and been watched over by a full-time nurse. His specialized care has cost the county about $8,000 a month.