New Jury to Decide Fate of Killer
Prosecutors will once again try to convince a jury that Robert Mark Edwards is a sadist who should be executed for raping and strangling a Los Alamitos woman to death 11 years ago.
On Friday, the Orange County district attorney’s office scheduled a new penalty phase in the case that ended in a mistrial last November after a jury deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of execution.
Edwards, 35, of Long Beach, was portrayed by the prosecution as a sadist who relished torturing his victims and watching them die. He had already been convicted of killing a 67-year-old woman in Hawaii when he stood trial for murdering Marjorie E. Deeble.
Deeble was found strangled with her own belt, rigged to a dresser, in May 1986. Edwards was investigated but not charged with the crime until after the January 1993 slaying of Muriel E. Delbecq who lived near the defendant on Maui.
But Edwards’ defense team had portrayed him as a warm and giving person with a dark side that is only released when he is under “extreme domination of alcohol.”
Jury selection for the penalty phase is scheduled to begin in November.
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