Jury Misconduct Alleged; Sentencing Delayed
The sentencing of a man convicted of murdering a Wells Fargo Bank employee was postponed Thursday because of evidence of jury misconduct.
The misconduct apparently involved “three or four instances in which things were said in the jury room,” prosecutor Lew Rosenblum said during Thursday’s court hearing.
Bill Charles Poynor, 52, was convicted in August of killing Robert T. Walsh during a robbery. Walsh, a 59-year-old former Fullerton police officer, had collected $13,000 on his rounds servicing automated teller machines when he disappeared on April 14, 1995. Firefighters found his body two days later in a burning car in Orange.
A jury recommended the death penalty.
On Thursday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco P. Briseno ordered defense attorneys, who will seek a new trial, to turn over any transcripts, notes or taped interviews with a juror who allegedly witnessed the misconduct.
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