Man Gets Death Penalty for Rape-Murder

A man who raped and strangled a Los Alamitos woman during a burglary 12 years ago should be executed for his crime, a jury concluded Thursday after spending two days of deliberations.

Robert Mark Edwards, 36, of Long Beach, let out a deep breath as the verdict was read while keeping his eyes on the jury. In the audience, some members of his family wept.

The jury of eight women and four men left the courtroom without making any public statements, but they told a group of attorneys who met with them afterward that they had looked at every piece of evidence and read every witness statement in reaching a decision, said prosecutor David Brent.

Edwards was arrested in 1993 and later convicted for a similar crime involving a 67-year-old woman in Hawaii. That murder led Orange County prosecutors to press charges against him for the 1986 slaying of Marjorie E. Deeble, a 55-year-old real estate agent whose daughter had dated the defendant.

In 1996, a jury convicted Edwards of murdering Deeble, but deadlocked in favor of the death penalty. The Orange County District Attorney’s office then decided to once again pursue the death penalty against Edwards, this time with a different jury.

Deputy Public Defender Tim Severin, one of two attorneys representing Edwards, argued that Edwards had been remorseful and tried to recover from a drug and alcohol addiction that drove him to commit the crimes.

Dozens of witnesses testified on behalf of Edwards, some telling jurors that while in jail, the man had helped them overcome their own addiction problems. The defense showed photos of Edwards, from his boyhood to fatherhood. Edwards has a 13-year-old son, and has kept in close contact with him despite being in jail, Severin said.

“Edwards is a very special person in a lot of ways. He has touched a lot of people,” Severin said. “We were hopeful that the jury would see that. . . . We had hoped they would put more weight on the factors of mitigation.”

Both Deeble and the Hawaiian woman, Muriel E. Delbecq, were beaten and mutilated before they were strangled, and both had been sexually assaulted with cans of hairstyling mousse, prosecutors said. Bloody handprints and footprints and other evidence helped Hawaii authorities convict Edwards, who had lived nearby. Edwards was sentenced to six consecutive life terms for his conviction in Hawaii.

The Hawaii murder was similar to the California crime, and authorities brought him back to Orange County for trial. Because the crime involved burglary, he was eligible for the death penalty.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 17 by Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan.

Times correspondent Hope Hamashige also contributed to this report.