Conviction Paves Way for Lancaster Girl’s Trial

A jury Monday convicted a drifter of murder, paving the way for the trial of a 16-year-old Lancaster girl charged in the same killing spree that left three members of an Arizona family dead two years ago.

Robert “Bobby” Poyson, 21, was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and burglary in the deaths of Robert Delahunt, 15, his mother, Leta Kagen, 39, and her boyfriend, Roland Wear, 50.

Lancaster resident Frank Anderson, 49, was convicted in January on charges of armed robbery, conspiracy to commit murder and three counts of first-degree murder. Superior Court Judge James Chavez is expected to sentence Anderson about a week after an April 16 pre-sentencing hearing, authorities said.

Both Poyson and Anderson could be sentenced to death.

Kimberly Lane of Lancaster, who was 15 at the time of the killings, is expected to go on trial in late April or May on the same charges. Lane cannot be executed because of her age, though she will be tried as an adult.

In August 1996, Wear and Kagen were found shot in the face in Kagen’s shabby trailer anchored on the outskirts of a remote desert community known as Golden Valley. Delahunt was found badly beaten with his throat cut and a knife protruding from his skull.

Anderson and Lane met when they both lived at the Lancaster mobile-home park he managed. According to the prosecution, they began a romantic relationship and Anderson convinced her he had Mafia ties in Illinois, where she could become a “Mafia goddaughter.”

According to testimony, Anderson and Lane left the park and Anderson’s invalid wife in July 1996 bound for Chicago, and got as far as Nevada, where they met Poyson, who was staying with the Kagens.

Lane allegedly lured the teenage Delahunt into a kissing session so he could be killed and she and the two men could steal Wear’s pickup truck.

After the killings, the trio drove to Illinois and then split up, according to testimony. Anderson was arrested Aug. 18 while driving Wear’s pickup truck. Lane and Poyson were arrested days later at a homeless shelter where they checked in as a married couple.

After her arrest, Lane gave birth to a child she said she believes was fathered by Anderson. The baby was given to her mother and stepfather, who live in Chino Valley, Ariz.

Hawkins is a correspondent who reported from Kingman. Vitucci is a staff writer.