Man, 94, Who Strangled Wife Released From Custody

A 94-year-old Fillmore man who “snapped” and strangled his 86-year-old wife four years ago was released from custody Thursday after a Ventura County judge found that he had regained his sanity and no longer posed a threat to the public.

In a hearing that lasted a matter of minutes, Superior Court Judge Steven Hintz accepted the findings of medical examiners who said that Alfred Pohlmeier could safely be released into the community.

“He never was dangerous to society,” Deputy Public Defender Susan Olson said after the hearing. “He was suffering from a temporary insanity . . . and when he was removed from his stresses, it was clear he would be released.”

A jury two years ago found Pohlmeier guilty of second-degree murder for choking his wife, Lidwina, to death in their Fillmore mobile home in September, 1995.

But the jury also determined that the former postal worker was legally insane at the time of the killing. According to court testimony, Lidwina Pohlmeier suffered from a number of ailments that grew to irritate Alfred Pohlmeier and he “snapped,” Olson said.

Because of the insanity finding, Pohlmeier avoided criminal punishment, but he was committed to a state mental hospital for evaluation.

He was transferred to a supervised outpatient facility about a year later, and with the support of family members, recently applied for a release from custody.

In court Thursday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathleen O’Brien did not oppose Pohlmeier’s motion for release. The position of the district attorney’s office, O’Brien said after the hearing, was that Pohlmeier was sane at the time he killed his wife of 62 years.

“For us to now oppose the defense’s motion that his sanity had been restored would be inconsistent with our original position that he was sane all along,” O’Brien said.

Laurie Levenson, associate dean of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said the prosecution was caught in a Catch-22. “Clearly, it would be really frustrating for them,” she said.

Levenson attributed Pohlmeier’s release to his age.

“Ordinarily, we would be super-cautious about releasing him into society,” Levenson said. “But if the medical personnel found he wasn’t a threat to society, the court would just defer to them.”

Neither Pohlmeier nor family members attended the hearing. His adult children, some of whom live locally, refused to comment on their father’s release.

Olson said the family had not yet decided whether to remove Pohlmeier, who turns 95 next month, from the facility where he currently lives.