Jury Urges Death for Man Who Killed Wife

A Palmdale man convicted of stalking and fatally stabbing his estranged wife in 1999 shouted “Yes” Wednesday when a Los Angeles jury recommended he receive the death penalty.

Richard James Poynton, 50, repeatedly asked the Superior Court jury for the death penalty during his trial. He even told jurors he would kill himself if they did not recommend death.

But juror Mark Ramos said his outbursts in court did little to influence the jury’s decision.

“We all agreed it was a show he had planned for us,” Ramos said outside the courtroom. “That didn’t sway anybody in any way.

“Basically, we weren’t going to grant him his death, if that’s what he wanted, because we wanted to see all the evidence,” Ramos said.

Judge Tricia Ann Bigelow scheduled Poynton’s sentencing for April 9.

His lawyer, Franklin Peters, said the death penalty case would be appealed as required by state law, but Poynton wants to die.

“He said that from Day One,” Peters said. “He’s 50 years of age and feels he’s lived his life and has nothing else to live for. His children have been taken from him, and he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life in prison.”

Poynton was convicted last week of stalking and murdering his wife, Marie, on the Angeles Forest Highway in January 1999. He unsuccessfully tried to run her off a cliff on the highway, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Rhonda Saunders.

Marie Poynton got out of her car after Richard Poynton had forced her off the road, Saunders said, but she did not know at the time that the reckless driver was her estranged husband.

Holding a hunting knife and pellet gun, he approached his wife, yelled and began stabbing and cutting her, Saunders said.

The prosecutor said Poynton told police later: “I was just so full of rage.”

After the slaying, Poynton drove his wife’s car to Laughlin, Nev., authorities said. Before turning himself in to police, he spent some time gambling, Saunders said.

During the trial, the judge ordered Poynton removed from the courtroom after he yelled for the jury to give him the death penalty.

Later, he testified that “the murder of my wife was a premeditated act.” She had a restraining order against him.

“She just kept pushing the restraining order,” Poynton said of his wife. “She took my kids. I just, I, I killed her. There is nothing else I have to say.”

The jury deliberated less than two days.

Two of Marie Poynton’s sisters waited outside the courtroom Wednesday, thanking the jurors and shaking their hands.

“I feel great,” said Marie Poynton’s sister, Sarah Barra, 52. “He doesn’t have any remorse for what he did.”

The Poyntons’ sons, Richard Jr., 16, and Robert, 11, live with Barra. The boys have had no contact with their father for two years, Barra said.

She does not plan to tell them their father was sentenced to death.