Man gets life for 1984 murder in Torrance

A man convicted last month in the nearly 23-year-old stabbing death of a woman in Torrance was sentenced Friday to life without the possibility of parole by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark S. Arnold.

William Charles Marshall, 46, sat expressionless in a Torrance courtroom throughout tearful statements from members of his victim’s family.

Robin Lucille Hoynes, 21, of Whittier was found dead on the morning of Oct. 31, 1984, by a co-worker at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant where she was an assistant manager. She had been stabbed in the back -- her throat slashed -- after closing the restaurant the night before.

Marshall, who had been fired from the restaurant days before, was considered a suspect almost immediately. Police arrested him 12 days after the homicide, but prosecutors at the time declined to file charges.

The investigation was reopened four years ago by Torrance Police Department detectives assigned to take a fresh look at cold cases.

This time, detectives were able to tie a piece of foam found at the crime scene to a pair of Marshall’s boots seized at the time of his arrest and kept in evidence. In addition, an alibi witness at the time of the initial arrest, a former girlfriend, recanted and testified in court that Marshall had shared details of the crime with her.

Torrance investigators rearrested Marshall, a captain for the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in the Coachella Valley community of Thousand Palms, at his firehouse in September 2006. Prosecutors argued during the trial that he went to the restaurant after closing, intent on breaking into the safe and murdering whoever was still there.

A jury found him guilty late last month after four weeks of testimony. Marshall did not speak at his sentencing. His attorney, Simon M. Aval, filed an appeal with the court Friday. After the proceedings, the lawyer said his client maintains his innocence.

“We disagree with the interpretation of the facts,” Aval said.

In court, with Marshall showing no reaction, Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lewin spoke directly to him.

“What gets me,” the prosecutor said, staring as Marshall looked away, “what’s difficult to take, is that you can commit such a heinous crime and have it make no impact on you.”

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megan.garvey@latimes.com