Killer of Retired Officer Is Sentenced to Death
An Orange County Superior Court judge sentenced Bill Charles Poynor to death for murdering and robbing a retired Fullerton police officer who was working as an ATM repairman, a court clerk said Wednesday.
Poynor, 53, in August was convicted of fatally shooting Robert T. Walsh and then setting his body ablaze in a car at an Orange strip mall. Prosecutor Lew Rosenblum said Walsh had been on a service route in April 1995 when he was robbed of $13,000 and then killed.
A jury recommended the death penalty for Poynor. Judge Francisco P. Briseno rejected defense claims that jury misconduct tainted the outcome and on Tuesday upheld the jury’s recommendation and ordered that Poynor be executed.
Poynor, who insisted he was not the killer, was also sentenced to more than 178 years in prison for other offenses that included six armed robberies, the court clerk said.
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