Jury Agrees on Execution for Convicted Killer

SANTA ANA — It took a jury only a day to decide that Bill Charles Poynor deserved to be executed for murdering a Wells Fargo Bank employee who was servicing an automated teller machine in 1995.

The decision handed up Thursday in Orange County Superior Court ended a two-month jury trial in which Poynor was convicted of killing former Fullerton Police Officer Robert T. Walsh.

Walsh, 59, had collected $13,000 on his rounds servicing ATMs when he disappeared April 14, 1995. Firefighters found his body two days later inside a burning car.

In closing arguments on Wednesday, defense attorney Robert Goss reminded the jury that there was no physical evidence linking Poynor to Walsh’s murder.

He added that descriptions by witnesses who saw a man throw an incendiary device into the car did not match Poynor, and that neither eyewitness got a close look at the man they described.

Defense attorneys never denied Poynor’s lengthy criminal history. They admitted he robbed banks, liquor stores and flower shops. But he never murdered, they said.

And when Poynor was sentenced to death, defense attorney Linda Van Winkle left the courtroom in tears.

“They convicted an innocent man,” she said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis Rosenblum argued that Poynor had shown he was capable of murder. He reminded jurors that Poynor carried a gun when he committed crimes and had threatened to use it on several occasions.

“He put guns to people’s heads, and these people didn’t know if they were going to live or die,” he said. “That is an implied threat.”

On Thursday, Rosenblum said he was pleased with the jury’s decision.

“He has 20 felony convictions,” he said. “He is deserving of this type of sentence.”

Several jurors left the courtroom on the verge of tears.

“I think it’s hard for anybody to pass out a death penalty to another human being,” said juror Kirby Martineau, 52, of Orange.

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Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Thao Hua.