Widow of Slain Fire Captain Faces Capital Murder Trial
The widow of University Park Fire Department captain Robert Louis Poynter III has been re-indicted, this time for capital murder.
(ABOVE – LEFT: Robert Poynter. MIDDLE: Michael Garza. RIGHT: Chacey Poynter. Courtesy photos)
The Herald-Banner in Greenville reported that prosecutors obtained new evidence against Chacey Tyler Poynter in the 2016 shooting death of her husband.
The Royse City woman was already facing a murder count in the case. The new indictment claims Chacey Poynter and Michael Glen Garza killed the firefighter for his money.
“The State re-presented the case to the grand jury with the additional evidence, and the defendant has been indicted for the offense of capital murder for remuneration which is for financial gain or benefit,” Hunt County District Attorney Noble D. Walker Jr. said.
The capital murder indictment was issued sealed in late April 26 and made public during a hearing in May.
Walker waived the death penalty in the case, so the defendant faces a sentence of life in prison without parole if convicted. He told the Herald-Banner he hopes to still go to trial on June 17.
Prosecutors have claimed Chacey Poynter and Garza were having an affair and worked together to shoot and kill Robert Poynter on Sept. 9, 2016, in Royse City.
Garza, of Quinlan, was found guilty of murder in July 2018 and sentenced to 99 years in prison. An appeal of his conviction is pending.
A 2016 Park Cities People report recounts how Royce City police received a 10:40 p.m. call regarding a woman attempting to stop vehicles near the intersection of FM 35 and Hunt Count Road 2595. When officers arrived, they found Chacey Poynter, who told them that her husband had been shot. Investigators found him dead in a vehicle a short time later.
According to a release from Royce City PD, the widow provided suspicious and conflicting information. They arrested Garza two days later after finding a link to a photo from his Facebook page on her cell phone.
Poynter, 32, remains in the Hunt County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.
Captain Poynter joined the University Park in 1997. He was promoted to lieutenant in April 2002, and captain in May 2012. He was also named the 2003 UP Firefighter of the Year.
