Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 15 - Poynter - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: A remote dirt track, a desperate 9-1-1 call. [sobbing] NARRATOR: A killer waiting in the darkness.
I think when she had him change the life insurance to make her the primary 100% beneficiary,
his days were numbered at that point. NARRATOR: The victim, Fire Captain Robert Poynter.
But who would want to murder a heroic first responder and father of three daughters?
Could it be his wife? I got a phone call from my battalion chief. And he just said, hey, I just need to let
you know man that Bob's dead. And my first reaction in my head was she killed him, didn't she?
NARRATOR: If so, what was her motive? If I could sum this case up in one sentence,
I would say this was a case about sex, lies, money, and murder. CHACEY POYNTER: We've been having problems.
We-- I was coming to meet him at the Jack-in-the-Box so we could talk. NARRATOR: Had the problems Chacey Poynter
was referring to at the roadside motivated her to kill her husband, Bob Poynter?
[music playing] NARRATOR: Captain Bob Poynter was a true hero. A much loved family man too.
One admired by his colleagues. A gentle giant. He was, I would say, a true firefighters' firefighter.
I mean, he loved doing that. He was always calm he was never get worked up. He has never raise his voice.
And so he just knew exactly what he was doing at all times. NARRATOR: Stories of his quiet heroism
abound in his hometown of Royce City Texas. It was a six-alarm fire, the biggest
fire in our city's history. And there was a little girl. I don't know how old she was--
five or six-- a little blonde-headed girl. And she was scared, and she was crying.
And Bob noticed. And there's a picture of him, he's sweating, he's hot, and he's bending down.
And he's hugging the little girl who he didn't even know just letting her know, hey, we're fine.
Everybody's OK. We're safe. And that's who he was. NARRATOR: Robert Poynter, or Bob as he was known,
met his first wife, Amy, at high school. Bob's just, you know, a good guy. He married his childhood sweetheart, Amy.
The childhood lovers were married in the late '80s and were together for 20 years, having two
daughters, Nicole and Natalie. Man, he loved his girls. He would literally work his fingers
to the bone for those girls. He would take every opportunity he could to work extra jobs,
to work extra hours, to work overtime, to do whatever he could to earn money. And that money was always for his girls.
NARRATOR: By 2008, the marriage was in trouble. Daughter Nicole discovered that her father
was having an affair when she found a secret cell phone. Nicole tells mom that dad's having an affair
with this other woman. NARRATOR: Bob Poynter began dating Chacey Tyler Mormon in December 2007.
She was much younger-- not a lot older than his daughters, in fact. Chacey Tyler Mormon is a 20-year-old nurse's aide,
and she's a flirt. She's been hanging around Bob's fire station, checks to see when Bob is going to be there,
make sure that he sees her. And little by little, she worms her way into his life.
She was younger. And she told him things he wanted to hear. And so, I think, she knew exactly what she was doing.
She was the one that pursued him, and she really, really pushed it. Unfortunately, Bob, he just he took it all in.
To me the big thing about this case is what a manipulative person Chacey Poynter was.
I've never seen anything like it. NARRATOR: Brian Frederick is a criminologist who's studied
the Chacey Poynter story. He believes that Chacey regarded Bob as a challenge. So once Chacey Poynter set her sights on him,
all bets were off. The fact that he was married and maybe unavailable was sort of a game for her.
And if she could get him away from his wife, that would be a true test of her ability to have
some sort of control over him. NARRATOR: Chacey did get control over him, enough
to get Bob to divorce his wife. And by May 2009, Chacey was pregnant with Bob's child.
Their marriage soon followed. December 2009, Chacey and Bob get married. They've been seeing each other now for two years.
And now, they have a little child together. NARRATOR: This rapid escalation in the intensity
of their relationship is one that analysts know can lead to difficulties later on.
Chacey and Robert didn't have the most ideal start to their relationship. They started off as an affair.
She got pregnant very quickly. And I think that really locked down the relationship much faster than maybe both of them
were intending. So what started out as a fun fleeing, really turned into a huge responsibility
on both their parts. NARRATOR: Bob Poynter's new young wife proved to be a drain
on the family finances too. She was a very manipulative person. A very materialistic person.
I mean, when you looked at her text messages with Robert, it was one big purchase or vacation to the next.
That's how she seemed to live. What's my next big purchase? What's my next vacation?
That's kind of how she lives. NARRATOR: Manipulative and materialistic. And Bob soon discovered there was
more to be concerned about in Chacey Tyler Poynter's character. One that didn't bode well for the future.
She had real bad mood swings. She would come, sometimes she would be smiling, and then, the next thing you know,
they would be in the office and soon, she'd be screaming at him. NARRATOR: Bob Poynter's first marriage had lasted 20 years.
His second marriage was on the rocks almost from the start. Just how dangerous was the moody manipulator, Chacey Poynter.
There was a loud shot. I went on my phone in my back pocket, and I called. I called.
I-- I just-- I ran. I didn't know what else to do. NARRATOR: When Bob Poynter married his much younger
second wife, Chacey, he first got her to sign a prenuptial agreement. Did he already have suspicions about her character?
It gives you the indication that perhaps Robert didn't fully trust Chacey. After all, he didn't really know her very well at the time
that they were getting married. And perhaps, he just wanted to safeguard his assets
in case she wasn't very sincere about her actual love for him. NARRATOR: One of the effects of the prenup
was that Chacey would not be entitled to Bob's money if they ever divorced. Instead, it would be split between Bob's three daughters.
Two from his first marriage. And one, his youngest with Chacey. I believe that it was totally about the money.
Whilst Chacey Poynter's prenup entitled her personally to nothing, she did persuade Bob to take out
insurance against his death. There was a life insurance policy, a $680,000 life insurance policy that Bob had.
And Chacey had talked him into changing it, so that instead of his daughters, she would be the primary beneficiary.
I think when she had him change the life insurance to make her the primary 100% beneficiary,
his days were numbered at that point. NARRATOR: Money considerations aside, the relationship was, by 2010, already
heading for stormy waters. About three years into that marriage, things started falling apart.
It was pretty evident that there were problems. You could see it. And in phone conversations they would have at the fire station,
she was sometimes really loud. And she would call him every name in the book when they would get into arguments about stuff.
So it was, like I said, very evident that they were having issues. Chacey says that the two were growing apart.
Clearly, the age difference probably has something to do with that. But we can only surmise.
NARRATOR: Chacey's wild side began to kick in. To Bob's alarm, she began to lose weight.
She says Bob doesn't find her as attractive anymore. But Chacey has this newfound confidence
and she starts hitting the bars and nightclubs, going out and meeting men. Chacey Poynter lost a lot of weight.
And she started getting attention from all these other men. So she starts meeting a lot of men.
And not just meeting them, but she's hooking up with them. MARK MCADAMS: She was--
just from knowing how, from the stories I heard from Bob-- she was always, always about her first.
It was always about her first. NARRATOR: She even left her four-year-old in the care of Bob's teenage daughter Natalie
while she went out to visit lovers. And she's so bold that she actually has Natalie stay
at home to babysit the four-year-old child while she goes out cheating on her dad.
Chacey didn't seem to have too much concern about being caught in that could have been because she
was just brazen or because she was-- wanted to be caught. But she would do things like leave
her Facebook open with messages that can easily be read by anyone. Chacey is enjoying this new body of hers
and this new lifestyle and meeting all of these men, and she's not even hiding it anymore.
She leaves her laptop out on the counter with her Facebook page open where she's flirting with these other men
just openly online. NARRATOR: In a bizarre twist of fate recalling the earlier secret messages discovered by one
of Bob's daughters, it was Natalie who discovered Chacey was cheating on her father.
She found intimate online conversations left open on Chacey's laptop. I think Chacey almost wanted to throw that in Robert's face.
Like, I don't care about you anymore. And I could care less if you know I'm having an affair
or not. I think at that point, she was acting very impulsively, very selfishly. And maybe she was building up a lot
of resentment towards Robert. And whether or not, he deserved that resentment or not, she wanted him to know and she wanted to hurt him.
It kind of shows that she was probably quite narcissistic and believed that she could get away with all kinds of things.
NARRATOR: Bob was distraught but desperate to try and hold things together for the sake of their daughter.
Well, Bob was obviously devastated. He had gone through a divorce before and he did not want to go through that again.
And it was all because of his daughter. He did not want to hurt her that way, and so he expressed that to me a lot.
Bob is, you know, thinking, OK. I had one failed marriage. I really should give this another try.
So he says to Chacey, let's try to patch things up. He did not want to leave her.
No matter what, he did not want to leave that baby girl of his. NARRATOR: 2016, and in a last ditch bid to save his marriage,
Bob takes Chacey and their young daughter on a holiday. So he plans this vacation to Mexico,
and he tells his friends at work, we're really going to try to work things out. I'm taking her on this romantic trip.
Robert had found out that Chacey has been cheating on him a few days prior to the vacation.
But they went down there, anyway, to try to work things out one last time. And from what we could tell, it just
didn't go very well at all. She was texting two of her different men that she was having affairs with constantly
over this time period. So it appears whatever they wanted to accomplish, or what Robert really wanted to accomplish
in Mexico did not happen. So it then appeared to have been a very successful, from his point of view vacation, in bringing
the family back together. MARK MCADAMS: He called me the day they got back. And he told me then, he's like, that's it.
When he called me, I just said, hey, how's it going, brother? He said, not good.
That's it. I'm contacting my lawyer. Bob didn't seem really sure where his relationship
was going in September. He emailed his divorce attorney. At the same time, he was text messaging Chacey
trying to find out if they could talk and get together and reconcile. He filed for divorce but he doesn't
actually go through with it. NARRATOR: Meanwhile, Chacey was far from done with Robert Poynter.
She certainly wasn't about to let his money slip away from her. And I believe she wanted to be with Robert Poynter.
But Robert Poynter made very good money. He made over $100,000 a year as a captain with the university
fire department. He worked a lot of overtime. He bought her a lot of nice things.
He let her redo the houses. Like she wanted bought a Jeep. She wanted to get breast enhancements.
So she became accustomed to that lifestyle that he could provide for her. NARRATOR: With no easy exit from her marriage and good
financial reasons to stay, will Chacey go looking for another way out? She stood to gain a lot of money if Bob was dead.
On the other hand, if they were to divorce, she'd be penniless. NARRATOR: A plot was hatched to kill
Bob for the insurance payout. Chacey is somebody who has the patience to develop something
in a thoughtful manner so that she can ultimately get what she wants. I believe she'd been planning this murder for a while.
NARRATOR: Throughout the summer of 2016, Chacey point started affairs with several lovers.
She was having multiple affairs there were four different affairs that had gone on that we know of within the last 12 months.
NARRATOR: Criminologist Brian Frederick recognizes one specific trait of potential killers
which Chacey Poynter was displaying. So psychopaths are known for being sexually promiscuous.
And it's probably not a requirement that they be attractive, right? But, you know, she did have sort of this femininity about her
that she most likely used to her advantage quite successfully. NARRATOR: Chacey tells each of her lovers
that she wants Bob gone. She was running this con on multiple men almost in an indiscriminate way.
Kind of like just throwing anything at the wall and seeing what would stick. So charm, lies, manipulation, these are all characteristics
of a psychopath. And she talks about wanting him dead in multiple of these text messages
to all these different men. Now, most of them didn't take the bait. They told her, leave him.
Call the police. The normal reactions that most people would have if that were true.
NARRATOR: Chacey lied to her various lovers that Bob was being abusive and violent towards her.
Chacey starts complaining that Bob is taking testosterone and steroids, she says, because he's
treating a low testosterone problem and she says it's making him angry and abusive.
But it is very interesting that Chacey was already pinning these behaviors on Robert.
It's almost as if she was already building a case against why he was a horrible person
and why she had to do away with him. Chacey Poynter used this sort of damsel in distress tactic.
She had all these lovers and she let them all know that you know her husband was being abusive.
NARRATOR: But the truth of Bob's character according to the people who knew him best was very different.
Around this time, Bob's grown daughter, Natalie, she's 16 at the time, moves in with them.
And she lives there for about six months. And she says, she never, at that time that she lived with them, ever saw any evidence
at all of any abuse. She was claiming to be abused but there is no evidence we ever found of physical abuse at all.
No one could or would say that Bob had that violent tendency, or abusive tendency about himself.
Chacey claimed that Robert was abusive towards her. And we found no evidence of that.
We talked with his ex-wife who said Robert was a big old Teddy bear. That she did not act like a battered woman in any way
that we could find. There was never any phone calls to police. None of her friends got up on the witness day
to testify to that. People who were friends testified the opposite that Casey was the dominant person
in this relationship. NARRATOR: It was all a fiction designed to entrap her lovers
to let them all know she was being abused and a knight in shining armor might come to her rescue.
She had so many of them but she was bound to find one that was so wrapped up in her story.
And who he thought she that he might have seen it as an opportunity to save the person who he admired.
I mean, this is a Machiavellian trait, right? Cunning, manipulative, and unscrupulous.
NARRATOR: But what was Chacey's game plan? And who could she dupe into carrying it out?
If she can have multiple lovers, and even just one of them falls into her trap and is willing to take the life
of her husband, then she's one. POLICE: Let me ask you this, OK? And I need you to be honest with me, OK?
Were you out here with anyone else? No. POLICE: Other than-- No. NARRATOR: Chacey Poynter was plotting the murder
of her husband, Bob, but she didn't intend to do the job herself. The lover who would pull the fatal trigger
was Michael Glenn Garza. In the summer of 2016, she met a guy named Michael Garza on Facebook.
And they began a relationship. Michael is just, he's bananas over her. He is madly in love with Chacey.
Garza seemed to be quickly enamored with her. And soon, he began saying he'd do anything for her or anything
that she wanted him to do. Chacey has been-- she's been making the rounds with the guys
and she has been planning this story in anyone who will listen that her husband, Bob, is abusive.
And he has these horrible anger issues. And I'm really kind of afraid of him. And he's a bully.
Michael Garza is the one who took the bait. So I thought she was kind of baiting all of these men
to see who would tell her what she wanted to hear. And then she finally found that was Michael Garza.
With a dupe willing to do anything for her, Chacey Poynter put her plan into action.
You know, she started to really trash Robert to Michael. He was the type of guy who thought
Chacey was the best thing that he was ever going to get. And she was very manipulative with him.
Well, Michael Garza hears this and you know he's very protective of Chacey. So Chacey works that story.
She puts this in his head. Here's this bully of a husband. This brute who's brutalizing this beautiful young woman.
Her story to Michael Garza is that they're not even married. That they were divorced already.
And he was just the ex-husband who was still trying to control her. He's making up all these lies really just to push
Michael Garza's buttons. And it had that effect on him. NARRATOR: Chacey's husband, Bob, meanwhile is tormented
about their future together. On September 8, 2016, the day before the murder, Bob texts Chacey and says, look, I think
we can really work this out. Let's try. Let's give this marriage a go. But on the same day, he contacts the divorce lawyer.
So he's covering his bases here. NARRATOR: It was a turning point in Chacey's attitude.
Divorce meant no money for her. No, and I think that what made her do it when she did it was find out that,
hey, he's going to leave me. So that window of opportunity here is closing for me.
NARRATOR: The evening of September 9, 2016, after spending the day with Garza at his house,
Chacey contacts her husband. Chacey texts Bob and she says, yes, Bob. Let's try to work this out.
I think we can save this marriage, but I really need to talk. She says, I really love you Bob.
I really do. And she's texting at all caps emphasizing that. Over the next couple of hours, she engages in these text
messages with Bob. Kind of like a cat and mouse game. And she's laying out this trap.
Her plan was-- she told him we're going to meet up at Jack-in-the-Box in Royse City for late night tacos.
And that's something that they used to do when he was a fireman. So he worked late hours long hours,
and he might come home late at night, and he would bring home Jack-in-the Box tacos for her.
And then some more time goes by. And she says, I'm almost there. The GPS says, I'm three miles away.
15 minutes later, Bob sends a text message and says, long three miles. All of this two hours worth of texting back and forth,
this little game of hers, she never had any intention of meeting Bob at a restaurant.
She's actually been having sex with Michael Garza all afternoon, all night, and they have a plan.
NARRATOR: Chacey sends a text that will lead Bob to a remote dirt track. So Chacey finally leaves Michael Garza's house
and she gets in her Jeep and she drives out to this old dirt road, untamed road,
out in the sticks. She goes to this place on County Road 2595 which is a very secluded area.
It's not a regularly traveled road. Then she texts Bob and she says, Bob, my Jeep is stuck in the mud.
Can you help me? So she knew that this damsel in distress tactic would you know cause some distress in him,
and that she would be able to lure him to wherever she needed him to be to get the job done.
NARRATOR: Ever the man of action, Bob gets in his truck and rushes to her aid. Well, Bob's first responder instincts kick in right away,
and he jumps in his truck and he heads out to rescue his damsel in distress. He'd be, just do it.
I'm going to help. That's just how he was. When he reaches the dirt road, Bob finds
Chacey waiting at the turn off. She tells him the Jeep is a little way down the track.
She walked him down that road. Hand in hand, walked him down that road, that distance knowing what was coming for him.
NARRATOR: When Bob gets into the Jeep, Michael Garza is ready and waiting. He goes to climb in and boom, Michael Garza had been inside
lying in wait with a shotgun. And he blasted Robert in the temple. After he sat in the vehicle, he
was immediately shot in the head with a shotgun at close range. The wadding was still in the temple of the side of his head.
It was obviously a terrible, terrible thing that she walked him to his death. That's what struck me is that how evil
it was that she had no remorse for that. She just walked him hand-in-hand down there where she
knew what was coming for him. NARRATOR: Chacey puts the next part of her plan into action.
Meanwhile, Chacey is calling 9-1-1, and she is just acting hysterical. Royse City Police Department got a phone call
around 10:45, 10:47 PM. DISPATCHER (ON PHONE): Hunt County 9-1-1. It's a Friday night, lady, they
could barely hear anything. She's running. They hear her breathing heavily. They get a ping from the 9-1-1 where her cell phone is.
It's off County Road 2595, which is just south of the Royse City High School. DISPATCHER (ON PHONE): OK.
Calm down. Where are you at? The county road doesn't even really appear to be a county road.
It looks more like a field. There are on the scene less than three minutes. [sirens blaring] OFFICER: Ms. Poynter?
Yeah, yeah. OFFICER: You OK? - Yeah. OFFICER: OK. I just keep seeing his face in my--
OFFICER: All right. --in my head. Once they got there, they immediately made contact with her and their body cameras roll over.
Body cameras are used to record everything as it is. It removes interpretation. It removes, I forgot I said this or I didn't say this,
I said that. So it's a silent witness that's always credible. NARRATOR: As police arrive, Chacey
continues her dramatic show. They get out there, and they see a woman. She has blood on her.
She's hyperventilating, saying that somebody shot her husband down the road. CHACEY POYNTER: We've been having problems.
And we-- I was coming to meet him at the Jack-in-the-Box so we could talk. OFFICER: Uh-huh.
CHACEY POYNTER: We used to stop and get tacks at that Jack-in-the-Box when he'd come home late from work.
When I went off the road, that's when I called him. And I said I need you to come help me.
And he said, where are you? And I told him, I said, I'm on a dirt road. That's all I know. I don't know the numbers.
And so-- Probably half a mile down the road, around a bend that's heavily wooded, and then Robert Poynter
was sitting there in a Jeep, Chacey Poynter's Jeep, with a shotgun was blast to the head.
OFFICER: Breathe. Breathe for me, Ms. Poynter. I'm trying. OFFICER: Calm down and breathe for me, OK?
I got some questions. I'm trying to fill in some holes, OK? OK. OFFICER: Have you ever been out here before?
No. OFFICER: You've never-- I've never been out here before. OFFICER: --only tonight, right now?
Yes. Yeah. The body cam footage is quite powerful. It shows her panting and nervous and every emotion that she has.
If you see the video of her in the back of the ambulance, in the back of the police car, she was--
she thought she was really good at acting. And she would turn those emotions off and on at will.
There was-- there was a loud shot. [gunshot] And the Jeep started rolling and I didn't see anything.
And I thought I was shot. I thought-- and when I walked at him, I yelled his name
and I just saw something coming. And I got my eye on it. I went for my phone on my back pocket.
And I called. I called. I just saw. I ran. I didn't know what I was-- I think Chacey was emulating what she believed a grieving
wife would look like. And she basically, in a very superficial way, presented what she thought other people should expect of her.
The body language would suggest to me that she didn't know how to control her body when telling a lie.
The first thing the officers are going to be looking out for is consistency. And when I say that, consistency in emotion and story delivery
all the time and the voice inflection. The emotion to be placed at the right time and the right place.
NARRATOR: Officers at the scene struggle to piece together exactly what happened on County Road 2595.
When she tells this bizarre story, she claims that she her truck got stuck in the mud,
and that her husband came out to rescue her and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this guy comes out with a gun and shoots him.
It isn't adding up. It doesn't make any sense. Of course, it's a lot easier to manipulate
a man you're having sex with than law enforcement. This type of behavior is often seen with individuals who we
sometimes label as psychopaths. That they have this shallow emotion that they display to others, but it's only used as a way
to get to their goal. It's interesting when people manufacture stories, they don't know how to fake their emotions
at the right time. If they're supposed to be outraged, it has to happen during a certain point
in the conversation. They don't feel these feelings. It's not genuine. But they kind of know how to pretend to look like you have
the feelings of a person who might actually care about her loved ones. And she basically did it to the best of her ability
but it was way over the top. And if they're supposed to be sad, there's a certain thing that would trigger
an uncontrollable response. All these things have to line up. You almost have to listen to the story and match those things up
to find out if they're actually on point. NARRATOR: Chacey's story was all a lie.
Of course that didn't make sense to the police department because they hadn't had a murder at that time in 12 years.
And there's not just random people out in the woods killing people here in Royse City.
NARRATOR: But if Chacey story about a mysterious killer didn't make sense, how could the authorities figure out
the truth of her involvement in the murder of her husband, Bob Poynter. I got a phone call from my battalion chief.
And he just said, hey, you know, we just need to let you know man that Bob's dead.
And my first reaction, in my head, was she killed him, didn't she? NARRATOR: When Fire Captain Bob Poynter was murdered,
it struck to the core of his community just outside Dallas. His funeral on September 15, 2016
was very emotional, and very beautiful. It was attended by his fellow firefighters
from the University Park Fire Department as well as firefighters and police officers from all
over the state of Texas. They make these friendships and bonds because every crime
scene you go to, there's going to be a fire, and there's going to be a police there.
And they're your friends and brothers and sisters. I don't even know how to describe it.
It was-- I've never been to a firefighter funeral just, you know, all the bagpipes and the other firemen
and police officers from the surrounding communities coming. And just seeing his family, his mom,
who's one of the sweetest ladies ever, and watching the distress on her face and his daughters.
You can imagine the sound of bagpipes playing a formal ceremony to honor him. He'd been there for 19 years and was well respected
and well loved. MARK MCADAMS: At the end, they always ring the bell. It's like they set the tones off and show that his time is over.
And that was rough, rough knowing that was it. That was the worst day in my time there, 20 years.
[bagpipes playing] I was his lieutenant for several years. And the first fire we ever fought
together, he grabbed me by the shoulders like, hey, we got this, bro. And that was his thing.
He said that all the time. And so, if you go to our fire station right now, there's a flag hanging on the wall and below it,
is that, we got this bro. NARRATOR: It was time to find out exactly what had happened.
Chacey Poynter had a clear motive for murder, her husband Bob's life insurance policy.
She was the beneficiary of his life insurance policy which was worth over $600,000.
She would have gotten a pension on top of that, a survivor benefit pension, all the assets.
I mean it was worth probably close to a million dollars of total assets that she would have got.
NARRATOR: There was also the possibility that Chacey might lose custody of her daughter
if Bob were to divorce her. She knew that she was fixing to lose everything. She knew that, you know, he had all the cards,
and so she wanted that life insurance money. She wanted that money, and she wanted the baby girl.
She felt like that was the only way for her to get what she wanted. NARRATOR: Out on County Road 2595, late in the evening
of September 9, 2016, her story to the police, that the killer was a mysterious man who appeared out of the darkness,
seemed implausible. It isn't adding up to cops. So they take Chacey in for questioning.
NARRATOR: During that night, under interrogation, Chacey's twisted tale began to unravel.
She was taken to the police station about 2:00 in the morning. When she got there, her story changes pretty quickly.
Now she finally admits she knows who this shooter was. It was Michael Garza who's her boyfriend.
Then she admitted to her affair with Michael Garza. He admitted that they had sex with day of the murder,
and said, I don't know, maybe he did this. NARRATOR: Despite naming Garza as the shooter,
Chacey maintained that she had never meant for Bob to die. Then Chacey's story changed.
But then, she admitted to a plan of what they were going to do after the fact, which was going to be to burn
the truck that he was in. Michael Garza was going to have to leave the state for a while,
lay low. So she changed it multiple times throughout the interview. She was trying to do what she always did
which is, save her own skin. It's not a surprise to me that she would say and do anything
to try to keep herself from going to prison for the rest of her life. NARRATOR: Investigators didn't believe a word of it.
When you look at the text messages, it's pretty clear that she was the one who initiated this.
That she wanted it to happen. And she wanted it to happen quick. The very next morning, she was arrested.
Officers obviously didn't believe her story. NARRATOR: While Chacey was held at the police station,
her lover, Michael Garza, was still on the loose. Garza was a truck driver, and he immediately went on the run.
But after he found out that the SWAT team had raided his home, he turned himself in.
So police still need some hard evidence to connect Michael Garza to the murder. And then, five weeks later, they get it.
A farmer finds a shotgun out in his field. We had his Facebook photo when she quickly took down
but we got it before she did, of him holding that shotgun. So for Michael Garza's case, it was a big piece of evidence.
We also found shotgun shells that were fired by that shotgun on Michael Garza's front porch
in the flower bed around it. So for him, it was a big piece of evidence. NARRATOR: By now, the lethal lovers
had turned on each other. Garza claimed it was actually Chacey who had killed Bob.
And Michael Garza had actually taken the stand in his own defense during his trial.
With him, taking the witness stand, that was just not a good idea. Whenever you have these types of cases where two people worked
together to commit a murder, they're going to point the finger at each other, it's all the other person's fault.
And he actually tried to put the blame on Chacey as she was doing to him. So these two lovers are pointing fingers at one another,
trying to get themselves off the hook. NARRATOR: The investigation into Bob Poynter's murder
had exposed Chacey's multiple affairs and the plot to cash in on the insurance policy.
The very night that Chacey was having her husband Bob killed, she was actually texting with another lover
and planning to hook up with him later that night. This was just a classic tale of sex, lies, and greed.
I knew. I knew as soon as he told me that she had something to do with it, it struck
me that that's who it was. I didn't know all the details but I knew she had something to do with it.
When she found out that he was going to get a divorce, her answer was that if she killed him,
she would have had all that money. Close to a million dollars in total assets. So she would be able to maintain the lifestyle that she liked.
That she would have got rid of Robert Poynter. A charge of murder was upgraded to capital murder.
And she was tried in April 2017. We felt that the case was very strong against Chacey Poynter.
We had her at the scene of the crime. We had her text messages where they're talking about getting
rid of Robert Poynter. And then we had her statement to law enforcement. So I felt fairly good about that case.
NARRATOR: Found guilty by the jury, Chacey Poynter was sentenced to life imprisonment
with no parole for at least 30 years. And I believe she was the most culpable person here.
Michael Garza was the person she found to do this, but she was the driving force behind this murder.
I would have been completely happy with the death penalty for both of them. They didn't give him that option of life.
So my head was I would have been fine with me if they got that too. NARRATOR: The insurance money went to Bob's three daughters.
When you talk to her family members, they didn't seem surprised that she did this.
I think that says something and they knew, from a young age, that she was an awful person.
She might be in that sociopath category. She just couldn't feel anything for anybody but herself.
Chacey Poynter in my opinion is a textbook psychopath. So there's a test called the psychopathy checklist which
is something that psychologists and caseworkers will use to assess a person's case file.
Anything over a 30, I would be deemed a psychopath or someone with psychopathy. I came up with a 33 for Chacey Poynter.
She was the biggest liar that I have ever seen in the 11 years of doing this. And she was pretty good at it for a while.
NARRATOR: Bob Poynter was an all American hero loved by those who knew him. He was a class act, a true brother in the fire service,
a great dad. And he's just a good man overall. And a good friend and I miss him every day.
NARRATOR: He had met Chacey and begun an affair with her in shady circumstances.
But even though, their marriage was steeped in suspicion and deception from the start, nobody could have predicted
that Bob Poynter, the fearless firefighter and respected role model, would have his life cut tragically
short by his own wife. I am convinced that if Chacey pointer had not been caught, that she probably would
have gone on to do this again. We'd be talking about a serial killer. [music playing]

Chacey Poynter saw men as tools to get what she wanted. Her husband Bob offered stability and money. Her boyfriends offered a way to get rid of Bob.

Though wedded couples vow to stay together until death do they part, this new true crime series looks at what happens when a groom or bride causes their beloved's death.

Brief Summary

Chacey Poynter plotted her husband Robert's murder for life insurance, leading to his tragic death and her life sentence.

Key points

The Tragic Life of Bob Poynter. Fire Captain Robert Poynter was a beloved hero and father, but his life took a dark turn.
Chacey's Manipulation. Chacey Poynter's charm and manipulation led to a rapid escalation in her relationship with Bob.
The Prenup and Insurance Policy. Bob's prenup and life insurance policy became crucial elements in the unfolding tragedy.
Chacey's Affairs. Chacey's multiple affairs and reckless behavior raised red flags in her marriage with Bob.
The Final Texts. In a chilling twist, Chacey lured Bob into a trap with late-night texts.
Chacey's Deception Unfolds. Chacey lures Bob to his death with a text about her Jeep being stuck.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This was a case about sex, lies, money, and murder.

NARRATOR summarizing the case.

1:14WatchJun 8, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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