Prosecutors wrapped up closing arguments Thursday in the trial of a former San Onofre nuclear engineer accused of poisoning his wife 20 years ago to collect a life insurance payout.
Paul Curry (pictured right) was questioned after his wife’s death in 1994. The case went cold, and Curry moved away and got remarried. Four years ago, prosecutors put the case together and theybelieve Curry carried out a willful and deliberate murder.
“It was devastating emotionally when she passed away but to tell you the truth, it was financially devastating too," Curry said when he was questioned following the death of his wife.
Prosecutors allege that 57-year-old Curry knew what he was doing when he gave his wife Linda Curry a sleeping pill then allegedly poisoned her with a shot of nicotine. Prosecutors say Curry wanted money from his wife’s half-million dollar life insurance policy.
"His problem was not the fact that she was a lotto ticket, his problem was the fact that somebody else was going to get some of it. It was supposed to be all his, every penny of it," prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh said in court.
Paul and Linda met while working at a San Onofre nuclear power plant. He was a nuclear engineer and she worked in emergency services. The two married in 1992. According to prosecutors, Linda Curry got sick and no one could figure out why. She died in 1994 from nicotine poisoning.
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Defense attorneys, however, say Paul Curry is a smart man who loved his wife and that they were two peas in a pod.
"He did not commit the crime of murder. He is not a murderer," public defender Lisa Kopelman said.
Curry’s attorney said in court Thursday that he Curry did commit fraud and that he did lie, but only in terms of the insurance.
Jury deliberations are set to begin Monday.
