This week on 48 Hours on ID, the team travel to Royse City in Texas to investigate the 2016 murder of fire department Captain Robert Poynter.
Poynter was found on a rural track in his wife’s car; he was slumped over the passenger seat, having been shot in the head with a single blast from a shotgun. His wife, Chacey Poynter, blamed an unknown assailant, but it would later transpire that she’d orchestrated the killing.
On September 9, 2016, Chacey Poynter dialed 911 and played the role of a frantic woman in distress. When officers arrived, she told them that she’d been out driving when her Jeep got stuck in the mud.
She said she’d phoned Robert for help and then claimed that as he was sitting in her vehicle, a mysterious stranger came out of the dark and shot her husband in the head before fleeing into the night.
Cops suspected Chacey Poynter knew the killer
The police were instantly suspicious of Chacey and didn’t buy her story that someone just happened to be waiting in the bushes to jump out and shoot Robert.
When investigators dug a little deeper, they discovered that Chacey and Robert were going through a divorce, and Chacey was having an affair with a man called Michael Garza.
The day before Robert’s murder, Chacey reportedly texted Garza: “I can’t love you unless Robert is out of the picture.” The next day, the pair plotted Robert’s murder.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelHowever, the police quickly saw through Chacey’s ruse. She then tried to evade prosecution by accusing Robert of abusing her, and then followed that by focusing the blame on Garza. She claimed she only wanted Garza to hurt her husband, not kill him.
In June 2019, a jury disagreed with Chacey’s version of events and sentenced her to a life in prison. Garza had turned himself into the authorities a couple of days after the killing and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
More from 48 Hours on ID
Follow the links to read about more horrifying crimes profiled on 48 Hours On ID.
Michael Gargiulo, aka The Hollywood Killer, preyed on women for 15 years before he was apprehended. Also known as The Boy Next Door Killer because he targeted, raped, and murdered women who lived near him.
Technical Sergeant Curtis Eccleston was murdered by his wife and the man she was having an affair with on an army base in Okinawa, Japan. Barbara Keiko persuaded Air Force Staff Sgt. Nicholas Cron to slash her husband to death with a box cutter.
48 hours on ID airs at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.