Prosecutor: Man poisoned wife for life insurance

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- Closing statements were made Thursday in a trial for a man accused of poisoning his wife to collect her life insurance.

Paul Curry, 57, faces charges of murder with special circumstances and insurance in the death of his wife Linda Curry in 1994.

"He did something to cause her death. He injected her with nicotine, caused her death. He intended for her to die. That's it," prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh said in his closing arguments.

Baytieh added that Curry showed little concern for his wife while she grew sicker. When she died, he received about $500,000 after being married for 21 months, he said.

Curry's first wife also mysteriously grew sick, but when she failed to qualify for life insurance, Curry left her, Baytieh said.

"She got sick. They don't know why. He wants her to get life insurance. She gets rejected. He leaves her and now she's fine," Baytieh said. "She got lucky because she got rejected!"

Curry's attorney Lisa Kopelman painted another picture. She said the case was based on circumstantial evidence.

"Paul Curry is not a murderer. This case is all about conjecture, innuendo and suspicion," Kopelman said.

Curry is a former nuclear physicist and trained chemist who worked at the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

After his wife's death in San Clemente in 1994, he moved to Kansas where he worked as a city building inspector.

Kopelman said her client is only guilty of illegally collecting Linda Curry's life insurance benefits, not murder.

"He had committed this small act of insurance fraud," Kopelman said. "He's now pegged the criminal who committed this murder. He did not commit the crime of murder."