Reality TV
Wife convicted of murdering University Park fire captain tells all on 48 Hours
Local crime watchers probably remember the case: University Park fire captain Robert Poynter is shot and killed on a dirt road in September 2016. That murder case will be featured on the January 18 episode of 48 Hours on CBS in a segment called "Chacey Poynter: Witness to Murder."
Chacey Poynter was his wife, who called 911 from the scene. Police body cameras captured her breathless, halting explanation for what happened. But once she got to the police station, her story completely changed.
Poynter, who was 29 at the time, was convicted in the murder of her 47-year-old husband, a captain for the University Park Fire Department.
According to a release, she'll tell her story for the first time about what happened the night he died.
The show will also feature interview with law enforcement officers, Robert Poynter's daughters, the trial's prosecutors, and defense attorneys.
Robert Poynter was a veteran firefighter and paramedic who was shot in the head while sitting in his wife's Jeep, on a county road in Royse City.
Chacey told police she'd called her husband for help after her Jeep got stuck in mud. She claimed that when Poynter came to help move the vehicle, he was shot by a mysterious man who emerged from the dark, and said she had no idea who it was.
police were skeptical of Poynter's story from the minute they arrived at the scene. Police body cameras caught the encounter, including her admission that she was having problems in her marriage.
"Her story kept adding all these different twists and turns and pieces of information that just weren’t fitting in place of the puzzle," says Royse City Police Sgt. Shane Meek in a statement.
It wasn't until she was being questioned later at the police station that she admitted she knew the man who killed her husband was her lover, Michael Garza.
The investigation into the murder exposed Chacey's multiple extramarital affairs and her alleged plot with Garza to kill her husband and cash in on his life insurance policy.
In the episode, detective Michael Burk calls it "a clean assassination."
"Investigators believe you knew about the mission, planned the mission, to murder your husband for money," Van Sant says.
"That’s what they say," Poynter says.
"Look at me, they're right, aren't they," Van Sant says.
"No, sir," Poytner says.
"Chacey Poynter: Witness to Murder" was produced by Asena Basak, and the development producer was Claire St. Amant, former managing editor for CultureMap Dallas. That makes it must-see TV.