00:00:09
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
A remote dirt road. A desperate 911 call. [phone ringing]
00:00:15
[sobbing and heavy breathing] MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: And a
killer waiting in the darkness.
00:00:35
I think when she had him
change the life insurance to make her the primary
100% beneficiary,
00:00:42
his days were numbered
at that point. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
The victim is Fire Captain Robert Poynter.
00:00:49
But who would want to murder
a heroic first responder. The loving father
of three daughters.
00:00:56
Could his wife be responsible? I got a phone call
from my Battalion Chief and he just said, hey, you
know, we just need to let
00:01:06
you know man that Bob's dead. And my first
reaction, in my head, was, she killed him didn't she?
00:01:18
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: If
so, why would she do it? If I could sum this
case up in one sentence
00:01:24
I would say this was
a case about sex, lies, money and murder. We've been having problems.
00:01:30
Where I was coming to meet
him at the Jack in the Box so we could talk. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Nearly half
00:01:36
of the women who are murdered
are killed by their partners. But men are also increasingly
victims of domestic homicide.
00:01:45
Are you sure the person
lying next to you in bed would never hurt you? If not, you might have
to pay more attention.
00:01:54
I'm Michelle Trachtenberg,
and it's time for another tale of Meet Marry Murder. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Captain Robert Poynter
00:02:16
is a true American hero. A beloved family man, so admired
by friends and colleagues
00:02:22
alike, that he was
called a gentle giant. He was a-- I would say, a true
firefighter's firefighter.
00:02:34
I mean, he loved doing that. He was always calm. He was never, never get worked
up, has never raised his voice.
00:02:46
And, so he was, he
just knew exactly what he was doing at all times. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Tales
of Robert's humble heroism
00:02:56
were well known in his
hometown of Royse City, Texas. It was a Six Alarm
fire, the biggest
00:03:03
fire in our city's history. And there was a
little girl, I don't know how old she was, five or
six, little blonde headed girl.
00:03:13
And she was scared
and she was crying. And Bob noticed. And there's a picture of him
and he's sweating, he's hot.
00:03:23
And he's bending down, and
he's hugging the little girl, who he didn't even know.
00:03:27
Just letting her know, hey,
we're fine, everybody's OK, we're safe. And, that's who he was.
00:03:35
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Robert,
otherwise known as Bob, met his first wife Amy
back in high school.
00:03:40
Bob's, just, you
know, a good guy. He has married his
childhood sweetheart, Amy.
00:03:46
After 20 years of marriage
and two daughters, Nicole and Natalie, Bob and Amy
were ready to call it quits.
00:03:54
Man, he loved his girls. He would literally
work his fingers to the bone for those girls.
00:04:05
He would take every opportunity
he could to work extra jobs, to work extra hours,
to work overtime,
00:04:13
to do whatever he
could to earn money. And that money was
always for his girls. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: By
2008, Bob and Amy's marriage
00:04:23
was all but over. The final nail in the coffin
was Nicole's discovery that her dad had a
secret cell phone,
00:04:31
and was having an affair. Nicole tells mom that
dad's having an affair with this other woman.
00:04:38
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Bob had
started dating Chacey Tyler Morman back in December 2007.
00:04:43
She was younger than
his wife, not much older than his daughters actually. Chacey Tyler Morman is a
20-year-old nurse's aide.
00:04:52
And she's a flirt. She's been hanging around
Bob's fire station. Checks to see when
Bob's going to be there.
00:04:59
Make sure that he sees
her, and little by little, she worms her way into his life.
00:05:05
She was younger. And she told him things
he wanted to hear. And so, I think, she knew
exactly what she was doing,
00:05:13
you know. She was the one
that pursued him. And she really,
really pushed it. Unfortunately, you know, Bob,
he just he took it all in.
00:05:29
To me, the big
thing about this case, is what a manipulative
person Chacey Poynter was.
00:05:35
I've never seen
anything like it. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Brian
Frederick, a criminologist,
00:05:40
and expert on the
Chacey Poynter story, believes that Chacey saw Bob
as something of a challenge.
00:05:47
So once Chacey Poynter
set her sights on him, all bets are off. The fact that he was married,
and maybe unavailable,
00:05:58
was sort of a game for her. You know, and if she could
get him away from his wife,
00:06:04
that would be a true test
of her ability to have some sort of control over him. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Chacey was
00:06:08
able to get enough
control over Bob to convince him to divorce Amy. And by May 2009, to start
a new family with her.
00:06:17
December 28, 2009,
Chacey and Bob get married. They've been seeing each
other now for two years
00:06:23
and now they have a
little child together. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
According to experts,
00:06:27
the speed at which Bob
and Chacey's relationship progressed, commonly leads
to big problems later on.
00:06:34
Chacey and Robert
didn't have the most ideal start to their relationship. They started off as an affair,
she got pregnant very quickly.
00:06:41
And I think that
really locked down the relationship much faster
than, maybe, both of them
00:06:45
were intending. So what had started
out as a fun fling, really, turned into
a huge responsibility
00:06:52
on both their parts. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Having a new young wife quickly proved to be a drain
on Bob's bank account too.
00:06:59
She was a very
manipulative person. A very materialistic person. I mean, when you looked at her
text messages, with Robert,
00:07:09
it was one big purchase
or vacation to the next. That's how she seemed to live. What's my next big purchase?
00:07:18
What's my next vacation? That's kind of how she lives. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Bob
soon realized that there was
00:07:24
a lot more to Chacey
than just being manipulative and materialistic. Unfortunately, none
of it was good.
00:07:32
She had real bad mood swings. She would come, sometimes,
and she would be smiling.
00:07:39
And then, the next
thing you know, they would be in the offices,
and she'd be screaming at him.
00:07:46
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Compared
to Bob's first marriage-- which did last 20 years, his
second marriage to Chacey,
00:07:53
was on the rocks from
almost the very beginning. So just how dangerous,
and manipulative,
00:08:00
was Chacey Poynter? Well, you're about to find out. There was-- there
was a loud shot.
00:08:07
I had my phone in
my back pocket. And I called-- I called-- I-- I just-- I-- I ran.
00:08:13
I didn't know what else to do. [music playing] MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Before marrying
00:08:29
his much younger second
wife, Bob Poynter got her to sign a prenup agreement. Which makes you wonder, did
he already suspect that she
00:08:39
had an ulterior motive? It gives you the indication
that, perhaps, Robert didn't fully trust Chacey.
00:08:46
After all, he didn't really
know her very well at the time that they were getting married.
00:08:50
And perhaps, he just wanted
to safeguard his assets, in case she wasn't very sincere
about her actual love for him.
00:08:58
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Bob and Chacey's prenup stipulated that in
the event of divorce,
00:09:02
Bob's money would be split
between his three daughters. But Chacey, she wouldn't be
entitled to a single dime.
00:09:11
I believe that it was
totally about the money. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Knowing
that her prenup was ironclad,
00:09:17
Chacey persuaded Bob
to take out a fat life insurance policy, just in case. There was a life
insurance policy.
00:09:25
A $680,000 life insurance
policy that Bob had. And Chacey had talked
him into changing it
00:09:35
so that instead
of his daughters, she would be the
primary beneficiary. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Beneficiary, or no, by 2010,
00:09:44
Chacey knew that her marriage
was headed for stormy waters. About three years
into that marriage
00:09:51
things start falling apart. It was pretty evident
that there were problems. You could see it.
00:09:59
And on phone conversations,
conversations they would have at
the fire station. She was sometimes really
loud and she would call him
00:10:12
every name in the
book when they would get into arguments about stuff. So, it was, you know,
like I said very evident
00:10:19
that they were having issues. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: All of
a sudden, Chacey's wild side
00:10:24
started to kick back in. She lost a bunch of weight. A fact, which was
not lost on Bob.
00:10:30
She says, Bob doesn't find
her as attractive anymore. But Chacey has this
newfound confidence.
00:10:37
And she starts hitting the
bars, and the nightclubs, going out and meeting men. Chacey Poynter
lost a lot of weight.
00:10:44
And she started
getting attention from all these other men. So, she starts
meeting a lot of men,
00:10:56
and not just meeting them, but
she's hooking up with them. She was, just from knowing
how, you know, from the stories
00:11:04
that I heard from Bob, she was
always, always about her first. It was always about her first.
00:11:15
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
In fact, Chacey, was so all about
Chacey, that she'd leave even her four-year-old
daughter with Bob's daughter,
00:11:22
Natalie, to go out on dates. And she's so bold that she
actually has Natalie stay
00:11:28
at home to babysit the
four-year-old child, while she goes out cheating on her dad.
00:11:35
Chacey didn't seem
to have too much concern about being caught. And that could be because
she was just brazen,
00:11:41
or because, she was
want to be caught. But she would do
things, like, leave her Facebook open
with messages, that
00:11:51
could easily be read by anyone. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
But as hurt as he was, Bob was still trying to hold
his marriage to Chacey together.
00:12:00
Well, Bob is
obviously devastated. He had gone through
a divorce before, and he did not want to
go through that again.
00:12:11
And it was all because
of his daughter. You know, he did not want
to hurt her that way.
00:12:17
And, so, he expressed
that to me a lot. He did not want to leave her. No matter what, he did not want
to leave that baby girl of his.
00:12:27
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
In a last ditch effort to save his marriage,
Bob even books
00:12:31
a romantic getaway,
in the hope of making things right with Chacey. Robert had found
out that Chacey
00:12:38
had been cheating on him a few
days prior to the vacation. But they went down there
anyway to try to, you know,
00:12:44
work things out one last time. And from what we
could tell, it just didn't go very well at all.
00:12:49
She was texting two
of her different men that she was having
affairs with, constantly,
00:12:54
over this time period. So it appears, whatever
they wanted to accomplish, or Robert at least wanted
to accomplish in Mexico,
00:13:01
did not happen. So it doesn't
appear to have been a very successful,
from his point of view,
00:13:07
vacation in bringing the
family back together. He called me the
day they got back.
00:13:14
And he told me then,
he's like, that's it. When he called me, you
know, I just said, hey,
00:13:20
how's it going brother? And he said, not good. You know that's it, I'm
contacting my lawyer.
00:13:27
Bob didn't seem really
sure where his relationship was going in September. He emailed his divorce
attorney, at the same time
00:13:35
he was text messaging
Chacey, trying to find out if they could talk
and get together and reconcile.
00:13:41
He files for
divorce, but he doesn't actually go through with it. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: While
Bob may have been waffling
00:13:47
on getting Chacey to
sign the divorce papers, Chacey knew, exactly, what
she wanted to get from Bob.
00:13:53
And I don't believe she wanted
to be with Robert Poynter. But Robert Poynter
made very good money.
00:13:58
Made over $100,000
a year as a Captain with the University
Fire Department, he worked a lot of overtime.
00:14:04
He'd bought her a
lot of nice things, let her redo the houses, like
she went bought her a jeep,
00:14:09
she wanted to get
breast enhancements. So she became accustomed
to that lifestyle
00:14:14
that he could provide for her. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Caught
between wanting to leave Bob,
00:14:19
but needing to
stay for his money, Chacey had a tough
decision to make. She stood to gain a lot
of money if Bob were dead.
00:14:28
On the other hand, if they were
to divorce she'd be penniless. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
That's about the time
00:14:33
Chacey decided to end her
marriage, permanently. I believe she'd been planning
this murder for a while.
00:14:39
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
During the summer of 2016, Chacey's extracurricular
love life, suddenly,
00:14:45
got very active. She was having
multiple affairs. There were four
different affairs
00:14:50
that had gone on, that we know
of, within the last 12 months. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
As a criminologist,
00:14:57
Dr. Brian Frederick's
specialty is in intimate partner violence. So psychopaths are known for
being sexually promiscuous.
00:15:06
And, you know, it's
probably not a requirement that they be attractive, right. But, you know, she did have sort
of this femininity about her.
00:15:18
That she most likely used to her
advantage, quite successfully. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Chacey starts
00:15:24
telling each of her boyfriends
that she wants Bob gone. She was running this
con on multiple men
00:15:29
almost in an indiscriminate way. Kind of, like, just throwing
anything at the wall
00:15:33
and seeing what would stick. So charm, lies, manipulation,
these are all characteristics
00:15:40
of a psychopath. And she talks
about wanting him dead in multiple of
these text messages,
00:15:47
to all these different men. Now, most of them didn't
take the bait, you know. They told her leave
him, call the police,
00:15:53
the normal reactions that
most people would have, if that were true. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
But Chacey didn't leave.
00:16:00
Instead, she pushed
the lie that Bob was an abusive and violent husband. Chacey starts complaining
that Bob is taking testosterone
00:16:10
and steroids, she says,
because he's treating a low testosterone problem. And she says it's making
him angry and abusive.
00:16:20
But it is very interesting
that Chacey was already pinning these behaviors on Robert.
00:16:25
It's almost as if
she was already building a case against why
he was a horrible person,
00:16:30
and why she had to
do away with him. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Anyone who knew Bob, however,
00:16:34
also knew the abuse Chacey
was accusing him of, couldn't possibly be true. Around this time, Bob's
grown daughter, Natalie--
00:16:43
she's 16 at the time,
moves in with them. And she lives there
for about six months
00:16:49
and she says she
never, in that time that she lived with them,
ever saw any evidence
00:16:53
at all of any abuse. Chacey claimed that Robert
was abusive towards her. And we found no
evidence of that.
00:17:03
We talked to his
ex-wife who said, Robert was a big old teddy bear. She did not act like a
battered woman in any way
00:17:11
that we could find. There was never any
phone calls to police. None of her friends got
up on the witness stand
00:17:18
and testify to that. People who were
friends testified the opposite, that Chacey
was the dominant person
00:17:24
in this relationship MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Chacey's lies about Bob were about one
thing, and one thing only,
00:17:31
hoping that one of her many
nights in shining armor would come to her rescue. She had so many of them that
she was bound to find one,
00:17:39
that was so wrapped
up in her story, and who he thought she was. That he might have seen it
as an opportunity to save
00:17:47
the person who he admired. I mean this is a
Machiavellian trait cunning, manipulative, and unscrupulous.
00:17:56
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Chacey had a plan. All she needed was a man. The question was,
which one would
00:18:04
she be able to dupe into
helping her murder her husband? POLICE OFFICER: Let
me ask you this, OK?
00:18:10
And I need to be
honest with me OK? Were you out here with
anyone else, other than?
00:18:13
No. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
By 2016, Chacey Poynter was busy plotting the
murder of her husband Bob.
00:18:33
But she had no intention of
pulling the trigger herself. She believed a man named,
Michael Glenn Garza,
00:18:41
would do it for her. In the summer of
2016, she met a guy named Michael Garza on Facebook,
and then began a relationship.
00:18:48
Michael is just,
he's bananas over her. He is madly in love with Chacey. Michael Garza is the
one who took the bait.
00:18:57
So I think she was kind of
baiting all of these men, to see who would tell her
what she wanted to hear.
00:19:02
And then she finally found
that in Michael Garza. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Now that she
00:19:06
had a pawn willing
to do her bidding, Chacey starts putting
her plan into action.
00:19:11
She started to really
trash Robert, to Michael. He was the type of guy-- he thought Chacey
was the best thing
00:19:19
that he was ever going to get. And she was very
manipulative with him. Well, Michael
Garza hears this,
00:19:25
and you know he's very
protective of Chacey. So, Chacey works that story. She puts this in his head.
00:19:34
Here's this bully of a husband,
this brute, who's brutalizing this beautiful young woman.
00:19:40
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: But while
Chacey is busy badmouthing Bob, Bob is still trying to
patch things up with Chacey.
00:19:45
On September 8, 2016,
the day before the murder, Bob texts Chacey and
says, look, I think
00:19:55
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.
00:20:04
So he's covering his bases here. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Chacey suspects Bob is hedging his bets.
00:20:10
So she decides to up the ante. No, and I think that what
made her do it when she did it,
00:20:15
was finding out that, hey
he's going to leave me. So that the window
of opportunity
00:20:19
here is closing for me. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
After spending the day with her lover, Michael
Garza, on the night
00:20:25
of September 9, 2016, Chacey
sends her husband a message. Chacey texts Bob,
and she says, yes Bob,
00:20:34
let's try to work this out. I think we can
save this marriage but I really need to talk.
00:20:39
She says, I really love you Bob. I really do. And she's texting in all
caps emphasizing that.
00:20:47
Over the next couple of hours
she engages in these text messages with Bob. Kind of like a cat
and mouse game.
00:20:54
And she's laying out this trap. Her plan was-- she told him we're going to
meet up at Jack in the Box
00:20:59
in Royse City, for
late night tacos. And that's something
that they used to do when he was a fireman.
00:21:05
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.
00:21:13
And then some
more time goes by and she says, I'm almost there. The GPS says I'm
three miles away.
00:21:20
15 minutes later Bob sends
a text message and says, long three miles. All of this two hours worth
of texting back and forth,
00:21:31
this little game
of hers, she never had any intention of
meeting Bob at a restaurant.
00:21:36
She's actually been
having sex with Michael Garza all afternoon, all
night, and they have a plan.
00:21:43
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Finally, Chacey texts Bob to let him know where
she'll be waiting for him.
00:21:47
So Chacey finally leaves
Michael Garza's house, and she gets in her
Jeep and she drives
00:21:52
out to this old dirt road,
untamed road out in the sticks. She goes to this place
on County Road 2595.
00:22:02
Which is very
secluded area, it's not a regularly traveled road. Then she texts Bob
and she says, Bob
00:22:08
my Jeep is stuck in the mud. Can you help me? So she knew that this
damsel in distress tactic,
00:22:15
that this would, you know,
cause some distress in him. And that she would be able to
lure him to wherever she needed
00:22:20
him to be to get the job done. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Without a second thought, Bob hops in his truck and
heads out to help Chacey.
00:22:27
Well Bob's first responder
instincts kick in right away, and he jumps in his truck
and he heads out to rescue
00:22:33
his damsel in distress. He would just do it. I'm going to help. That's just how he was.
00:22:37
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: As
Bob gets ready to turn off the highway onto the
small country road,
00:22:41
Chacey is already
there waiting for him. She walked him down that road. Hand in hand walked
him down that road,
00:22:49
that distance, knowing
what was coming for him. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: When
Bob gets into Chacey's Jeep,
00:22:54
Michael Garza, is
ready and waiting. He goes to climb in and boom. Michael Garza had been inside
lying in wait with a shotgun.
00:23:04
And he blasted
Robert in the temple. It was obviously a terrible,
terrible thing that she
00:23:12
walked him to his death. That's what struck me is
that, how evil it was that she
00:23:19
had no remorse for that. She just walked him hand in
hand down there, where she knew what was coming for him.
00:23:26
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Chacey then put the next part of her plan into action. Meanwhile Chacey
is calling 9-1-1.
00:23:33
And she is just
acting hysterical. Royse City Police
Department got a phone call
00:23:40
around 10:45, 10:47 PM. It was a Friday night. Lady, they could barely hear
anything, she's running,
00:23:53
they here her breathing heavily. They get a ping from the
9-1-1 where her cell phone is.
00:23:59
It's off County Road 2595. Which is just south of the
Royse City High School. 9-1-1 OPERATOR: OK, calm down.
00:24:06
Where are you at? The county road
doesn't even really appear to be a county road.
00:24:09
It looks more like a field. Their on scene less
than three minutes. POLICE OFFICER: Ms. Poynter?
- Yeah, yeah.
00:24:15
POLICE OFFICER: You OK?
- Yeah. POLICE OFFICER: OK. I just, I keep
seeing his face.
00:24:19
POLICE OFFICER: Right. Once they got there,
they immediately made contact with her, and
their body cameras were rolling.
00:24:26
Body cameras are used to
record everything as it is. It removes interpretation, it
removes I forgot I said this,
00:24:35
or I didn't say
this I said that. So it's a silent witness
that's always credible.
00:24:41
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
As the cops arrive, Chacey continues her drama show. That get out there
and they say a woman.
00:24:46
She has blood on her,
she's hyperventilating, saying that somebody shot
her husband down the road.
00:24:53
We've been having problems. Where I was coming to meet
him at the Jack in the Box so
00:24:58
we could talk. We used to stop and get
tacos at Jack in the Box when he'd come home
late from work.
00:25:07
When I went off the road,
that's when I called him. And I said, I need
you to come help me.
00:25:11
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.
00:25:15
And so I-- Probably half a mile down
the road, around a bend that is heavily wooded,
and then, Robert Poynter
00:25:22
was sitting there, in a
Jeep, Chacey Poynter's Jeep, with a shotgun
blast to the head.
00:25:29
POLICE OFFICER: Breathe
for me Ms. Poynter. Calm down and breathe for me. OK? I got some questions.
00:25:34
I'm trying to fill
in some holes, OK? OK. POLICE OFFICER: Have you
ever been out here before?
00:25:38
No. I never, I've never
been out here before. POLICE OFFICER: Only tonight?
Right now?
00:25:42
Yes.
POLICE OFFICER: Right now ton-- The body cam footage
is quite powerful. It shows her
panting, and nervous,
00:25:49
and every emotion that she has. If you see the video of her
in the back of the ambulance,
00:25:57
in the back of the police
car, you know, she was-- she thought she was
really good at acting.
00:26:04
And she would turn those
emotions off and on at will. There was, there was,
there was a loud shot.
00:26:13
And the Jeep started rolling,
and I didn't see anything, and I thought I saw a shadow.
00:26:17
I ran. I didn't know what else to do. I think Chacey was emulating
what she believed a grieving
00:26:24
wife would look like. And she basically, in
a very superficial way, presented what she thought other
people should expect of her.
00:26:33
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: As
Chacey continues her act, the officers on scene
start trying to piece
00:26:37
together exactly what happened. And she tells this,
this bizarre story. She claims that she-- her
truck got stuck in the mud.
00:26:46
And that her husband
came out to rescue her. And all of a sudden,
out of nowhere,
00:26:52
this guy comes out with
a gun and shoots him. It isn't adding up. It doesn't make any sense.
00:26:57
Of course it's a lot easier to
manipulate a man you're having sex with than law enforcement.
00:27:02
This type of behavior is often
seen with individuals who we sometimes label as psychopaths.
00:27:07
That they have this
shallow emotion that they display to others,
but it's only used as a way
00:27:12
to get to their goal. It's interesting when
people manufacture stories, they don't know how
to fake their emotions
00:27:21
at the right time. If they're supposed
to be outraged, it has to happen
during a certain point
00:27:30
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
00:27:38
the feelings of a person
who might actually care about her loved ones. And, she basically did it
to the best of her ability,
00:27:46
but it was way over the top. And if they're
supposed to be sad, there's a certain thing
that would trigger
00:27:52
an uncontrollable response. All these things
have to line up. You almost have to listen to the
story and match those things up
00:27:59
to find out if they're
actually on point. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Even
knowing that Chacey's insane
00:28:06
story about Bob's
murder makes no sense, police still need
evidence before they're
00:28:11
able to charge her, and
they're about to get it. I got a phone call
from my Battalion Chief
00:28:18
and he just said, hey, you
know, I just needed to let you know man, that Bob's dead.
00:28:27
And my first reaction in my head
was she killed him, didn't she? MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Bob Poynter
00:28:48
was a well-respected
firefighter and family man in his small community
just outside of Dallas, Texas.
00:28:55
So when word got out
that he'd been murdered, the loss seemed to
be felt by everyone.
00:29:02
His funeral on
September 15, 2016, was very emotional,
and very beautiful. It was attended by his
fellow firefighters
00:29:14
from the University
Park Fire Department. As well as firefighters,
and police officers,
00:29:21
from all over the
state of Texas. I don't even know
how to describe it. It was-- I'd never been
to a firefighter funeral.
00:29:31
Just, you know all the
bagpipes, and the other firemen, and police officers, you
know from the surrounding
00:29:39
communities coming. And just seeing his family, his
mom, who is one of the sweetest
00:29:50
ladies ever. And watching the distress on
her face, and his daughters. It was the worst day in my
time there, 20 years, so.
00:30:17
I was his Lieutenant for
several years and the first fire we ever fought together he
grabbed me by the shoulders
00:30:26
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,
00:30:33
right now there's a flag
hanging on the wall, and below it is that,
we got this bro.
00:30:40
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: After the
dust settled on Bob's funeral, it wasn't hard to figure
out who the number
00:30:45
one suspect was in his murder. She was the beneficiary of
his life insurance policy,
00:30:50
which was worth over $600,000. She would have got a
pension, on top of that, a survivor benefit pension.
00:30:57
All the assets, I mean,
it was worth probably, close to $1 million in total
assets that she would have got.
00:31:04
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Not only that, but Chacey also knew she'd probably
lose custody of her daughter
00:31:09
if she and Bob got a divorce. She knew that she was
fixing to lose everything. She knew he had all the
cards and so she wanted
00:31:22
that life insurance money. She wanted that money and
she wanted the baby girl. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: The crazy
story that Chacey told police
00:31:30
the night of Bob's murder, that
a mysterious killer stalking Country Road 2595 had shot Bob
in the face with a shotgun,
00:31:39
wasn't helping her case either. It isn't adding up to cops. So they take Chacey
in for questioning.
00:31:47
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Under
the harsh interrogation room lights, Chacey's bizarre
account of Bob's murder
00:31:53
starts falling apart. She was taken to the
police station about 2:00 in the morning.
00:31:58
When she got there, her
story changed pretty quickly. Now she finally admits she
knows who the shooter was.
00:32:05
It was Michael Garza,
it was her boyfriend Then she admitted to her
affair with Michael Garza.
00:32:12
Admitted that they had had
sex with day of the murder. And said, I don't know,
maybe he did this.
00:32:18
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Even after outing Garza as Bob's murderer,
Chacey insists
00:32:22
she never meant for Bob to die. But the more Chacey
talks, the more it seems, like that isn't actually true.
00:32:29
But then she admitted to a
plan of what they were going to do after the fact, which
was going to be to burn
00:32:35
the truck that he was in. Michael Garza was going to have
to leave the state for a while,
00:32:42
lay low. So she changed it multiple
times throughout the interview. She was trying to do
what she always did,
00:32:50
which is, save her own skin. It's not a surprise to me that
she would say and do anything
00:32:55
to try to keep herself
from going to prison for the rest of her life. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
At this point,
00:33:03
the investigators are pretty
much on the same page. But when you look
at the text messages
00:33:09
it's pretty clear that she was
the one who initiated this. That she wanted it to happen.
00:33:15
And she wanted it
to happen quick. The very next morning
she was arrested. Officers, obviously,
didn't believe her story.
00:33:23
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Meanwhile, as Chacey is being held
at the police station,
00:33:26
Michael Garza is
still on the loose. Garza was a truck driver and
he immediately went on the run.
00:33:33
But after he found out that
SWAT team had raided his home, he turned himself in.
00:33:39
So police still need some
hard evidence to connect Michael Garza to the murder. And then five weeks
later, they get it.
00:33:48
A farmer finds a shotgun
out in his field. We had his Facebook photo--
which he quickly took down,
00:33:55
but we got it before we did,
of him holding that shotgun. So for Michael Garza's case it
was a big piece of evidence.
00:34:02
We also found
shotgun shells that were fired by that shotgun on
Michael Garza's front porch,
00:34:07
in the flowerbed around it. So for him, it was a
big piece of evidence. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Now that he's
00:34:12
seemingly been caught red
handed, Garza turns on Chacey. Claiming it was actually
her who killed Bob.
00:34:18
Whenever you have these
types of cases where two people worked together to
commit a murder,
00:34:24
they're going to point
the finger at each other. It's all that other
person's fault.
00:34:27
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,
00:34:35
trying to get
themselves off the hook. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
The investigation into Bob Poynter's murder not
only exposed Chacey's plot
00:34:42
to cash in on his
life insurance, it is also revealed just
how deep her cheating went.
00:34:48
The very night that Chacey
was having her husband, Bob, killed, she was actually
texting with another lover.
00:34:57
And planning to hook up
with him later that night. This was just a classic tale of,
you know, sex, lies, and greed.
00:35:05
When she found out that he
was going to get a divorce, her answer if she
had killed him,
00:35:11
she would have had all
that money, you know, close to $1 million
in total assets.
00:35:17
So she would have been able
to maintain the lifestyle that she liked. And she would have got
rid of Robert Poynter.
00:35:23
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: Chacey
was charged with capital murder and went to trial in April 2017.
00:35:29
We felt that the case was very
strong against Chacey Poynter. We had her at the
scene of the crime.
00:35:36
We had her text messages where
they're talking about getting rid of Robert Poynter.
00:35:42
And then we had her
statement to law enforcement. So I felt fairly
good about that case.
00:35:47
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
After being found guilty of Bob Poynter's murder,
Chacey was sentenced
00:35:52
to life, without the
possibility of parole, for at least 30 years. I believe she was the
most culpable person here.
00:36:01
Michael Garza was the
person she found to do this, but she was the driving
force behind this murder.
00:36:07
I would have been completely
happy with the death penalty for both of them. They didn't give him
that option of life.
00:36:13
So in my head was, you know
it would have been fine with me if they got that too.
00:36:20
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: The
money from Bob's life insurance ended up going to
his three daughters.
00:36:25
When you talk to
her family members, they didn't seem surprised
that she did this.
00:36:31
I think that says something. They knew from a young age
that she was an awful person.
00:36:35
She might be in that
sociopath category, just couldn't feel anything
for anybody but herself.
00:36:41
And she was the biggest
liar that I have ever seen at any 11 years of doing this.
00:36:46
And she was pretty
good at it for a while. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
Today, Bob Poynter remains an
All-American hero,
00:36:54
loved by all who knew him. He was a class act, a true
brother in the fire service,
00:37:00
a great dad, and he's
just a good man overall. And a good friend and
I miss him every day.
00:37:11
MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG: When
Bob Poynter made Chacey Tyler Morman his wife, he never
could have predicted
00:37:16
the sweet and sassy blonde
he fell in love with, would become a serial cheater. And she would eventually
have him killed.
00:37:25
Yet another example, that the
person you meet and marry, may one day become
your murderer.
00:37:32
I am convinced that if
Chacey Poynter had not been caught, that
she probably would
00:37:37
have gone on to do this again. We'd be talking about
a serial killer. MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG:
I'm Michelle Trachtenberg,
00:37:42
and I'll see you next
time on Meet Marry Murder. [drum music playing]