WARREN — When Dennis Watkins talks about the 1988 trial of Marie Poling, the Howland woman convicted of murdering her husband by shooting him as he slept on the couch after a hard day’s work, the Trumbull County prosecutor has total recall of the three-and-a-half decades old case.

“I don’t forget a detail of that case. After all, we did a lot of work getting that conviction,” Watkins said recently as he sat behind his desk in his fourth-floor office of the county administration building.

Her husband, Richard Poling, also was beheaded.

Watkins is still doing work to keep Poling in prison — 34 years later.

The notorious killer is up for parole later this month as three members of the Ohio Adult Parole Authority will visit with Poling in a conference room outside her cell at the Ohio State Reformatory for Women in Marysville.

This will be the fifth attempt at parole for Poling, who in 1988 was sentenced to 24 years to life in prison. Watkins has written six letters about the case, dating back to Aug. 9, 1988.

“I have consistently and strongly opposed inmate Poling’s release on parole,” the prosecutor writes.

Watkins said he is not surprised to learn about Poling’s exemplary behavior record while in prison.

“After all, she is an actress at heart, not one as accomplished as Meryl Streep, but rather one more like Lizzie Borden,” Watkins writes.

THE CRIME

After shooting Poling in the head, Watkins recalls, she convinced her illicit lover Rafael Garcia — with whom she carried on a torrid affair at their job in a nursing home — to dismember her husband with a rental ax. The pair performed the abuse of the corpse in Poling’s basement and then drove Garcia’s Chevrolet Cavalier on a trip to western Pennsylvania to dump the remains of Richard. They dumped the torso near the old Meadows racetrack off Interstate 79 and later put the head in a wooded area farther north in Washington County.

In the letter, Watkins refers to Poling’s powerful personality, warning parole board members about her “ever-present ability she possesses to manipulate, use and fool others.”

He talks about the woman’s “utter lack of a conscience, which enables her to kill.”

Citing a 2014 letter to the parole board, Watkins said Poling planned for months to murder her husband. “She bragged about getting away with the perfect murder to a friend two years prior,” Watkins said.

Watkins also referred to the details from two police interviews with Garcia. These interviews included present Sheriff Paul Monroe, when he was a young detective with Howland police.

“During conversations with Rafael weeks before the execution of her husband, she told him that she had tried battery acid on a chicken leg and that the acid ‘ate the whole bone,'” Watkins stated.

Watkins recalled that Garcia — minutes before he testified before a grand jury — had confessed to helping Poling. Garcia later pleaded guilty to crimes involving the abuse of the corpse and obstructing justice and served 13 years before being released from prison in 2001.

PLAN UNRAVELED

When Poling’s plan began to unravel, Watkins noted that “she went into her ‘crying-and-lying mode’ with most everyone who would listen.”

“For example, when the torso of Richard’s body was discovered by police in a ravine, she upon request went to the morgue and positively identified Richard’s body by dramatically crying and then caressing and rubbing his cold hand and exclaiming, ‘Who could have done this to my husband!'” Watkins wrote.

Poling continued this type of behavior before the jury at trial, Watkins said, painting a picture that she was an abused wife.

In citing that Poling had enrolled into programs in prison, including one on “Battered Women’s Syndrome,” Watkins wants the board to make one thing perfectly clear:

“Let me inform the board that Marie Poling was never a battered woman, and her trial proved that. In fact, the only battering going on then and perhaps now is Marie Poling’s effort to batter the truth,” Watkins writes.

A DAUGHTER’S TALE

Shortly before Poling’s 2019 parole hearing, Watkins tells the board he was contacted by Richard and Marie Poling’s only daughter, Kimberly.

“(Kimberly) minced no words with me … telling me that she is totally opposed to her mother’s release on parole,” Watkins writes, noting that the Ohio Public Defender Office had asked Kimberly to help with her mother’s parole hearing.

Watkins said Kimberly told him that as a 6-year-old, she was abandoned by her mother when she chose to murder her father.

Now living in Missouri, Kimberly told Watkins and Mary Jo Hoso of the prosecutor’s victim / witness assistance division that she would be willing to come back to Ohio to attend future parole hearings to oppose her mother’s release.

“She believes her mother is evil, and therefore should be required to serve out her life sentence in prison,” Watkins writes.

The prosecutor uses the guidelines of Ohio Administrative Code Rule 5120 to try to convince the board that Poling should not be released. The code states if “there is substantial reason to believe the unique factors of the offense outweigh rehabilitative efforts,” or “if the release of the inmate into society would create undue risk to public safety and / or would not further the interest of of justice nor be consistent with the welfare and security of society,” then the inmate should not be released.

Without any reservation, Watkins believes that Poling committed one of the worst forms to the most serious of crimes one can perpetuate — premeditated murder.

“In summary, whether it is under old or new guidelines today, it appears that the law clearly intends that some of the worst killers should serve actual life sentences. Otherwise why would the legislative authority say ‘life sentence’ when in fact, everyone is released on parole before dying in prison?” Watkins asked.

In conclusion, Watkins thinks there “should be no wiggle room left for this evil-doer and modern-day criminal chameleon.”

Laura E. Austen, deputy director for policy and outreach in the office of the Ohio Public Defender, said it is her office’s policy to not speak about the case of a prison inmate who is preparing for a parole hearing.