Is He Sane? Man Who Killed Wife in Lake Elsinore Facing Mental Competency Trial

A hearing is scheduled Thursday to set a date for the mental competency trial of a 60-year-old Lake Elsinore man who asphyxiated his wife.

Last month, a jury deliberated one day before finding Ted Preston Howard guilty of first-degree murder in the 2012 death of 66-year-old Jeannette Howard.

Deputy Public Defender Johnnetta Anderson maintains that her client is mentally ill and was not sane at the time of the crime.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Freer is expected to schedule a competency trial before the end of the year at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

A possible motive for the deadly attack on Jeannette Howard remains unclear, as her husband never told investigators what transpired on the afternoon of June 17, 2012.

During the defendant’s trial, a recording of the 18-minute 911 call he made to report his wife’s death was played for jurors. The dispatcher repeatedly asked Howard about the circumstances that led to his wife’s death, but only got flat, abbreviated responses.

“Can you tell me what happened until the deputies get there?” the dispatcher asked.

“No,” Howard replied.

“How did it happen?” the dispatcher asked.

“She’s dead,” Howard answered.

“Was your wife sick?” the dispatcher asked.

“I think it’s just me,” Howard said.

Sheriff’s Investigator Gary Bowen said that when he arrived at the single-story house at 32560 Payne St., he saw the victim face-down in a hallway, her hands and feet bound with electrical cords and a trash bag tied around her head “in a very tight knot.”

The detective recalled being overwhelmed by a “malodorous feculence” from cat excrement all over the house. Jeannette Howard was known to adopt stray felines wherever she found them.

An autopsy showed that she suffocated as a result of the bag being wrapped around her head.

— City News Service.