Lake Elsinore Man Who Murdered Spouse Found Sane

A Lake Elsinore man who claimed he suffered a temporary mental breakdown which caused him to asphyxiate his wife was found sane Friday and is slated to be sentenced later this summer to 25 years to life in prison.

Last July, a Riverside jury found 61-year-old Ted Preston Howard guilty of first-degree murder in the 2012 death of 66-year-old Jeannette Howard.

The defense had argued that Ted Howard suffered from mental illness and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz decided to proceed with the jury trial and to conduct a bench trial for the mental competency phase at a later time.

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Scheduling conflicts delayed the competency trial until this week, with roughly two days of testimony from expert witnesses called by the prosecution and defense. Schwartz issued his ruling after the two sides rested today.

The judge set a sentencing hearing for Aug. 21. Howard remains held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in downtown Riverside.

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 to provide details, but he only gave 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 told Deputy District Attorney Burke Strunsky that he was 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.