Former Howland woman to remain in prison at least five more years in killing of husband

Staff report

WARREN

Marie Poling, the 55-year-old former Howland woman convicted of killing her husband, Richard, in January 1988 in their home, will remain in prison for at least five more years.

The Ohio Parole Board recently refused to release her when she became eligible for parole.

She also was refused in 2005 and 2010.

Poling was a 29-year-old mother of three in 1988 when she shot her husband to death while he slept on the couch of their Niles Road home.

Poling was having an affair with Rafael Garcia Jr. at the time, and called upon Garcia and a female friend to help her dispose of the body.

Garcia rented an ax, which was used to cut off Richard Poling’s head, which was placed along with his torso in the trunk of Garcia’s car, said Dennis Watkins, Trumbull County prosecutor.

Garcia and Marie Poling drove to an area west of Pittsburgh off Interstate 79, where they dumped the torso, then left the head in a ravine farther south.

Garcia, 24 at the time of the murder, was sentenced to five to 25 years for aggravated burglary, abuse of a corpse and obstruction of justice.

He served about 13 years before being paroled in 2001.