NBC Dateline: Why did Robert Poynter's wife Chacey Poynter have him killed and where is she now?

During Chacey Poynter's 2019 trial, the prosecution argued that on September 9, 2016, the night of Robert Poynter’s murder, she enticed her 47-year-old husband to an isolated Hunt County road where her lover, Michael Garza, fatally shot him in the head.

Graza was a pawn in her twisted plan, which also involved her other lovers, to get rid of her firefighter husband and their failing marriage. He was most certainly planning to sell the house, file for divorce, and fight for custody of their daughter. But financial gain was also a factor, as Chacey, then 29, planned to acquire a $680,000 life insurance policy upon her husband's death.

Although Michael Graza and Chacey Poynter were found guilty and sentenced to prison, the Royse City community never fully recovered from the tragic death of the honorable and beloved veteran firefighter Robert Poynter.

As NBC Dateline prepares to revisit the story this Friday, August 26, 2022, let's take a detailed look at the case that was allegedly fuelled by a complicated love triangle and greed.

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Chacey Poynter made a frantic 911 call after her husband was shot

Robert and Chacey Poynter, who had been married since 2009, were reportedly going through a divorce when Chacey began making plans for her husband's murder with Michael Garza, one of the many men she was courting back then. She alleged that her husband assaulted her physically and verbally and threatened to deny her custody of their daughter.

According to the prosecution, Chacey contacted Michael the day before the murder and said,

"I can't love you unless Robert is out of the picture."

She later confessed to the police, claiming that she had s*x with Garza the following day at his house and that they discussed how to make the shooting seem like a burglary. Poynter pretended that her Jeep was bogged in the mud and lured her husband into a carefully planned trap.

However, Chacey Poynter later testified that she never intended for her husband to die and only wanted to "scare" him. But Graza acted on his own, even when she asked him to stop. He allegedly shot Robert once in the head and tossed her cellphone into a puddle when Chacey attempted to dial 911.

However, when cops arrived at the scene, Chacey directed them to her husband's body but allegedly lied to them back then. The 29-year-old told authorities that while her husband was assisting her with the jeep, an unidentified man emerged from the dark bushes and shot her husband fatally. She slowly started changing the narrative and ultimately confessed.

Later, Chacey reportedly said,

"I didn’t want him dead. I just – I wanted him to know what it’s like to be bullied all the time."

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Where is Chacey Poynter now?

Chacey Poynter was tried before a jury in 2019 where the prosecution claimed that the accused used s*x and deception to manipulate Michael Garza, her accomplice in the murder, into performing all the dirty work. She even planned on having s*x with another lover later that day.

She allegedly attempted to persuade multiple lovers to kill Robert, but only Garza complied. They claimed that Poynter had been pressured into taking action because of Robert's likely intention to initiate a divorce proceeding. Moreover, she wanted to make a claim on Robert's $680,000 life insurance policy.

Then-32-year-old Chacey Poynter was convicted of capital murder following a two-week trial. She received a life sentence without the possibility of parole and is currently detained in the Texas prison system's Christina Melton Crain Unit. Michael Graza was also sentenced to 99 years in prison and is now serving the lengthy term in Bowie County, Texas, at the Barry Telford Unit.

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NBC Dateline will air its upcoming episode, titled Out of the Darkness, this Friday, August 26, 2022, at 10 pm ET.