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Man convicted in wife's nicotine poisoning death

SANTA ANA, Cali. -- A man accused of using nicotine more than two decades ago to poison and kill his wife has been convicted, reports CBS Los Angeles.

An Orange County, Cali., jury found Paul Marshal Curry, 57, guilty Tuesday of first-degree murder. He faces life in prison.

Prosecutors said Curry killed his 50-year-old wife, Linda, to collect more than $500,000 in life insurance and benefits after she died. Prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh said during the trial that Curry sedated his wife before injecting her with nicotine to slowly kill her.

Baytieh called Curry a "vicious, cold-blooded murderer," driven by greed and an "insatiable appetite for money."

Curry's lawyer, Lisa Kopelman, said Curry's wife suffered from a series of health issues.

But Baytieh said the victim herself pointed at her husband as the likely culprit during one of her many trips to hospitals.

"Well, the only person I could think of that would do it would be Paul, and the only motive I can think of is money," Linda Curry told investigators, according to Baytieh.

She told investigators her husband was acting "sneaky" and that the two had not had sex since they were married, the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor also pointed to the testimony of a woman married to Curry before he met Linda.

"She started getting sick, they can't tell what's wrong, she can barely get out of bed and then he says, 'Hey, honey, let's get some life insurance policies,' " Baytieh said. "He gets accepted, she gets rejected and shortly after that he leaves her, and quickly after that she's fine. That's his M.O., his plan, his scheme. She got lucky because she got rejected."

The former nuclear engineer was arrested in 2010 in Salina, Kan., where he had rebuilt his life and was working as a building official.

Curry and his wife met in 1989 while both worked at the San Onofre nuclear power plant in northern San Diego County.

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