Infamous Mahoning Valley convicted murderer Marie Poling has died in prison
One of Ohio’s most infamous killers who was up for a parole hearing later this summer, has died in prison.
The Trumbull County Prosecutor’s office was notified on June 9 by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections that Marie Poling, formerly of Howland, died on May 20, 2025. No cause of death has been given.
Poling was serving a life sentence at the Marysville Reformatory for Women for the 1988 shooting death of her husband Richard, who was shot in the head while sleeping on the couch inside their Howland home.
Upon learning of Poling’s death, Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins has been in contact with surviving victims in the case. He also thanked the police, experts, witnesses, the judge and jury plus the many appeals courts and parole boards who upheld Marie Poling’s conviction and sentence.
“Cold-blooded hardly describes her,” Watkins recalled. “Metaphorically speaking, she had antifreeze running through her veins.”
Watkins singled out the investigative work of the Howland Police Department, the Trumbull County Coroner’s Office the Ohio Attorney General’s BCI office, and members of the Pennsylvania State Police.
Poling’s story has been the subject of a book and crime film productions. Investigators have said it was one of the worst crimes they had ever seen.
Watkins tried the Poling case in 1988 with former assistant prosecutor and former Warren Municipal Judge Thomas Gysegem. Watkins said he has opposed Poling’s release from prison by writing letters in 1990, 2005, 2010, 2014, 2019, and most recently in 2022 on behalf of the victim’s family. She was scheduled to face the parole board for another hearing in August 2025. In past letters, Watkins has called Polling “a black widow killer.”
In 1991, Watkins appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show with Richard Poling’s sister, Debra, opposing any release for Marie Poling, who had at the time sought clemency because she claimed she was a “battered wife”.
According to the case’s evidence, Poling recruited her lover Rafael Garcia Jr. to help get rid of the body. They rented an ax, cut off the victim’s head and dumped the body near Washington, Pennsylvania.
In a scene from “Deadly Women” an Investigation Discovery TV channel presentation of the case, Watkins talked about how Howland detectives got Garcia to confess to the murder and the heinous aftermath, saying Garcia first wanted to use a chainsaw to remove the head and then settled on using an ax. On the video, Garcia had told detectives Poling had thought about killing her husband for months, including thoughts about hiring a hit man locally and in New York.
“Personally, I don’t like to sensationalize the murder of any human being,” Watkins had said about the television appearances.
Watkins concluded by saying that Poling’s responsibility for the murder “never ended.”
“If evil-doers would stop their killings, then peace would prevail,” Watkins said. “She alone bears responsibility for the great harm she wrought on others. So sad, so unnecessary, but justice was served.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2025 at 4:25 PM