JURORS RULE POHLMEIER WAS INSANE : CONVICTED 92-YEAR-OLD TO SERVE SENTENCE AT MENTAL HOSPITAL.

Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer

Alfred Pohlmeier, the 92-year-old former postal clerk convicted of strangling his ailing wife in the bedroom of their Fillmore mobile home, was found Tuesday to have been insane at the time of the slaying.

A jury deliberated a day before ruling that the county's oldest convicted murderer should be sentenced to a mental hospital rather than prison for killing his wife, Lidwina.

Pohlmeier will be evaluated by mental health workers before an April 2 hearing to determine where he will be assigned, although it is likely to be Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, his attorney said. However, he could be released if and when he is determined sane.

Pohlmeier, who has sat hunched in a wheelchair wearing a headset hearing aid throughout the trial, showed little emotion during the reading of the verdict. But Deputy Public Defender Susan Olson said the father of five expressed relief that the trial was over.

``He was relieved for his family,'' Olson said. ``Now they have some explanation that makes some kind of sense rather than just that their 90-year-old father who had always been a kind and gentle person one day up and killed their mother.''

Prosecutors said the jury - which last month found Pohlmeier guilty of second-degree murder - may have felt sympathy for the infirm defendant.

``I'm not really surprised,'' said Deputy District Attorney Don Glynn. ``In the guilt phase of the trial, they obviously followed the law and didn't let their sympathy sway them. I'm not so sure what swayed them in this case.''

But Olson said she believes the decision was based on medical evidence and not sympathy.

``I'm sure they felt compassion, but I don't feel that's why they found him insane,'' she said. ``The evidence was there and they followed the law.''

During the weeklong sanity phase, two medical experts testified for Pohlmeier, saying he suffered from a brain disorder called frontal lobe syndrome. The condition, coupled with the stress and sleeplessness of caring for his chronically ailing wife, prevented Pohlmeier from understanding the implications of his act.

Olson said Pohlmeier's brain damage is permanent, but the insanity verdict applies only to his condition at the time of the slaying. Now that the stress of caring for his wife is removed, Pohlmeier could be declared sane immediately, she said.

``He may not be insane now,'' Olson said. ``I want him evaluated by experts to make that determination.''

Since his arrest two years ago, Pohlmeier has been confined to the medical ward of the county jail. The county pays $8,000 a month for 24-hour nursing care and also covered the expense of brain surgery Pohlmeier underwent last year after falling and hitting his head.