By KRIS REILLY
For the Leader
VICTORVILLE • In a decision that the defense considered a victory, a jury found a Lucerne Valley man guilty of voluntary manslaughter on Thursday at the Victorville courthouse.
Richard Eric McGill, 53, was charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Donna Foerstel, in 2011.
The district attorney sought a first-degree murder conviction, while the defense argued that McGill killed Foerstel in the heat of an altercation in the couple’s small trailer in Lucerne Valley.
Voluntary manslaughter is defined by the California Penal Code as killing “upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion.” It carries a maximum penalty of 11 years in prison. McGill would have faced 25 years to life if convicted of first-degree murder.
Sentencing is scheduled for April 25.
Wearing a striped dress shirt and slacks, his gray hair cropped close, McGill initially showed little emotion as the verdict was read. He later rubbed his eyes with a tissue and appeared to quietly say “thank you” to his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Maggie Eisenberg.
After the jury of six men and six women was dismissed, McGill said a few more words to Eisenberg and hugged her before he was handcuffed and escorted from Judge Eric Nakata’s courtroom.
“He just said ‘thank you so much, God bless you,’ ” Eisenberg said. “He hugged me, and he was crying.”
Eisenberg said the verdict was the best possible outcome for her client.
“Once I took a good look at the case and learned what I know about the defendant and about the deceased, I knew that this was no more than a heat-of-passion killing,” she said Thursday afternoon.
Deputy District Attorney Bryan Stodghill argued during his closing statement Wednesday that McGill planned to kill Foerstel before he “beat her to death” and tried to cover up the crime.
“I have to respect (the verdict),” Stodghill said Thursday afternoon. “The jury saw all the evidence, we put it all out there, and they made their decision. I think we had a case to make for first-degree murder, and I think we made it. That’s what the whole process is about. The community gets to make the final decision.”
Attorneys concluded their closing statements before 3 p.m. Wednesday, and the jury announced it had a verdict shortly after 11 a.m. the next day.
McGill admitted that he killed Foerstel in an incident that he described as a struggle. He claimed Foerstel attacked him with a hammer while he was sleeping on Aug. 8, 2011. McGill said he kicked Foerstel out of the trailer and her head landed on a bucket of tools and some nearby bricks. He acknowledged that Foerstel sustained at least one hard blow to the head during the fight.
McGill then brought the body into the open desert and covered it with dirt. The body was found on Aug. 13 and McGill was arrested three weeks later in Kansas.
Stodghill contended the crime was premeditated, based largely on the testimony of an acquaintance who said McGill told him he wanted to kill Foerstel a month earlier. Though the jury didn’t agree with that argument, Stodghill took some satisfaction in the voluntary manslaughter conviction.
“The jury believed that he killed her and committed an illegal act,” Stodghill said. “He is being held accountable, and they didn’t believe his statements that it was an accident.”