MARTINEZ — After four days spent cloistered in a deliberation room, the jury in the Susan Polk murder trial found her guilty of second degree murder with special enhancement for using a knife.

Polk sat quietly, as if stunned, as the verdict was read. Two of her sons, Adam and Gabriel, who had testified against her, registered no emotion as they sat in the front row of the courtroom.

Polk, 48, has spent the week in a holding cell in the Martinez courthouse awaiting her fate. She was convicted of second-degree murder of her 70-year-old psychologist husband Frank "Felix" Polk.

However, the judge included lesser offenses for the jury to weigh including voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. If convicted of those charges Polk could be sentenced to only a few years in prison and be eligible for parole very soon.

The verdict concludes a bizarre and hard fought trial that pitted veteran prosecutor Paul Sequeira against the defendant, who represented herself. While Polk at times had trouble grasping legal concepts — like how to properly identify exceptions to hearsay objections — she challenged the prosecutor at every turn, making the trial a test of endurance.

Prosecutor Sequeira argued that Polk is mentally ill, and that her delusions and anger over losing custody of her youngest son, Gabriel Polk, spurred her to stab her husband to death.

Polk told the jury that her husband raped her when she was his teenage therapy patient and that he abused her mentally and physically throughout their 20-year marriage. She says on the night she stabbed him, he attacked her and that she fought back in self defense.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_3946406