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ORINDA, CA -- The state Supreme Court denied an appeal Wednesday by Susan Polk, convicted of murdering her psychotherapist husband in Orinda during an acrimonious divorce. Polk stabbed Felix Polk at a cottage on their Orinda property in 2002 and claimed self-defense, . . . A state appeals court disagreed with those arguments and upheld the conviction in December. The state's high court unanimously denied review Wednesday.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A state appeals court on Monday upheld the murder conviction of Susan Polk, 53, who stabbed her psychotherapist husband in Orinda during an acrimonious divorce in 2002 and then acted as her own lawyer at a raucous trial. A Contra Costa County judge sentenced Polk to 16 years to life in prison in 2007 after a jury convicted her of second-degree murder in the death of Felix Polk, 71, who was stabbed in a cottage on their Orinda property. The two had met 30 years earlier, when she went to him for therapy as a high school...

ORINDA -- Many buyers would like a 3,500-square-foot home, made of redwood with a pool nestled among more than an acre of oaks in a tony enclave. The asking price of $1.5 million shouldn't scare anyone away, but knowing convicted murderer Susan Polk stabbed her husband to death in the poolhouse might. "There are some people who couldn't care less and others that don't want anything to do with it," said Gayle Langston, a real estate agent with Alain Pinel Realtors Montclair Village in Oakland. "Then there are the others that are intrigued." Because of the highly publicized murder, the...

Susan Polk concluded her testimony Thursday at a hearing to determine whether she must pay the county $219,373.13 to cover the costs of her murder trial. "I'm being billed for services I supposedly desired," Polk told Superior Court Judge Thomas Maddock at the hearing, which was continued from Aug. 21. "I didn't desire them." Contra Costa County has billed Polk, 49, for the costs of attorneys, legal services and expert witnesses. County officials say Polk will be able to pay once her Orinda home, which is listed at $1.5 million, is sold. Wearing a green County Jail jumpsuit and gold-plated...

MARTINEZ -- A Superior Court judge is set to hear evidence this afternoon and decide whether convicted murderer Susan Polk must reimburse the county $219,373.31 for her trial expenses. Polk was transferred from state prison to Superior Court this morning to contest contentions by attorneys representing Contra Costa County who say she should pay back the county for the attorneys, investigators and subpoena delivery services the county paid for. Polk told Presiding Judge Terence Bruiniers that, although her home is on the market for $1.5 million, she is indigent and cannot afford the legal costs. "I am disputing the contention...

A federal judge has dismissed the bulk of a civil rights lawsuit that accused Contra Costa sheriff's deputies of traumatizing the housemates of Scott Dyleski as they searched for Dyleski after the killing of Pamela Vitale, the wife of lawyer and television commentator Daniel Horowitz. Deputies had the right to enter the home on Hunsaker Canyon Road without warrants, as they believed Dyleski might be destroying evidence, U.S. District Judge William Alsup wrote in a ruling Monday. Kim and Fred Curiel and their three children, along with Mike Sikkema and his wife, Hazel McClure, and their two children, said deputies...

CATHERINE CRIER has seen her share of notorious, even bizarre cases in a three-decade career that has taken her from district attorney to civil litigator, judge, legal analyst and now host of Court TV's "Catherine Crier Live." Yet, even she couldn't imagine a more extraordinary case than that of Susan Polk.From day one, Crier was intrigued by the case of the Orinda housewife convicted in June of second-degree murder in the October 2002 stabbing death of her therapist-turned-husband, Felix Polk."They live in this beautiful, million-dollar home," she explained Monday while in San Francisco promoting the book. "The husband is...

MARTINEZ - The Orinda woman who murdered her husband three decades after meeting him when he was her therapist was sentenced today to 16 years to life in state prison. Judge Laurel Brady told Susan Polk that she didn't believe her claim that she stabbed to death Felix Polk in an act of self-defense. "I did not find that evidence credible, not did it match the physical evidence," Brady told the 49-year-old Polk. Polk averted her away from the judge as Brady handed down the sentence. Within a few seconds, she began taking notes on a pad in front of...

Susan Polk, the Orinda woman convicted last year of killing her husband, Felix, will be sentenced today. Before the sentencing, Polk's attorney is expected to argue that the housewife deserves a new trial on the grounds that the judge erred in jury selection and instructions. Let's take a look back at the some of the highlights of the bizarre trial of Polk, who hired and fired four attorneys, then finally ended up representing herself. (She has also had trouble finding a lawyer for the sentencing phase.) The murder occurred way back in 2002, and immediately, the Polk's acrimonious divorce...

MARTINEZ -- Another attorney has declined to represent convicted murderer Susan Polk before she is sentenced for killing her husband. Vallejo attorney Dan Russo told Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Laurel Brady today that Polk was "not completely comfortable with me." "I apologize," Russo said. "I'm not going to be able to accept the case." Russo said, however, that Point Richmond attorney Linda Fullerton had expressed an interest in representing Polk. Fullerton is a member of the county bar association's conflict panel, which assigns attorneys for defendants. Last week, Brady said 19 attorneys who were part of the panel...

MARTINEZ -- Susan Polk appeared in Contra Costa County Superior Court today and almost immediately began arguing with Judge Laurel Brady as they discussed who would legally represent the Orinda housewife before she is sentenced for killing her husband. Today, Brady said Point Richmond attorney Charles Hoehn, who had tentatively agreed to represent Polk in July for pre-sentencing purposes, had stepped down. Hoehn has said he couldn't effectively represent her without the trial transcript -- Brady declined his request for the voluminous record -- and also cited scheduling concerns. Further complicating the issue, Brady said that the Contra Costa County...

MARTINEZ -- A defense attorney who stepped in to represent convicted murderer Susan Polk at her sentencing stepped down Monday. Defense attorney Charlie Hoehn took Polk's case after her conviction to assist in writing pre-sentencing motions, including a motion for a new trial. A jury convicted Polk in June of second degree murder in the 2002 stabbing death of her husband, Felix Polk. She acted as her own attorney at trial and testified that she killed him in self-defense. On Monday, Brady said a trial transcript will not be available until Polk's appeal. Hoehn had requested a copy of the...

LAFAYETTE - Pamela Vitale was planning the installation of cabinets and floors for her dream mansion in October. "She had never had her own house," said her daughter, Marisa. "We always lived in apartments. She wanted it to be like an Italian villa."Just down the street from the new home's site in the rural, wooded hills of Lafayette, a 16-year-old neighbor, Scott Dyleski, was stealing credit card information to purchase marijuana-growing equipment, his close friend has testified.Prosecutors say Vitale, 52, crossed paths with the teenager Oct. 15 when he entered the modular home at the mansion's construction site where she...

Scott Dyleski's murder trial should be moved out of Contra Costa County because of a "media feeding frenzy" that has contaminated the jury pool, his attorney said in court documents made available Thursday. Deputy Public Defender Ellen Leonida cited newspaper articles and television reports that referred to the "alleged 'Goth' lifestyle of Scott Dyleski" and the possibility of "occult connections to the crime," specifically the description by some media that a "Gothic symbol" was carved onto the back of slaying victim Pamela Vitale. Vitale's husband, Daniel Horowitz, has been described as "well-known" and "prominent," drawing even more attention and further...

MARTINEZ -- Convicted murderer Susan Polk returned to court with an attorney today and immediately delayed her sentencing for next week on the grounds that she wants a new trial in the killing of her husband. Contra Costa County sheriff's deputies escorted a handcuffed Polk, 48, into a Martinez courtroom, where she was greeted by attorney Charles Hoehn. Hoehn told Superior Court Judge Terence Bruiniers that Polk wanted to delay her sentencing, which had been scheduled for July 14. On June 16, a jury convicted Polk of second-degree murder in the October 2002 slaying of her husband, Felix Polk, 70,...

MARTINEZ - Five minutes after a jury convicted Susan Polk of second-degree murder June 16, the Orinda housewife who had spent three months representing herself in court requested an attorney. Polk, now facing up to 16 years to life in prison, is set to appear Thursday for a pre-sentencing hearing with a court-appointed lawyer. She requested an attorney to help draft motions before her July 14 sentencing. Legal experts say Polk's courtroom experience demonstrates why judges should order more psychological tests before allowing defendants to represent themselves. "At least you should have somebody look into it and decide whether (the...

MARTINEZ - Susan Polk will arrive this summer at a state prison in Chowchilla, a world away from her once posh life as a homemaker who loved to garden at her million-dollar Orinda home. That bus ride could come days after July 14, when Judge Laurel Brady is scheduled to sentence Polk to 16 years to life in prison for stabbing to death her husband, Felix Polk, in 2002.When a court clerk read the second-degree murder verdict Friday, one of the few close supporters with Polk in the courtroom was her case manager, Valerie Harris, who the defendant fired at...

MARTINEZ - A jury today convicted an Orinda housewife of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of her husband, a psychologist she met as a teenage patient and later married. The jury deliberated three days before deciding that Susan Polk, 48, killed her husband, 70-year-old Felix Polk in 2002 during a fight in the pool house of their home. The defendant, who represented herself at trial, looked relieved when the clerk pronounced her not guilty of first-degree, but showed no reaction when the final second-degree guilty verdict was read. Prosecutor Paul Sequeira pushed back in his chair when he heard...

MARTINEZ, Calif. A strange trial in a San Francisco suburb has ended with a suburban housewife convicted of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of her therapist husband. Defendant Susan Polk acted as her own attorney. Two of her sons testified against her, and she testified she had psychic powers. Prosecutors had sought a first-degree murder conviction, arguing that Polk plotted to kill her husband in 2002 for his multi-(m) million-dollar estate. Polk testified her husband died as she fought back in self-defense following years of abuse. She'd met him when she was a teenager and he was her therapist....

2nd Degree Murder