A former San Onofre nuclear engineer accused of poisoning his wife to to collect a life insurance payout was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder.

Paul Curry, 57, was blasted by prosecutors as a "vicious, cold-blooded murderer" who was driven by greed and an "insatiable appetite for money" when he killed his 50-year-old wife, Linda, by nicotine poisoning.

Curry was questioned after his wife's death in 1994, but the case went cold, and Curry moved away and got remarried. He also collected $547,695 in life insurance and benefits, prosecutors said.

In 2010, prosecutors put the case together and alleged Curry carried out a willful and deliberate murder.

“It was devastating emotionally when she passed away but to tell you the truth, it was financially devastating, too," Curry said when he was questioned following the death of his wife.

Prosecutors said Curry gave his wife a sleeping pill, then poisoned her with a shot of nicotine because he wanted money from her half-million dollar life insurance policy.

"He had to make sure she was completely sedated before he injected the nicotine," which in high doses induces vomiting, Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh said.

She had a high level of Ambien in her system, a sleeping aid that was not prescribed to her, Baytieh said, and injection marks on the temple and behind her ears.

Defense attorneys, however, said Paul Curry is a smart man who loved his wife and that they were two peas in a pod.



"He did not commit the crime of murder. He is not a murderer," public defender Lisa Kopelman said.

Curry’s attorney said in court last week that he Curry did commit fraud and that he did lie, but only in terms of the insurance.