Robert Mark Edwards

Robert Mark Edwards (born 1961) is an American murderer who killed two female realtors in sexually motivated murders, one in California in 1986 and another in Hawaii in 1993. In separate trials, he was sentenced to death and to life imprisonment in the respective states and is currently awaiting execution at the California Institution for Men.

Murders In May 1986, Edwards went to the Los Alamitos home of 55-year-old realtor Marjorie Elaine Deeble, the mother of his then-girlfriend Katherine Valentine. Once inside, he bound her hands and legs, a gag in her mouth, and a belt tied around her neck. After sexually assaulting her and sodomizing her with a hair mousse can, Edwards proceeded to beat her to death before stealing jewelry from her home and leaving the premises. After being reported missing for several days, police were called in to inspect Deeble's home, only to find her apartment door slightly open and her body lying on the floor. An autopsy was conducted on the day of the discovery, with Lt. Orville Lewis announcing in a press statement the following day that Deeble's death was ruled a murder, and that she was possibly sexually assaulted. At the time, Edwards was routinely questioned regarding the murder, but was not considered a serious suspect.

Sometime after the murder, Edwards, a convicted criminal with a record for offenses such as burglary, theft, auto theft, and drug offenses, violated his parole conditions by moving to Maui County, Hawaii, where he took up work as a roofer, to escape a car theft conviction. In 1990, he was arrested for attempting to stab a woman and charged with assault, but the case was not prosecuted as he was extradited to California to serve out his parole violation, which he served until early 1991.

On January 25, 1993, Edwards broke into the Kanoe Resort condominium of 67-year-old realtor Muriel E. Delbecq, an Indiana-born employee for Heritage Real Estate in Anchorage, Alaska who often vacationed in Kihei. After encountering her, he proceeded to tie her to the bed, before beating and strangling her to death. On February 2, Edwards was arrested and charged with Delbecq's murder, in addition to two counts of sexual assault, robbery and kidnapping relating to the case. His initial bail was set at $500,000. Around the same time, California authorities announced their intentions to charge him with the cold case murder of Deeble back in Los Alamitos after noticing that many details from the crime scenes matched, such as the victims having the same initials, their occupations and the way they had been murdered.

His trial began on March 1, 1994, and lasted two weeks. During the proceedings, Maui Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Barbaro presented the autopsy report of Delbecq's body, which showcased the many severe injuries she had suffered both pre and post-mortem, in addition to an abundance of physical and DNA evidence located at the crime scene. In early June 1994, Edwards was sentenced to five consecutive life terms plus $304,600 in restitution to the Delbecq family. Shortly after the sentence was handed down, extradition procedures to California were initiated. In response, Edwards' defense attorney Daniel P. Bates pointed out that there were obvious differences, such as Deeble's neck being broken, as well as having bite marks and scratches, which Delbecq's body lacked. In contrast, his former girlfriends said that he was violent during sex, often trying to choke them and even attempting to sodomize one with a bottle. As a result, a new trial with a new set of jurors was rescheduled for November 1997. On September 9, 1998, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty on all charges, resulting in a swift death sentence for Edwards.

Status As of June 2026, Edwards remains on death row at the California Institution for Men. He and his lawyers have unsuccessfully attempted to commute his sentence on several occasions, the latest being in 2013, which was denied by the Supreme Court of California.