DOVER, Del. -- A woman convicted of stalking and killing a man and woman and then stealing their baby was spared the death sentence Friday when a jury recommended life in prison without probation or parole.
The same jury that convicted Joyce Lynch, 36, of first-degree murder and other charges Thursday returned the sentencing recommendation Friday after 40 minutes of deliberation.
Lynch lowered her face and sobbed into her hands as the jury's verdict recommending against the death penalty was read.
Lynch and her husband, Richard, were charged in the Christmas Eve 1987 slayings of Joseph Gibson, 32, and his wife, Beverly Gibson, 27, at their Hazlettville, Del., trailer, and the theft of their baby after allegedly faking a pregnancy.
Richard Lynch, 27, is to be tried on the same charges in September.
'I'm delighted at the outcome, despite the verdicts yesterday,' said defense lawyer Duane Werb, who nevertheless intends to appeal the conviction.
Relatives of the murdered couple were 'somewhat disappointed' at the decision, said family spokesman Rev. Kenneth Valentine.
Werb had pleaded for leniency, pointing out that Lynch had no criminal background. He said she did not pull the trigger in the killing, and that she had been abused by her husband. Eight defense witnesses added their pleas for mercy with testimony to her good character.
Deputy Attorney General Ferris Wharton called for the maximum penalty because of the enormity of the crime and the aggravating circumstances. Lynch would have been the first woman to be sentenced to death row in more than 50 years in Delaware.
Superior Court Judge Henry Ridgley did not set a date for a formal sentencing, but he must abide by the jury's decision.
Lynch, who testified in her own defense, claimed her husband drugged her and convinced her she was pregnant, despite the hysterectomy she underwent a decade earlier.
The Gibsons' 9-day-old son, Matthew, was found safe at the Lynch residence about 25 miles away and is being raised, along with a brother and sister, by his paternal grandfather.
Investigators say they may never know who pulled the trigger to kill the Gibsons. Their bodies were found at their rural trailer west of Dover the morning of Dec. 24, 1987, after their daughter, 5-year-old Rebecca, awoke and discovered her father face down on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood.
She did not see her mother, whose nightgown-clad body was in the family car, apparently shot in a desperate attempt to flee. Both Gibsons had been shot twice with a .357 magnum handgun.
Investigators focused on the Lynches after tracing a telephone call made to Gibson's father days before the murder from a woman claiming to be a new acquaintance of Beverly's and asking for directions to their home.
Lynch was convicted of first-degree murder, burglary -- for entering the residence with the intention of committing a crime -- conspiracy, possession of a deadly weapon in the commission of a crime and unlawful imprisonment.
