San Diego

The district attorney’s office filed special circumstances allegations Friday against a Kensington man who is charged with poisoning his wife with strychnine mixed in a tequila drink.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Eichler said his office will not seek the death penalty but will ask for a life sentence without the possibility of parole if John Morency is convicted of his wife’s murder.

Morency, 47, pleaded not guilty before San Diego Superior Court Judge Herbert Exarhos, who ordered him to return Feb. 21 to set a trial date.

The victim, Sue Anne Morency, 30, died Aug. 5, 1990, five days after being admitted to a hospital in severe pain.

The grounds for the special circumstances allegations are that Morency murdered the victim with poison and committed the slaying for financial gain.

Testimony during his preliminary hearing last month indicated that he had tried to double his wife’s life insurance policy shortly before the July 31 incident, when paramedics were summoned to their home.

Eichler said there was no particular reason his office rejected seeking the death penalty, but that it was a consensus that life without parole would be an appropriate sentence.

Morency remains in County Jail without bail.