The Region - News from June 1, 1986

Cal State Fullerton professor Richard L. Smith has been sentenced to 17 years to life in prison for murdering his girlfriend’s estranged husband. A jury convicted the 44-year-old philosophy professor of murder and then rejected his claim that he was insane when he killed Donald Lee Matters on May 3, 1984. Evidence showed that Smith waited outside the condominium complex in Orange where Matters, 38, a construction worker, lived and shot him four times. Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Avdeef argued that a love triangle had led Smith to kill Matters, the estranged husband of Smith’s girlfriend and former student, Consuelo Matters, 39.