Man accused of poisoning wife with nicotine in 1994

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- Twenty years after his wife, Linda Curry, died, Paul Curry, a nuclear engineer at the San Onofre nuclear power plant, is on trial for her murder.

In his opening statement, the prosecutor says Paul Curry killed his then 50-year-old wife, who did not smoke, with nicotine. The murder allegedly occurred just nine months into their marriage.

"You're going to hear how easy it is, not just for a chemist, not just for someone who works as a nuclear engineer, how easy it is for just anyone to get nicotine in the form that can be used as a poison," Assistant District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh told an Orange County Superior Court jury Tuesday.

The prosecution says months before her death, Linda Curry was hospitalized a few times after feeling ill. Puzzled doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong.

On June 9, 1994, sheriff's investigators say, Paul Curry called from the couple's home in San Clemente reporting Linda had stopped breathing. She later died at a hospital.

The cold case had stumped authorities. Years later, detectives took another look at the case, scientific evidence sent them to interview Paul Curry, who was now living in Kansas, where he worked in government, overseeing building inspections.

When questioned, Paul Curry said he had no reason to kill his wife, and that they had plans to be together for years to come.

Curry was arrested and charged with murder in November 2012. The prosecution claims the motive was nearly $550,000 from Linda Curry's life insurance policies and other benefits.

But Paul Curry's defense attorney, Lisa Kopelman, says not so fast, this isn't murder, she argues Linda Curry was not well and had been ill before the couple even met.

"She'd been diagnosed over the years with things like chronic fatigue syndrome," Kopelman said. "She'd been diagnosed with thyroid problems. She'd been diagnosed with anxiety and depression."

Paul Curry has been charged with one count of murder. If convicted, he faces a maximum of life without the possibility of parole in state prison.

ABC News and CNS contributed to this report.