Hollywood marriage and intercourse therapist’s ex-boyfriend sentenced to life in jail for her dying
The ex-boyfriend of a widely known marriage and intercourse therapist was sentenced in the present day to life in jail with out the opportunity of parole for the girl’s lethal plunge from the third-floor balcony of her Hollywood Hills dwelling.
Gareth Pursehouse, 45, of Playa del Rey, was convicted of first-degree homicide for the killing of 38-year-old Amie Harwick within the early morning hours of Feb. 15, 2020.
Jurors deliberated about two days earlier than discovering Pursehouse responsible Sept. 28 of Harwick’s killing, together with the first-degree housebreaking of Harwick’s dwelling.
The panel additionally discovered true a particular circumstance allegation of homicide whereas mendacity in wait.
Prosecutors argued in the course of the trial that Harwick was caught abruptly by Pursehouse, who broke into her dwelling, waited for hours, attacked her after which tossed her off the third-floor balcony.
In his closing argument, Deputy District Legal professional Victor Avila informed jurors that Pursehouse selected Valentine’s Day to finish Harwick’s life and that she “would not know what’s ready for her at dwelling” when she returned early the following morning after an evening out with mates.
The prosecutor stated Pursehouse was a “man who could not transfer on,” and famous that Harwick had written an electronic mail to herself and despatched textual content messages to mates indicating that she was frightened of Pursehouse after randomly seeing him at an occasion a few month earlier and rebuffing his subsequent makes an attempt to remain involved along with her.
“He did not go there to speak. He is on a mission,” the prosecutor stated. “He is offended, he feels rejected.”
The deputy district legal professional stated Pursehouse broke into the girl’s dwelling, waited for 3 to 4 hours, punched and strangled her as she tried to combat for her life after which dropped her over the balcony.
“This isn’t a defendant who’s depressed,” Avila stated.
The 2 had dated years earlier for about 18 months, with Harwick finally acquiring a restraining order in opposition to him in 2012.
One in all Pursehouse’s attorneys, Robin Bernstein-Lev, informed jurors that her consumer misplaced management after being overwhelmed by his feelings and “impulsively broke in” to Harwick’s dwelling in a “determined try” to speak along with her.
Pursehouse was “struggling an incredible emotional upheaval — one which interfered along with his thought course of” after seeing her within the “probability encounter” a few month earlier that “left him reeling,” she stated.
“Gareth was consumed by feelings and in a disaster,” Pursehouse’s lawyer informed the panel, saying that’s the hallmark of the sorts of feelings that stop an individual from deliberating a first-degree homicide.
“Her dying was by no means his aim,” Bernstein-Lev stated.
An post-mortem decided that the girl died from “blunt pressure accidents of the top and torso” and that there was proof of “guide strangulation,” in line with information from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Workplace.
Police responded to the house round 1:15 a.m. that day within the 2000 block of Mound Road following a 911 name by Harwick’s roommate, who reported listening to her scream.
Harwick, a broadcast writer who was as soon as briefly engaged to comic and “The Value is Proper” host Drew Carey, was taken to a hospital the place she was pronounced useless.
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