The ex-boyfriend of a well-known marriage and sex therapist was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the woman’s deadly plunge from the third-floor balcony of her Hollywood Hills home.
Gareth Pursehouse, 45, of Playa del Rey, was convicted of first-degree murder for the killing of 38-year-old Amie Harwick in the early morning hours of Feb. 15, 2020.
Jurors deliberated about two days before finding Pursehouse guilty Sept. 28 of Harwick’s killing, along with the first-degree burglary of Harwick’s home.
The panel also found true a special circumstance allegation of murder while lying in wait.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that Harwick was caught by surprise by Pursehouse, who broke into her home, waited for hours, attacked her and then tossed her off the third-floor balcony.
Speaking directly to the defendant, the victim’s father, Tom, said that his daughter did not deserve the fate forced on her by Pursehouse. He said a life prison term without the possibility of parole would be justice for his “dearly departed daughter.”
The woman’s mother, Penny, told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George G. Lomeli that the impact of what had happened is “immeasurable,” saying that no words could convey the pain of her daughter’s loss.
“Every day is a battle. It’s a battle I’m determined to win,” she said as several of Harwick’s friends sitting nearby wiped away tears.
The victim’s brother, Chris, called his sister a “vibrant, compassionate and loving individual” whose life was taken in a “heinous act.” He said the trauma inflicted on her family and friends cannot be quantified.
Addressing the defendant, he said he hoped that Pursehouse would “come to fully comprehend the magnitude of your actions.”
One of the victim’s friends, Grace Stanley, noted that a home is supposed to be a safe space.
“The boogeyman is real … He had hours to change his mind while he waited in the dark for Amie to come home,” Stanley said of Harwick, whom she described as her best friend.
Rudy Torres called Harwick a “beacon of light” and said he became a fixture at court appearances because he wanted to “make sure this man is held accountable” and to let Pursehouse know that someone was always in court on her behalf.
Marcy Mendoza said Pursehouse had “terrorized” her friend and “murdered her in cold blood,” but had shown “zero remorse, zero compassion, zero accountability” for his actions.
In a statement read in court on his behalf, Michael Herman wrote that the events turned his life upside down in every way, noting that he realizes the “absolute horror” that his roommate experienced as he tried to get help for her.
“The thought of him (Pursehouse) ever getting out of prison terrifies me,” Herman wrote in the statement.
In his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Victor Avila told jurors that Pursehouse decided on Valentine’s Day to end Harwick’s life and that she “doesn’t know what’s waiting for her at home” when she returned early the next morning after a night out with friends.
The prosecutor said Pursehouse was a “man who couldn’t move on,” and noted that Harwick had written an email to herself and sent text messages to friends indicating that she was scared of Pursehouse after randomly seeing him at an event about a month earlier and rebuffing his subsequent attempts to stay in contact with her.
“He didn’t go there to talk. He’s on a mission,” the prosecutor said. “He’s angry, he feels rejected.”
The deputy district attorney said Pursehouse broke into the woman’s home, waited for three to four hours, punched and strangled her as she tried to fight for her life and then dropped her over the balcony.
“This is not a defendant who is depressed,” Avila said.
The two had dated years earlier for about 18 months, with Harwick ultimately obtaining a restraining order against him in 2012.
One of Pursehouse’s attorneys, Robin Bernstein-Lev, told jurors that the woman could have fallen after climbing over the balcony following a confrontation with her client, whom she said was in the midst of a crisis.
Bernstein-Lev told the panel that her client lost control after being overwhelmed by his emotions and “impulsively broke in” to Harwick’s home in a “desperate attempt” to talk with her.
Pursehouse was “suffering a great emotional upheaval — one that interfered with his thought process” after seeing her in the “chance encounter” about a month earlier that “left him reeling,” she said.
“Gareth was consumed by emotions and in a crisis,” Pursehouse’s lawyer told the panel, saying that is the hallmark of the types of emotions that prevent a person from deliberating a first-degree murder.
“Her death was never his goal,” Bernstein-Lev said.
She told jurors that the prosecution had not shown that Harwick didn’t go out onto the balcony on her own volition and try to climb over the balcony to escape, noting that jurors had seen an earlier photo of her in which she posed while perched on the balcony.
Bernstein-Lev said a syringe found on the balcony and later determined to contain what prosecutors allege was a lethal dose of nicotine was “not to be used on Amie Harwick” and “not intended to be a weapon.” She noted that her client was put on suicide watch following his arrest.
An autopsy determined that Harwick died from “blunt force injuries of the head and torso” and that there was evidence of “manual strangulation,” according to records from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Police responded to the home at about 1:15 a.m. that day in the 2000 block of Mound Street following a 911 call by Harwick’s roommate, who reported hearing her screaming.
Harwick — a published author who was once briefly engaged to comedian and “The Price is Right” host Drew Carey — was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
On social media, Carey posted a short video of him with Harwick after news of her death broke and wrote, “I hope you’re lucky enough to have someone in your life that loves as much as she did.”
Pursehouse was initially arrested at his home on the day Harwick died, but was subsequently released a few days later on a $2 million bond. He was re-arrested four days later on a no-bail warrant and has been held without bail since then.
Pursehouse’s attorney said after the hearing that Pursehouse plans to appeal his conviction.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor told reporters outside court that Pursehouse was “deserving” of the maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole “based on his actions and based on the brutal murder of Dr. Amie Harwick.”
“It was convincing evidence and it proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed the murder, and he’s been held accountable now,” Avila said, adding that he believed the evidence was clear that Harwick had already been attacked and was “debilitated” and wouldn’t have had the strength to propel herself over the balcony as the defense contended.
One of Harwick’s friends, Kelly Kathleen, told reporters, “Amie Harwick died as a result of Gareth Pursehouse’s petulant rage and inability to hear the word no. He terrorized her for years, taunted her. The system couldn’t help her. Nobody could help her, and then he stole her …”
Another friend, Grace Stanley, said of the sentencing, “Nothing we do is ever going to bring Amie back. But I think we can all rest a little bit easier knowing that the coward that is Gareth Pursehouse will never be able to harm another woman ever again because narcissists like that are terrifying and so many of us we live in fear of these kinds of people, and it is difficult for us to be taken seriously.”
Robert Coshland added, “Every person who knew her and everyone who’s here will all be affected by this every day for the rest of our lives … It’s there. It will always be there.”