Crimes and Court
Gareth Pursehouse was given life in prison without possibility of parole following first-degree murder conviction in Amie Harwick’s February 2020 death
The man convicted of killing Hollywood sex therapist Amie Harwick in February 2020 was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison Wednesday.
Gareth Pursehouse, who in September was found guilty of first-degree murder in his ex-girlfriend Harwick’s death, potentially faced the death penalty, but was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole, CBS Los Angeles reports.
As Rolling Stone reported in March 2020, a month after the Feb. 15 murder, Harwick was strangled and thrown out of her own third-floor window by Pursehouse, who she dated for a few months years earlier. Pursehouse had waited for Harwick to return home late Valentine’s Day, and attacked her when she arrived.
“He didn’t go there to talk. He’s on a mission,” Deputy District Attorney Victor Avila said during closing arguments. “He’s angry, he feels rejected.” Months before her murder, Harwick emailed friends indicating she was scared of Pursehouse after randomly encountering him at an event.
During their relationship, Pursehouse was abusive and controlling, according to two restraining orders Harwick had filed against him in 2011 and 2012. Since then, Harwick would occasionally refer to him in conversation as “my stalker,” but her friends told Rolling Stone she had worked hard to recover from the trauma of their short-lived relationship.
Harwick was also an ex-girlfriend of The Price Is Right host Drew Carey, as well as friends with Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro; after Pursehouse was briefly released on bail following being charged with murder, Navarro contacted police and asked for Pursehouse to be re-arrested as “friends were alerted he meant to target another victim.” Pursehouse was re-arrested a day after his bail release.