Gareth Pursehouse, the ex-boyfriend of Amie Harwick, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Wednesday for her February 2020 murder.
Pursehouse was found guilty of first-degree murder with a special circumstance allegation in September after a jury deliberated for two days.
Prosecutors accused the 45-year-old of breaking into Drew Carey’s ex-fiancée’s Los Angeles home on February 15, 2020, and waiting for her to return before he attacked her.
Pursehouse then strangled the prominent marriage and sex therapist and threw her off the balcony of her third floor. She was 38.
An autopsy from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Harwick died from “blunt force injuries of the head and torso” and there was evidence of “manual strangulation.”
During the trial, the prosecutors argued that Pursehouse was not able to get over his relationship with Harwick, which ended years prior.
Harwick and Pursehouse had dated for approximately 18 months.
The “New Sex Bible for Women” author tried to take out two restraining orders on Pursehouse.
She initially got a temporary restraining order against Pursehouse in 2011 — but it was dismissed after she didn’t show up to a follow-up hearing in court.
Nine months later in April 2012, Harwick was granted a request for protection, however, the order expired two weeks before her death.
“He was a stalker,” Harwick’s friend Rudy Torres told KABC in February 2020.
“When they broke up, he didn’t take it well at all. He’d do stupid stuff and say stupid stuff. You’d tell him, ‘Move on, dude, leave her alone.’ And he wouldn’t.”
Harwick was engaged to Carey, 65, in 2018. The couple reportedly had an “amicable split.”
After her death, the “Price Is Right” host fought back tears as he paid tribute to his late ex.
“She was beautiful and fun, and cared deeply about people and improving their lives and was just a joy to be around. And I was so in love with her,” he said on his “Drew Carey’s Friday Night Freak-Out” radio show.
Carey said that Harwick had been “deathly afraid” of Pursehouse, even during their relationship.
“I just want to say, I’m so broken up,” he said. “Even after we broke up, we still loved each other very much. Even though we broke up the engagement, I was still so in love with her. And she loved me back.”
