Man Who Killed Celebrity Therapist Is Sentenced

UPDATE Dec 7, 2023 12:30 AM CST

Gareth Pursehouse was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering celebrity therapist Amie Harwick in 2020, NBC News reports. Harwick, who was once engaged to Drew Carey, was thrown over a third-floor balcony at her Hollywood Hills home. Pursehouse, 45, an ex-boyfriend of hers from a decade before her death, was convicted in September. Harwick had previously had two restraining orders against him, but the last one had expired in 2015. "The evidence showed he was obsessed with Amie Harwick," a deputy DA tells People. "He felt entitled to her." The two had run into each other by chance about a month before Harwick's murder; authorities say he waited for her inside her home and attacked her after she returned from a night out with friends on Valentine's Day.

Apr 17, 2020 2:01 AM CDT

The man accused of throwing his ex-girlfriend—who was also the ex-fiancee of Drew Carey—from her third-floor balcony, killing her, says he didn't do it. Gareth Pursehouse pleaded not guilty Thursday to Dr. Amie Harwick's Feb. 15 murder, the AP reports. Pursehouse, who is charged with murder as well as first-degree residential burglary with the special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, was arrested shortly after the prominent Hollywood marriage and family therapist was killed, but was initially released on bond. He was then rearrested on a no bail warrant.

Harwick, 38, had filed a restraining order against Pursehouse, 41, in the past, and had also expressed fear about him. One of her friends described Pursehouse as "a stalker" who didn't take their breakup well. An autopsy determined she was strangled before being thrown from the balcony of her Hollywood Hills apartment. Harwick and Carey had dated for two years before separating in 2018, months after announcing they were engaged. (Pursehouse could face the death penalty.)