Interrupts Hearing 8 Times : Mental Exam Set for Man Accused of Killing Wife

A judge ordered a hearing Friday to determine whether a Tarzana man is mentally competent to stand trial on charges of murdering his wife and trying to kill his daughter.

Robert Peernock, 51, who appeared in San Fernando Superior Court in chains, interrupted the proceedings eight times, insisting that his attorney, Gerald L. Fogelman, is conspiring with prosecutors to convict him.

“I believe my client is delusional,” Fogelman told Judge John H. Major. “It has deteriorated to the point where I don’t think he can cooperate effectively with any attorney.”

Major ordered that Peernock be examined by two psychiatrists. He scheduled the hearing Oct. 31.

“A doubt arises in my mind as to your mental competence,” Major said between objections by Peernock, who sought to have Fogelman removed from his case.

Died of Head Wounds

The body of Peernock’s wife, Claire, 45, of Saugus, was found in her car in Sun Valley at 4:30 a.m. on July 22, 1987. Los Angeles police said Peernock had staged what appeared to be a traffic accident, rigging his wife’s car to burst into flames. It did not, but an autopsy found that Peernock’s wife had died of head wounds not consistent with injuries from a traffic accident.

Peernock’s oldest daughter, Natasha Sims, 19, was also found in the car with similar head injuries. She recovered and testified at a preliminary hearing last year that her father had handcuffed her, put a hood over her head, force-fed her alcohol and put her in the back seat of her mother’s car before the crash.

Peernock is also charged with soliciting the death of Sims last year by offering to pay a jail inmate $20,000 to kill her.

Under state law, a competency hearing can be held if a defense attorney or judge thinks the defendant either cannot comprehend the proceedings against him or is unable to cooperate with his lawyer. If a defendant is found mentally incompetent to stand trial, he or she can be sent to a state mental hospital for an indefinite period.

The prosecutor in the Peernock case, Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela Davis-Springer, would not say whether she thinks Peernock is mentally competent. Physically, she said, “He’s gotten thinner. Considerably thinner.”