Death Sentence Upheld for Killer of Therapist’s Husband

The state Supreme Court, upholding the right to self-representation in capital cases, on Thursday affirmed the death sentence of a Canoga Park man for the bizarre arson-killing of his former mental therapist’s husband in 1982.

In a 5-2 decision, the court rejected an appeal from William John Clark, 45, convicted of the murder of David Gawronski and the attempted murder of his wife, Ava, a psychiatric social worker who lost her fingers and nose and received other serious injuries when Clark threw gasoline on the couple’s home and set it ablaze.

Clark, who had been briefly hospitalized as a college student for psychiatric treatment, claimed he had planned to set the fire to force the Gawronskis to flee and then shoot the husband before his wife’s horrified eyes. Clark said his motive was to make Ava Gawronski suffer for abruptly terminating her counseling of him after he threatened to rape her.

The justices turned down Clark’s claim that he was entitled to a new penalty trial because he was improperly allowed to represent himself at trial. The high court, citing previous state and federal court rulings, said mentally competent defendants must be granted requests to represent themselves even in capital cases--and cannot complain later that they were denied their constitutional right to “effective assistance” of counsel.

“The defendant has the right to present no defense and to take the stand and both confess guilt and request imposition of the death penalty,” Justice David N. Eagleson wrote for the majority. “It follows that the state’s interest in ensuring a reliable penalty determination may not be urged as a basis for denying the capital defendant his fundamental right to control his defense by representing himself at all stages of the trial.”

Before the trial, Clark was examined by a psychiatrist and a psychologist and neither concluded that he was insane or suffering from a mental disorder. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Harry Mock Jr. noted that Clark, a college graduate with honors, was well-educated and articulate and ruled he was mentally competent to waive his right to counsel.

The justices also ruled that Clark’s setting fire to the victims’ home constituted a separate act of arson committed for the independent purpose of forcing the family from the home. Thus, the court said, that act could serve as a basis for imposing the death penalty for the killing of Gawronski. Under state law, defendants may be sentenced to death for a killing that takes place in commission of a felony.

In a sharp dissent, Justice Stanley Mosk said Clark should not have been permitted to represent himself. “The bizarre nature of the crime and the irrational reasons motivating the defendant to commit the offense should have alerted the (trial) court to the mental inability of the defendant to adequately present evidence in mitigation,” Mosk wrote.

The justice pointed out that at Clark’s first trial, when he was represented by a lawyer, the jury found him guilty but deadlocked in the penalty phase of the case. Clark then fired his lawyer and represented himself in the penalty retrial in which he was sentenced to death.

In another dissent, Justice Allen E. Broussard, joined by Mosk, said that Clark should not have been eligible for a death sentence under the felony-murder rule because in this instance, setting the fire was not a separate act but merely part of the plan to kill Gawronski.

State Deputy Atty. Gen. Josanna Berkow welcomed the ruling, saying it strengthened previous decisions that rejected appeals from defendants who represented themselves at trial. “This was a horrendous crime, committed with a great deal of planning and careful thought,” she said.

The lawyer representing Clark on appeal was not available for comment.

Clark, an insurance underwriter, had received psychiatric treatment in his 20s but discontinued the therapy when he married in 1968. In 1979, the couple separated and began receiving counseling from Ava Gawronski, a licensed therapist and marriage counselor. Later, when Clark indicated he intended to rape the therapist, she terminated their professional relationship.

According to court records, Clark made repeated attempts to contact her and once forced her automobile off the freeway and used an ice ax to break the window glass to talk to her. He left when other motorists interceded.

In November, 1981, he was charged with the rape of his former wife. Two months later, while awaiting prosecution on those charges and the attempted rape and freeway attack on Gawronski, Clark, armed with a shotgun and two buckets of gasoline, set fire to the Gawronski home in Rancho Park.

David Gawronski suffered second- and third-degree burns over 90% of his body and died eight days later. Ava Gawronski was hospitalized with serious burns for 10 months. The couple’s infant daughter, Sara, was rescued by a neighbor and escaped injury.