Carlsbad

The parents of a Carlsbad man murdered in January, 1989, by his estranged wife were awarded $1.2 million in a wrongful-death lawsuit decided by a Vista Superior Court judge.

The assessment was made by Judge Franklin Mitchell against Roberta Pearce, who was convicted of first-degree murder for enlisting the help of two teen-age boys in stabbing to death Robert (Wayne) Pearce outside his apartment. The two boys were ordered to share part of the assessment.

But Dennis Atchley, the attorney for the victim’s divorced parents, Charles Pearce and Rita Church, said it was unlikely the Illinois couple will ever collect more than $40,000, which was her share of the equity of the couple’s Valley Center home before the murder. Roberta Pearce, a one-time teacher’s aide at Escondido’s Orange Glen High School, has since declared bankruptcy.

She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and the two boys, Isaac Hill and Anthony Pilato--who were 15 at the time they stabbed Pearce to death--are in the custody of the California Youth Authority until they turn 25.

Pearce’s attorney, Thomas Nares, called the award “pretty much meaningless. It could have been for $5 million,” he said. “It wouldn’t make much difference. It’s all kind of moot.”