Westlake Woman Gets Lesser Sentence in Husband’s Shooting : Courts: A judge says Pearl J. McClelland did not deserve a harsher penalty because her spouse pushed her too far.

A judge Tuesday sentenced a Westlake woman to less than a year in jail for shooting her estranged husband in the groin, saying the clinically depressed woman had been provoked and did not deserve a harsher penalty.

Pearl J. McClelland, 48, could have been sentenced to a maximum 12 years in prison for assault with a deadly weapon. But Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath gave her 360 days in jail and five years’ probation in the Aug. 19 shooting. She pleaded guilty Sept. 4.

McGrath said William McClelland, 53, had pushed his wife too far. She had been undergoing treatment for severe depression, court records show.

After the sentencing, Jay Johnson, Pearl McClelland’s attorney, said William McClelland had repeatedly subjected his wife to mental abuse by “throwing his mistress in her face.” The couple had been together 16 years, court records show.

“This guy just kept pushing all her buttons. She went over the edge. She shot him,” Johnson said.

But William McClelland has told investigators that he never abused his wife and denied provoking her the day of the shooting, Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia Murphy said. William McClelland could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

But according to Pearl McClelland’s probation report, several discoveries led to the shooting.

In the summer of 1989, Pearl McClelland told investigators, she found a videotape that her husband had made of her in bed with a lover.

Then last July, while William McClelland was away on business, she discovered ski equipment and clothing belonging to her husband’s mistress hidden in the garage of their vacation home in Mammoth Lakes, the probation report said.

Pearl McClelland then phoned her husband and told him she was filing for divorce, court records show.

Later, in the attic of the house they had shared in the Westlake area of Thousand Oaks, she found video and audio recording gear, timers and another tape that showed her in bed with her lover, the probation report said.

Upon returning from the business trip July 30, William McClelland moved into his girlfriend’s residence, Murphy said.

Pearl McClelland bought a gun Aug. 1 in Agoura Hills, which by law she could not pick up for 15 days, Murphy said. The next day she filed for divorce, the prosecutor said.

The couple discussed by telephone Aug. 17 how they would divide their property in the divorce. Aug. 19, hours after Pearl McClelland had picked up the gun, William McClelland came over to repair a broken window and began sawing wood in the garage, records show.

William McClelland, according to Pearl McClelland’s statement to investigators, then made a crass remark to her about his girlfriend while making the repairs.

She then left the garage, returned with the .38-caliber revolver and shot her husband once in the groin, grazing his genitals and narrowly missing his femoral artery, Murphy said. As she backed him against a table and prepared to shoot him in the head, William McClelland grabbed the gun, threw it into his car trunk and slammed the lid shut, Murphy said.

William McClelland then managed to drive himself and his wife to the hospital, where he was treated and she was arrested, Murphy said.

Pearl McClelland has filed an application to serve her jail time in Ventura County’s work-furlough program, which would allow her to avoid spending time in County Jail. Her sentence has been stayed until Jan. 3 to allow time for the application to be processed.