Man Guilty in Murder of Wife, Attack on Daughter
A Tarzana man was convicted Friday of murdering his wife and attempting to murder his teen-age daughter, then staging a car crash in Sun Valley to make their deaths appear accidental. Robert Peernock, 54, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison because jurors also found that he committed the crimes for financial gain.
Peernock and his wife, Claire, 45, were within weeks of divorcing when she was discovered in a crashed car on July 22, 1987, according to testimony in the eight-week San Fernando Superior Court trial. Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig R. Richman argued that Peernock staged the “night of terror” against his wife and daughter, Natasha Peernock Sims, to gain control of community property and life insurance benefits totaling $1.5 million.
The key to the prosecution case was the testimony of 22-year-old Sims, who said that about 12 hours before she and her mother were discovered, her father choked her, handcuffed and hogtied her and force-fed her alcohol.
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