Accused Not Fit for Trial, Judge Rules : Court: La Habra man charged in bookkeeper’s death must undergo evaluation at a hospital.

A judge ruled Thursday that Jonathan Daniel D’Arcy, accused of dousing a Tustin bookkeeper with gasoline and setting her aflame, is unfit to stand trial for murder and must undergo a 90-day evaluation at a mental hospital.

D’Arcy, a 30-year-old janitor from La Habra, is charged with killing Karen Marie LaBorde on Feb. 2 after a dispute over $150 in pay that he claimed he was owed.

After a closed hearing in his chambers, Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald ruled that D’Arcy “does not have the current ability to assist counsel in his defense,” and ordered him to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino County until Dec. 3.

After considering reports by three court-appointed psychiatrists, Fitzgerald said later in court that D’Arcy understood the nature of the charges against him, but that he could not participate in his own defense.

Jennifer L. Keller, D’Arcy’s attorney, said the judge agreed in the closed session that the psychiatric reports indicated that D’Arcy was suffering from paranoid delusions.

“I think he’s very ill and requires treatment,” she said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko, who opposed the psychiatric evaluation, said prosecutors have not yet decided whether to ask for the death penalty in the killing if D’Arcy is declared competent to stand trial. If he is not declared fit, he may never be tried for the crime and could be detained in a state hospital indefinitely, officials say.

The defendant had been held without bail at Orange County Jail since his arrest.

D’Arcy, who has a lengthy court record of criminal arrests and violent incidents, faces charges of first-degree murder, with the special circumstance of inflicting torture on the 42-year-old LaBorde in the process of killing her.

That allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty against him.

Molko said that he had intended to arraign D’Arcy on Thursday on a consolidated indictment that added a second special circumstance--mayhem--but the judge’s action had forestalled that plan. The additional charge accuses D’Arcy of acting to disable or disfigure LaBorde.

“We researched the issue and decided that the facts supported the special circumstance of mayhem, and we felt it was an appropriate charge,” Molko said.

LaBorde, whose job at Quintessence Building Maintenance Co. helped her support her two teen-age children and an unemployed husband, suffered burns on over 95% of her body as a result of D’Arcy’s attack.

D’Arcy, who was working as a contract maintenance man for Quintessence, told friends he was enraged over a late payment of $150 that he said the company owed him.

Witnesses told police that on the day of the killing, he stormed into the custodial firm and demanded to see LaBorde. Forcing his way into her office, D’Arcy allegedly sprayed gasoline on her from a plastic drink container, then calmly left the room as flames engulfed the screaming woman, police said. She died nine hours later.