Man Who Set Bookkeeper on Fire Gets Death Penalty

A Buena Park janitor was sentenced to death Friday for dousing a bookkeeper with gasoline and burning her to death in a dispute over a $150 paycheck, but not before protesting his conviction once again.

In several emotional outbursts, Jonathan D’Arcy, who previously staged a hunger strike and boycotted his trial, repeated his contention that a space heater, not a flick of his cigarette lighter, started the fire that killed Karin Marie LaBorde of Orange in her Tustin office in 1993.

“I’m not going to sit here and ask for my life,” the 34-year-old defendant told Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald. “I did not apply the flame. I have no remorse for the fire starting, but I do for her dying,” he continued, bringing cries from the victim’s friends and family in the courtroom.

“If you want to sentence me to death,” D’Arcy said, his voice choked with emotion, “do it.”

The judge did just that, saying evidence of the defendant’s abusive childhood and mental problems did little to mitigate the many aggravating factors of the crime.

He also cited “overwhelming” evidence that D’Arcy was fully responsible for killing LaBorde, including her own dying words identifying D’Arcy and describing what he had done.

“Good luck to you, Mr. D’Arcy,” Fitzgerald said after signing a death order. “You are now in higher hands.”

Friends and family of 42-year-old LaBorde, including her twin brother, Daren Leiter, said they believed death was the appropriate sentence.

“You need to pay the price,” Lisa Chaput, one of the victim’s co-workers who witnessed the crime, told D’Arcy. “It’s too bad you’re not man enough to admit you were wrong.”

Leiter said he wished D’Arcy had taken the time to know his sister, to know she was not bitter or filled with contempt for anyone.

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“I pray that you come to know your maker in a way that Karin did, and I hope to see you in heaven some day,” he said.

“You too,” D’Arcy replied, looking directly at Leiter.

Outside the courtroom, friends and family of the victim, a mother of two, hugged several jurors who attended the sentencing, thanking them for recommending the death penalty.

One juror said he felt morally obligated to see in person the man whose fate he helped decide. D’Arcy had refused to attend any of his second trial.

“It strengthened my belief that I did the right thing,” George Serna, 47, said. “The man had it coming. There’s no excuse for what he did.”

A jury found D’Arcy guilty of first-degree murder, torture and other charges, but earlier this year deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of a death sentence.

A second jury in March, asked only to decide D’Arcy’s penalty, agreed he should be executed. They cited the heinous nature of the crime, and said they believed D’Arcy knew what he was doing despite any mental problems he may suffer.

During the two trials, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko alleged D’Arcy was seeking revenge over a paycheck he thought was being withheld from him when he threw gasoline on LaBorde and flicked his cigarette lighter.

LaBorde, who worked for a Tustin building maintenance company that employed D’Arcy, suffered severe burns over most of her body and died about eight hours later. Her tape-recorded statement from the hospital, which also revealed the paycheck was D’Arcy’s for the asking, was played during both trials.

On the day of the crime, D’Arcy stopped and bought $1 worth of gasoline, and told his girlfriend’s son he was losing his mind, and would be better off in prison or hanging himself, according to testimony.

As flames engulfed LaBorde, witnesses testified, D’Arcy watched without helping. He eventually walked out of the office, asked a passerby for a light, and sat smoking until police, summoned by an employee, arrived, according to testimony.

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“He chose the most egregious and atrocious way to kill a human being,” Molko told the judge Friday.

Defense attorney George A. Peters urged the judge to reduce the jury’s recommendation to life in prison without parole, saying D’Arcy is severely mentally ill and should be spared execution.

Psychiatrists have said D’Arcy suffered from paranoia-type emotional problems, and court records show he had a history of suicide attempts, criminal arrests and violent behavior, including assaults on his former girlfriend.

Peters said D’Arcy has been “his own worst enemy” by boycotting the trial and refusing diagnostic brain tests.

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D’Arcy deluded himself into believing the space heater caused the fire in an effort to protect himself from the truth, the defense attorney said.

“Mr. D’Arcy has never been able to reach a morally responsible level,” Peters said. “He never had a chance.”

Throughout both trials, D’Arcy objected to his court-appointed lawyer using evidence of his mental problems as a defense, and staged a 4-month-long hunger strike.

Another judge ordered jail medical officials to force-feed D’Arcy as needed throughout the trials, to prevent the defendant from falling into a state of mental incompetence that would disrupt proceedings.

Before imposing the sentence Friday, Fitzgerald denied D’Arcy’s motion to act as his own lawyer, which he had done in earlier stages of his case.

Death sentences are automatically appealed to the California Supreme Court.