Jury Split on Penalty for Bookkeeper’s Killer

SANTA ANA — A jury ended a second day of deliberations Wednesday divided on whether a former janitor should be executed for burning a bookkeeper to death in a dispute over a paycheck.

Jurors handed Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald a note saying they were deadlocked, but asked to go home and return to court this morning.

The same jury found Jonathan Daniel D’Arcy, 34, guilty of first-degree murder in the 1993 death of Karen Marie LaBorde in her Tustin office. The 42-year-old Orange woman identified D’Arcy as her assailant before she died.

The verdict included findings that her death included torture and mayhem, which means D’Arcy could receive a death sentence.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko urged the death sentence, saying the victim died one of the most cruel and painful deaths possible. The prosecutor said D’Arcy was seeking revenge over a paycheck he thought was being withheld from him when he doused LaBorde with gasoline and set her on fire with a cigarette lighter.

Defense attorney George A. Peters asked jurors to spare D’Arcy’s life, saying his client suffers from severe mental problems brought on by an abusive upbringing.

D’Arcy has denied igniting her, and claims evidence shows a space heater started the flames. He refused to attend most of his trial and is staging a hunger strike in protest of the way he believes his case has been handled.

Another judge has ordered jail medical officials to force-feed D’Arcy as needed to prevent any trial disruptions.