‘Witch’s’ Charges Reduced In Palm Springs Murder Case

A judge ruled today there was not enough evidence to hold a woman to answer to a first-degree murder charge in a Palm Springs slaying with alleged satanic overtones.

Instead, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Richard Erwood ordered Cara Williams-Covert to stand trial on a felony count of being an accessory to murder in the Nov. 13, 2009, slaying of Larry Roger Fisk, 57, of Apple Valley.

Fisk was shot after he followed Williams-Covert to a condominium at 680 Ashurst Court.

Her boyfriend, Dale Farquhar, 48, was charged with first-degree murder. But in June, a jury convicted him of the lesser charge of second-degree murder, and he was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

When Farquhar’s trial began, prosecutors alleged he shot Fisk out of jealousy. At that point, Williams-Covert was charged as an accessory.

But during the trial, the prosecution introduced a journal as evidence indicating the defendants had acted out a satanic script.

Mid-trial, prosecutors changed their theory to murder with satanic overtones, and after Farquhar was convicted, a murder charge was filed against Williams-Covert.

Today, the judge ruled there was not enough evidence to support the murder charge and ordered Williams-Covert to return to court on Nov. 15 for a post-indictment arraignment on the accessory count.

During Farquhar’s trial, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Sterling said Williams-Covert called herself a “witch” and Farquhar identified himself as a “true demon” and a “sociopath” in a journal found in the condo.

Prosecutors alleged the couple came to Palm Springs last October to write a horror script and commit mass murder.

In the script, Farquhar played a character named Dave Hatcher, a transsexual in an open relationship with a “witch” named Cat.

Williams-Covert allegedly played Cat, a meth addict who lured men to their condo for sex.

Prosecutors allege Williams-Covert was acting out the script when she lured the unsuspecting victim back to the condo to his eventual death.

Based on the journal, prosecutors alleged Williams-Covert tried to lure a man back to the condo on Halloween 2009 but failed, and that Fisk was killed on Friday the 13th.

The journal also contained lyrics handwritten by Farquhar that included “get up and kill, kill, kill,” and “an epidemic is in Palm Springs … an epidemic of mass murder.”

Farquhar’s attorney said during his client’s trial that Williams-Covert was not a witch and Farquhar was not a demon, arguing that the pair were writing a fictionalized script that was not based in fact.