Friday 13th Murderer Sentenced To 15 Years To Life

Calling the Friday the 13th killing of an Apple Valley man “senseless,” an Indio judge today sentenced a Palm Springs man to 15 years to life in prison.

Dale Farquhar, 48, was convicted in June of the Nov. 13 slaying of 57- year-old Larry Roger Fisk, who was shot after he followed Farquhar’s girlfriend to the couple’s Palm Springs condominium at 680 Ashurst Court.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge David Downing ordered Farquhar to be sent to a prison where he can receive therapy for drug and alcohol abuse.

Farquhar was originally charged with first-degree murder and a sentence enhancing allegation that he used a gun. His girlfriend, Cara Williams-Covert, faces a first-degree murder charge in Fisk’s death and is due in court Oct. 1 for a preliminary hearing.

Supervising Deputy District Attorney Otis Sterling said during trial that Williams-Covert was a self-professed witch who met the victim the previous night at the Village Pub in Palm Springs.

Farquhar, who called himself a “true demon” in journal entries, and Williams-Covert found special meaning in the Friday the 13th killing, the prosecutor alleged.

Sterling read loud the lyrics of a song he said was penned in Farquhar’s handwriting: “Get up and kill, kill, kill. An epidemic is in Palm Springs. An epidemic is in Palm Springs, an epidemic of mass murder. Halloween `09.”

The lyrics, which were found in the couple’s condo, contained the words “RIP Village Pub” on the handwritten sketch of a headstone, Sterling said.

“It’s not the first time two people have acted out the twisted, perverted, sick lyrics to a movie or song,” Sterling said.

Fisk, a motorcyclist who had stopped in Palm Springs on his way to Arizona, likely did not know Farquhar was waiting at the condo, Sterling said.

Deputy Public Defender Richard Verlato argued that Farquhar and his 38- year-old girlfriend were not into the occult.

“She is not a witch. He is not a demon, and this man had a very unlucky Friday (the) 13th,” Verlato said, pointing to pictures of Williams-Covert, Farquhar and Fisk, respectively.

Verlato alleged that Williams-Covert was the killer, not his client.

“She accuses Dale of killing this man outside of the apartment — a bald-faced lie because he was killed inside the condo,” where blood was found under the living room carpet, the defense attorney said.