Bludgeoning Husband

Jarka was convicted of murder with special circumstances in Sept. 14, 2009. The special cirumstance allegation was murder for financial gain.

Jarka had taken out three insurance policies on his wife, totaling about $4 million, days before the slaying.

Jarka was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The only other penalty in this sort of case is death.

Special circumstance murders in California call for the harshest penalty possible, and in Riverside County, District Attorney Rode Pacheco has no qualms about seeking the death penalty in a number of special circumstance cases.

Special circumstances include:
Murder during rape
Murder during attempted rape
Murder during a robbery
Murder while lying in wait
Murder for financial gain
and murder where there are more than onc victime.
It is up to the D.A., aided by a panel of deputies, to decide whether to seek the death penalty.

In Jarka's case, Pacheco ://www.rivcoda.org/meetDA.html decided not to ask for the death penalty.

I will be honest with you. I believed it was racially motivated. But then I asked to information on all the death penalty cases in the county and there are plenty of white people probably headed to dath row.

Perhaps I will in the near future, figures out what sort of process he uses to make his decisions but I tell you one thing. I believe he truly takes them on a case=by=case basis.