James Pritchert

Background

James D. Pritchert (September 27, 1935- ) had been working as a children's guidance counselor at Monterey High School in California for almost thirty years.

Pritchert’s wife was Lila Pritchert, 52.

The offence

Pritchert murdered his wife of twenty-eight years, Lila Pritchert, 52, on the night of November 7, 1995 at their Pebble Beach home.

Lila Pritchert became involved with a new group of friends in an online chat room, an activity that began to take up more and more of her time. Pritchert confronted her about the amount of time she had been spending chatting online. She informed him that she wanted a divorce. This led to an intense argument.

At the climax of the argument, Pritchert took a pillow and pushed it down onto his wife's face for at least four minutes, the amount of time required to smother a human being to death with a pillow. Lila Pritchert never recovered.

Investigation

Pritchert was arrested and confessed to the murder.

In his confession, Pritchert explained that he had become upset at the amount of time his wife had been spending online.

Arrest

James Pritchert was arrested and confessed to the murder.

Sentencing

On March 14, 1996, James Pritchert was sentenced in a Monterey, California courtroom to eleven years imprisonment at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo, California.

Pritchert would have been eligible for release in 2007, when he would be 72 years old.

Outcome

Pritchert’s crime constituted the first known instance of a murder arising from activity on the Internet.

Aftermath

In the years since Pritchert’s conviction, his case became a focus of the Church of Scientology, which attempted to use him as an example in its campaign against psychologists and psychiatrists, arguing that severe crimes had been committed by practitioners from these fields.

Pritchert was neither a psychologist nor a psychiatrist, but a high-school academic guidance counselor.