A 64-year-old man convicted 34 years ago of murdering a San Carlos quarry owner for $5,000 was denied parole for the 17th time and won’t be eligible again for another five years.
On Feb. 6, 1975, Russell Wise shot Edgewood Quarry owner Jack Wood three times with a shotgun. Wood’s business partner, Lawrence Hall, thought he was being cheated by the victim and paid Wise $5,000 for the crime.
Wise reportedly started dating the victim’s daughter before the murder to have an excuse to be over at the victim’s trailer in case his fingerprints were found. She testified at a trial that she did not believe him guilty. After a five-week trial, a jury found Wise guilty on Nov. 14, 1975 of first-degree murder with the special circumstances that it was a murder for hire. He was sentenced to death that December, but three years later, the term was changed to life in prison because the death penalty was abolished.
Hall was also found guilty of first-degree murder and died of cancer about five years after entering prison.
On Tuesday, the parole board at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo found Wise unsuitable for release. Representatives from the District Attorney’s Office were not present because the hearing had been pushed up two days but sent a letter opposing Wise’s release.
Unlike at his previous hearings in which denials were doled out in one-year increments, Wise was denied another chance for a period of five years.
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Dirk van Ulden said:
Dirk van Ulden said:
CAIB - actually it is the DOJ which is looking into it. Our local hero, Harmeet Dillon, is heading it up.
CA Is Burning said:
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