These 13 people were convicted of murder in SLO County. Some could go free under new law
More than a dozen men and women convicted of murders they personally did not commit in San Luis Obispo County may be eligible for re-sentencing — and in some cases, release — after a change in state law late last year.
In hearings scheduled over the next several months, San Luis Obispo County prosecutors and defense attorneys will argue before a judge whether people who acted as accomplices to crimes fit certain criteria and could no longer be convicted of murder under current law.
“The Legislature has decided that reform is needed to fairly address lengthy sentences that are not comparable with the crime,” said Paul Phillips, a defense attorney who is representing a Los Osos man convicted of murder in 2011 for a botched robbery in which one of the robbers was killed.
“It’s not as if people are getting away with anything,” he said.
What the new law does
Last September, former Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1437, which limits prosecutors’ ability to use the so-called “felony murder rule” to charge accomplices to a homicide.
Before Jan. 1, California law stated that someone could be held criminally liable for first- or second-degree murder if a person died during a felony they committed, such as a burglary or a robbery, even if the defendant was not present for the actual death.
Under SB 1437, a person can be convicted of murder only if he or she “was the actual killer” or “aided, abetted, counseled, commanded, induced, solicited, requested or assisted the actual killer” or “was a major participant in the underlying felony and acted with reckless indifference to human life.”
Proponents of the bill estimate that between 400 and 800 inmates may fit the criteria for re-sentencing. It is assumed the law is retroactive, and at least one high-profile former prisoner has been released since Jan. 1.
In San Luis Obispo County, at least 13 people may fit that criteria — including one man who’s already been paroled and wants the murder conviction off his record — according to a case list provided by the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office.
And there could be more.
‘Incredibly worrisome’
Calling the change in law “incredibly worrisome,” Assistant District Attorney Eric Dobroth on Monday said the upcoming hearings will require a tremendous amount of work for his office’s deputies, who must review each case to determine whether the accomplice was a major participant in the crime, whether they acted with reckless indifference of human life and whether they knew the natural or probable consequence of their actions would lead to death.
“For the most part, these are people who are not the actual killers,” Dobroth said. “But (the potential for re-sentencing and release) depends on what other crimes they were convicted of, if murder was predicated on other serious crimes.”
Dobroth said there may be local defendants who meet the requirements, but it is not the DA’s Office’s position to concede a prisoner’s early release.
Patricia Ashbaugh, whose firm SLO Defenders contracts public defender duties with the county, said her office received a list from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of over 100 people currently serving time for murder whose cases could be eligible for review.
Ashbaugh said public defenders offices across the state have been tasked with attempting to notify an inmate’s original trial attorney — some of whom may no longer be around — of the change in law and how it pertains to their past client.
“Some of these people are in their 70s,” Ashbaugh said.
The vast majority of murder cases in San Luis Obispo County have been defended by private attorneys, so Ashbaugh’s office has mainly been busy contacting the private counsel or motioning the court to appoint counsel. Her office had yet to file a petition for re-sentencing.
“This is the beginning,” Ashbaugh said. “This law has received quite a bit of publicity in prison.”
‘Not forgotten’
Most of the petitions received in San Luis Obispo Superior Court have been filled out by the prisoners themselves, with the help of groups such as Re:store Justice, a nonprofit criminal justice reform advocacy group that formed in 2017 to provide programming, re-entry housing and other services for prisoners.
After sponsoring SB 1437, Re:store Justice has been holding training sessions and distributing guidebooks at California prisons about the new law and how an inmate can petition for re-sentencing.
The organization was co-founded by Adnan Kahn, who was a homeless Antioch teenager in 2003 when he and an acquaintance enacted a scheme to steal marijuana in which no one was supposed to be hurt.
Kahn’s accomplice, who he later learned was schizophrenic and off his medications, stabbed a marijuana dealer to death. Kahn was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
At a hearing last month, a judge set aside Kahn ‘s murder conviction and he was released, the first former inmate to benefit from the change in law, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Kate Chatfield, policy director for the nonprofit, said the inmates she’s interacted with have been grateful for a second chance to prove they are not murderers.
“The Legislature in Sacramento has recognized that these people should not be in for life,” Chatfield said by phone following a prison visit Wednesday. “There’s such a profound gratitude (from inmates) that they’re not forgotten.”
Even if some murder convictions are overturned, however, it is unclear if possible challenges by law enforcement and victims’ rights groups could stand in the way of prisoners’ freedom.
Dobroth said there are legitimate concerns about the constitutionality of SB 1437 and that prosecutors across the state could request a stay of judgment should a judge order a prisoner released before any legal challenges to the law are exhausted.
A spokeswoman for the California District Attorney’s Association did not respond to several requests for comment for this article.
Here is a look back on the SLO County cases up for review:
Patrick Wollett
In 2009, then-20-year-old Patrick Wollett was convicted by a jury with Chad Westbrook for the murder of San Luis Obispo resident Joshua Houlgate.
Houlgate, 36, was killed two years earlier at Wollett’s home at the Oceanaire Mobile Home Park in San Luis Obispo. Westbrook, then 37, shot Houlgate with a shotgun while Wollett battered both Houlgate and a woman with a baseball bat just after the pair had sex, according to Tribune news reports of the prosecution’s case.
The woman had been engaged to Wollett’s brother, which is what prosecutors said prompted the crime, though she testified she never saw a weapon in Wollett’s hands, according to Tribune archives. Westbrook was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 67 years to life in prison.
Wollett was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 27 years to life. In an unusual turn, Houlgate’s parents wrote the judge in the case in support of an appeal in Wollett’s case. “We believe that Patrick’s culpability was not proven,” they wrote.
Wollett has been serving his sentence at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla and has a petition for re-sentencing scheduled to be heard March 6 in San Luis Obispo Superior Court before original trial judge Dodie Harman, who at his sentencing called Wollett an active participant who had opportunities to stop the murder but didn’t, according to archives.
Oscar Garcia, Greg Vived Jr., Sergio Ortiz, Monte Weatherington
In 1998, five North County men were convicted of the gang-related murder of 25-year-old Paso Robles resident Raul Mosqueda, who was stabbed to death at a Paso Robles house party.
Prosecutors told the jury that the killing was the result of a longstanding feud involving the Paso 13 street gang, according to Tribune archives. Though David Rey of Templeton admitted he stabbed Mosqueda, he testified during trial that he did so at the urging of his older friend, then-22-year-old Oscar Garcia.
Garcia, along with Paso Robles residents Greg Vived Jr. and Sergio Ortiz, as well as Templeton resident Monte Weatherington, were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Three of the defendants testified at trial that they had just met on the night of the attack and each testified they didn’t know Rey had brought a knife to the planned assault, according to archives.
In his petition for re-sentencing, Garcia wrote that the defendants had only planned to “kick (Mosqueda’s) ass.” Weatherington, who has since paroled; Ortiz, now 43; Garcia, 43; and Vived, 40, have filed re-sentencing petitions and have a combined hearing scheduled for May 13 in San Luis Obispo Superior Court, according to court records.
Ryan James Johnson
Ryan James Johnson was convicted in 2011 of first-degree murder for a botched 2009 home invasion-style robbery in Los Osos in which one of the robbers was struck and killed by a ricochet bullet fired by the homeowner.
Even though Johnson, then 35, didn’t physically participate in the robbery, jurors found that he informed Jesse Bakerriley and Kelsey Alvarez that the homeowner kept large amounts of money and marijuana at the home. Alvarez was struck in the head by a bullet and died at the scene, and Johnson and Bakerriley were sentenced to 25 years to life.
Judge Barry LaBarbera said at his sentencing that if it weren’t for Johnson making the robbers aware of the victim, the incident never would have occurred, according to past Tribune articles. In a letter to The Tribune in 2012, Johnson said that he had no malicious intent to kill and that a criminal state of mind was never established at his trial.
“I am not a clairvoyant nor am I telepathic, and unfortunately I do not contain the power of the Jedi mind trick,” Johnson wrote. “My point is I could not have condoned an act that of which I did not know about.”
Johnson, now 42, has been serving his time at the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi and has a hearing for re-sentencing in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on Feb. 28.
Allen Reed Kness
Allen Reed Kness was convicted in 1998 of first-degree murder for the stabbing death of 45-year-old Richard Wall. Kness, then a 43-year-old homeless man, participated in the killing of Wall with Blaine Richardson, who confessed to stabbing Wall to death.
After Wall was dead, a prosecutor told the jury, Kness urinated on Wall’s body, drank beer and ate beans with Richardson and watched the movie “Natural Born Killers” on Wall’s VCR.
According to Tribune archives, Kness said at his sentencing that he was a chronic alcoholic at the time. “If I was possibly sober at the time, quite possibly it wouldn’t have happened,” he said, according to Tribune reports at the time.
Kness, now 63, is housed at Deuel Vocational Institute in Tracy. As of Wednesday, a re-sentencing hearing had not been scheduled.
John Louise Palmer
John Louise Palmer was 17 years old when he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1992 for the fatal stabbing of his grandmother, 67-year-old Roxana O’Grady, during a burglary at O’Grady’s Cayucos farmhouse on Toro Creek Road.
Palmer and a co-defendant testified that they were attempting to burglarize the ranch house when a third member of their group, 38-year-old transient Frank Krafick, stabbed O’Grady and injured 67-year-old James Negranti, 76, who survived but died from unrelated health problems before testifying at the trial.
Krafick, however, testified in his own defense at trial that Palmer wielded the knife and killed his grandmother. Palmer was sentenced to 15 years to life and is currently serving time at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione. The now 44-year-old is scheduled for a re-sentencing hearing April 8.
Edward Joseph Prokop
In 1980, a series of three killings in Nipomo over the course of two months led to citizens arming themselves and calls for the Sheriff’s Office to build a substation there, according to Tribune archives.
In October 1980, the body of Robert T. Folkerts, the owner of the Nipomo Swap Meet, was found in the backseat of his car on Camino Caballo Road, shot twice through the head. Edward Joseph Prokop, a vacuum cleaner salesman and former swap meet employee, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 1981 and was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison.
According to Tribune archives, prosecutors alleged Prokop, an Illinois native, murdered Folkerts during a robbery. The 63-year-old is currently housed at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. His re-sentencing petition is scheduled for Feb. 26 in San Luis Obispo Superior Court.
Jennifer Velten
Jennifer Velten, 36, has been serving her 15 years to life prison sentence at the California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla since her 2012 guilty plea to second-degree murder for the killing of a Paso Robles motel worker.
In 2011, Velten was one of a group of drug users who plotted to beat and rob 55-year-old Robert Uyeno of methamphetamine and lottery tickets, according to Tribune archives. Velten’s role in the crime was to text Uyeno an invitation to “party” in his room, then message three other co-defendants, who pummeled Uyeno before one slashed his throat, it was reported.
At her sentencing, a judge called Velten’s case a stark example of the destructive effects of methamphetamine use. Velten’s petition for re-sentencing was not on file at San Luis Obispo Superior Court as of Wednesday, but hers was among a list of cases up for possible re-sentencing provided by the District Attorney’s Office.
Travis Williams and Tommy Anthony Traughber
Travis Williams, 39, and Tommy Anthony Traughber, 41, were convicted in 1996 and 1997, respectively, of murder and second-degree burglary.
Both were co-defendants in a case in which court records show Williams pleaded no contest and Traughber was found guilty in a bench trial, with the men sentenced to 25 and 26 years to life in prison, respectively. Information about their case was not found in Tribune archives or an Internet search, and neither man’s petitions for re-sentencing reveal specifics about their crimes.
Traughber and Williams are due in San Luis Obispo Superior Court April 4 and 25, respectively.
Gerardo Estrada
Gerardo Estrada, 50, was convicted in 1987 of first-degree murder, burglary and arson of an inhabited dwelling and sentenced to 25 years to life.
Tribune archives do not contain information about Estrada’s case, but state records show he is currently serving his sentence at California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi. San Luis Obispo Superior Court records show he filed a petition for re-sentencing Nov. 28, 2018, and is due in court April 3.
This story was originally published February 15, 2019 at 9:52 AM.
