Earl Henry Down, who was found guilty in 1987 of one count of second-degree murder of 15-year-old Clinton Heilemann, a student at Palisades High School, and three counts of attempted murder, has been denied parole. At a January 5 hearing at Vacaville, the Board of Prison Terms also mandated a 15-year denial for further parole hearings under Marsy’s Law, which was passed last November by voters, giving victims and their families increased rights. The board, which bases parole requests on several factors including future employment and living plans, improvement through self-help programs, education, remorse, restitution and responsibility for the crime, heard from several speakers including members of Justice for Victims of Homicide; the deceased’s father and sisters; and friends Kenneth Waco and Matthew Williams, who was wounded in the shooting on Los Liones Drive on July 3, 1987. Williams told the Palisadian-Post that there were more than 75 letters from the community, as well as a letter from L.A. Chief of Police William Bratton, asking the Board to deny Down a parole. Down’s sister and brother were at the hearing. Both said that if he was paroled, they would try to help, but the brother is in an assisted-living facility and the sister is from Arizona, which meant that neither qualified as a location that Down could be released to. Down, 57, has two daughters; neither attended the hearing. At the proceedings, Down’s entire criminal history was open to review. Williams knew that when Down was sentenced in 1987, he was already a convicted felon, but Williams did not know that Down had previously been charged and convicted of child molestation, chasing people down on the freeway and fighting with them, wife beating, voyeurism against children and teens, multiple drug offenses and beating a police officer. ‘It took 45 minutes to just go through what he did in the ’70s,’ said Williams, who attended the entire four-hour hearing. ‘His history was horrible; it was sordid.’ The board expressed concern about Down’s violent attacks that seemed to escalate and especially his history of violence against children. In Williams’ statement to the Board, he said, ‘We have been sentenced to a lifetime of parole hearings, in which we are forced to relive Clinton’s murder and reiterate the reasons why this inmate must remain incarcerated.   His unprovoked attack on us was vicious, terrifying, excruciatingly painful and deeply traumatic. He threatened a group of youths without reason or provocation, physically assaulted one, and as they fled in fear of their lives, he shot them, permanently wounding two young adults [Daniel Dawson and Williams] and killing a 15-year-old boy.’ Heilemann was an altar boy at Corpus Christi, and an Eagle Scout candidate.
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