Culver City Man Denied Parole

A Culver City man who is serving 25 years to life in prison for plotting to murder his estranged wife has been denied parole.

The Board of Parole Hearings, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations denied parole yesterday for Alan Frank Roark.

Roark, 55, was sentenced 19 years ago after being found guilty of one felony count of conspiracy to commit murder and two felony counts of solicitation to commit murder and illegal possession of a weapon. Prosecutors said he solicited his girlfriend and a friend as well as a former neighbor to murder his estranged wife.

Roark began plotting to have his wife murdered as far back as 1989 in order for him to maintain custody of their children, authorities said.

In November 1989, Roark solicited his then-girlfriend to murder his estranged wife by using rat poison, according to authorities. They said Roark's girlfriend refused.

Roark then approached a former neighbor in 1992, offering the neighbor $5,000 as well as a motor home and a boat in exchange for murdering Roark's wife, according to authorities. Prosecutors said Roark and his neighbor even once drove to a medical center in an attempt to murder Roark's wife as she left a scheduled medical appointment, but she did not show up for her appointment that day.

In May of that year, he planned to shoot his wife when they met up to exchange custody of their children in the parking lot of the Norwalk Sheriff's Station. Authorities also said Roark and his neighbor drove to the parking lot armed with a gun, gloves, and a five-foot bag to be used to dispose of her body, but Roark did not follow through with the plan.

He later offered a friend $10,000 to murder his wife, but his friend refused, authorities said. The friend also refused Roark's offer of $5,000 to murder his wife by injecting her so that her death would look like an overdose, they said.

Roark was first arrested in February 1993 by the Ontario Police Department and was sentenced in December of that year.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas had opposed Roark's parole. According to the district attorney's office, Roark continues to deny he made plans to have his wife killed and that his behavior while incarcerated does not show he has been rehabilitated.

Roark will not be eligible for his next parole hearing until 2017, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office.