Crime & Safety
Parole Granted For Defendant In 1986 Napa County Murder
Edward Voss was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the slaying of 21-year-old Kimberly Dudley-Brown.
NAPA COUNTY, CA — Two members of the state Board of Parole Hearings have agreed to grant "elderly parole" for a 77-year-old prison inmate convicted of the second-degree shooting murder of his girlfriend's daughter in 1986, the Napa County District Attorney's Office said Friday.
The full Board of Parole Hearings has 120 days to concur with the decision, Napa County Assistant District Attorney Paul Gero said.
The inmate, Edward Voss was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for the slaying of 21-year-old Kimberly Dudley-Brown in Napa on Oct. 25, 1986. Voss shot Dudley-Brown in the heart as she tried to leave a note on
Voss's trailer door, the Napa County District Attorney's Office said.
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Voss had guns and drugs in his trailer and he thought he was being robbed when Dudley-Brown went to the door, Napa County Assistant District Attorney Paul Gero said.
Dudley-Brown went to the trailer to inform her mother that her visiting grandmother wanted to return home, and Dudley-Brown's husband and infant daughter were in the car waiting for her to return when the slaying
occurred, the District Attorney's Office said.
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Investigators found an arsenal of illegal drugs, large amounts of cash and an armory of guns in the trailer, and Voss also was convicted of drug and weapons charges, District Attorney Allison Haley said.
Voss became eligible for parole in 2001 but failed to show evidence of positive change in prison until recently, the District Attorney's Office said.
He was denied parole in 2016 but the Parole Board advanced the hearing date on its own motion to Aug. 25 citing a change of circumstances, Haley's office said.
Citing Voss's poor physical health and advanced age, the two Board of Parole Hearings commissioners found Voss was not a risk of danger to society. Voss said he plans to move to San Diego near his family.
Gero argued against releasing Voss based on the cruelty and callousness of the murder, his lack of insight onto the killing, limited participation in self-help programs and serious prior record.
Seven members of Dudley-Brown's family attended the hearing at the California Health Care Facility in Stockton, and several argued against Voss's release.
In a statement, the Dudley family said it is devastated at the hearing outcome and the decision to release Voss.
"No family should have their hearts broken twice in a lifetime. Justice that was once served has forever been taken away; as a killer walks amongst us once again enjoying the freedom of life which he denied Kimmy some 30 years ago," the family said.
A three-judge panel on prison overcrowding in 2009 ordered the state to reduce prison population, and programs for medical parole, compassionate relief and elder parole were put in place.
Inmates at least 60 years old who have served 25 years of their sentence can receive an elderly parole hearing where age, long-term confinement and diminished physical condition are given special consideration, the District Attorney's Office said.
"Victims and their families don't deserve to be devastated twice; by the crimes committed by the offender and second, by a system that fails to take into account the effects those crimes have on those left behind," Haley
said in a news release.
By Bay City News Service
Image via Shutterstock
