The Board of Parole Hearings commissioners granted parole to Michael Todd last week, according to the Yolo County District Attorney\u2019s Office. Todd, now 60, is currently serving his life sentence at Salinas Valley State Prison.<\/p>\n
On March 29, 1995, Todd and Kenneth Buffer brutally attacked James Williams at a home in West Sacramento. During the trial, witnesses testified that Williams owed Buffer and Todd $10,000 as a result of a drug deal. Buffer severely beat Williams.<\/p>\n
While Buffer watched, Todd burned Williams multiple times with a knife that had been heated on a stove. Buffer later drove Williams, who was nearly dead, to his friend\u2019s house, where he was abandoned in the back seat of his own car. Williams died ten days later after being taken to the hospital.<\/p>\n
In 1996, a Yolo County jury convicted both Buffer and Todd of 1st degree murder and torture, and both were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.<\/p>\n
Todd had been denied parole at three prior hearings where the District Attorney\u2019s Office opposed his release. Buffer was granted parole and later released from prison in 2021. During the April 29 parole hearing, Todd took full responsibility for the death of Williams and, in response to questions from Commissioner Robert Barton, discussed his rehabilitative efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe find you no longer pose an unreasonable risk to public safety. We find you suitable,\u201d Commissioner Barton stated. \u201cWe will impose special conditions on you, and we will order additional programming upon your release.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams\u2019 son attended the parole hearing and was the final person to speak. He expressed apprehension due to Todd\u2019s statements but commended the commissioners for conducting a thorough hearing and said he trusted they would make the right decision.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Raven, who represented the District Attorney\u2019s office, also raised concerns based on statements made by Todd and the 15-page Comprehensive Risk Assessment completed by a psychologist on behalf of CDCR. Ultimately, neither the victim\u2019s son nor the District Attorney\u2019s office expressly opposed a grant of parole.<\/p>\n
Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig stated that, under individuals sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, the law is very clear: they cannot be denied parole based solely on the egregious nature of the crime. Otherwise, there would be no possibility of parole.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope that Mr. Todd will be a productive member of society and that he will have intensive supervision by state parole,\u201d stated Reisig. \u201cClearly, a decision to grant parole to someone convicted of murder is concerning and comes with risk. I find comfort knowing that Mr. Williams\u2019 son was at peace with this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Board of Parole Hearings commissioners granted parole to Michael Todd last week, according to the Yolo County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[179,181,23,100,180,121,123,122],"class_list":["post-300930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-community","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}