Parole denied to woman who cooked husband
Source: Agencies |
October 7, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A California woman who killed her newlywed husband and cooked his body parts over Thanksgiving weekend in 1991 has been denied her second bid for parole.
Commissioners rejected Egypt-born Omaima Nelson's request for freedom after a five-and-half-hour hearing on Wednesday at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, where she has been serving a life sentence.
Then-23-year-old Nelson was convicted of murdering her husband, William Nelson, 56, in a fashion that authorities likened to the fictional slayings of Hannibal Lecter, the cannibalistic character in "Silence of the Lambs."
Nelson, now 43, represented herself at the hearing and argued that she should be paroled because she has changed and wants "to live the good life God meant."
She claimed she was sorry, though she continued to say she killed in self-defense.
But the two-person panel of the state Board of Parole found that Nelson, a former model and nanny, continued to be a risk to society. Commissioners said she had not accepted full responsibility for the slaying, nor completed educational or vocational programs while incarcerated that would help her lead a productive life outside prison.
Nelson was "blaming anybody but herself," deputy commissioner Robert Barese said at the hearing.
Commissioners cited Nelson's criminal history - including shoplifting, auto theft and assault with a firearm – and her failure to abide by prison rules, including violations for fighting, hiding contraband, stealing, failure to comply with instructions and arguing.
They also found that Nelson had shown a pattern of exchanging sex with older men for money and goods, which in the past had led to violence.
William Nelson's daughter Margaret Nelson - who was 15 at the time of the murder - gave a long, tearful speech about how her father couldn't attend her wedding or meet her 8-week-old daughter.
"I don't have the language to explain the pain of my father not being there," the victim's daughter said.
Commissioners rejected Egypt-born Omaima Nelson's request for freedom after a five-and-half-hour hearing on Wednesday at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, where she has been serving a life sentence.
Then-23-year-old Nelson was convicted of murdering her husband, William Nelson, 56, in a fashion that authorities likened to the fictional slayings of Hannibal Lecter, the cannibalistic character in "Silence of the Lambs."
Nelson, now 43, represented herself at the hearing and argued that she should be paroled because she has changed and wants "to live the good life God meant."
She claimed she was sorry, though she continued to say she killed in self-defense.
But the two-person panel of the state Board of Parole found that Nelson, a former model and nanny, continued to be a risk to society. Commissioners said she had not accepted full responsibility for the slaying, nor completed educational or vocational programs while incarcerated that would help her lead a productive life outside prison.
Nelson was "blaming anybody but herself," deputy commissioner Robert Barese said at the hearing.
Commissioners cited Nelson's criminal history - including shoplifting, auto theft and assault with a firearm – and her failure to abide by prison rules, including violations for fighting, hiding contraband, stealing, failure to comply with instructions and arguing.
They also found that Nelson had shown a pattern of exchanging sex with older men for money and goods, which in the past had led to violence.
William Nelson's daughter Margaret Nelson - who was 15 at the time of the murder - gave a long, tearful speech about how her father couldn't attend her wedding or meet her 8-week-old daughter.
"I don't have the language to explain the pain of my father not being there," the victim's daughter said.
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