FRESNO, CA (KMJ) – Gov. Jerry Brown has again blocked parole for the killer of a developmentally disabled Clovis man who was buried alive.
Brown said Friday that 55-year-old David Weidert remains too dangerous to be released.
He overruled the recommendation by a state parole panel for the second time in three years.
Weidert, who was 17 at the time, was sentenced to life in prison for killing 20-year-old Clovis resident Michael Morganti in 1980 to cover up a $500 burglary Weidert had committed.
Weidert and a 16-year-old accomplice forced Morganti to dig his own grave, beat him, stabbed him and choked him with a telephone wire. But he eventually suffocated after being buried alive.
In May, District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp sent a letter to Governor Brown urging him to overturn the Board’s decision granting parole to Inmate Weidert.
Fresno County Sheriff-Coroner Margaret Mims, as well as Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer, also sent letters to the Governor voicing their objections to his release.
The Board of Parole Hearings previously decided to grant parole to Inmate Weidert three years ago in January 2015.
