OCDA TO OPPOSE PAROLE OF WOMAN WHO MURDERED HUSBAND OF THREE WEEKS BY DISMEMBERING, DECAPITATING, DISEMBOWELING, COOKING AND FREEZING BODY IN 1991

OCDA TO OPPOSE PAROLE OF WOMAN WHO MURDERED HUSBAND OF THREE WEEKS BY DISMEMBERING, DECAPITATING, DISEMBOWELING, COOKING AND FREEZING BODY IN 1991

SANTA ANA – Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) Tony Rackauckas is opposing the parole of a woman who killed her husband of three weeks over Thanksgiving weekend in 1991 by dismembering, disemboweling, cooking and freezing his body. Omaima Aree Nelson, 43, is currently being held at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, CA. Nelson was sentenced March 18, 1993, to 25 years to life for second degree murder, with a sentencing enhancement for personal use of a knife and, in a separate incident, assault with a firearm. Nelson is scheduled for a parole hearing tomorrow, Oct. 5, 2011, at 10:30 a.m., at the prison before the Board of Parole Hearings, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations.

Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Randy Pawloski, who originally prosecuted the case, will appear to oppose Nelson’s parole.

Facts of the Case

Nelson met her husband, 56-year-old William Nelson, two months before getting married in November 1991. Over Thanksgiving weekend, between Nov. 28, 1991, and Nov. 30, 1991, after three weeks of marriage, she murdered and dismembered William Nelson. She cut off the victim’s genitals and then cooked the victim’s decapitated head and placed it in the freezer. She boiled William Nelson’s hands in oil. She used the garbage disposal to dispose of much of the body, and other body parts were thrown out in the apartment building dumpster. Several body parts were found in the trunk of a car and in the apartment.

Nelson was arrested on Dec. 1, 1991, by the Costa Mesa Police Department after she contacted an acquaintance to help her dispose of the body. During the trial, Nelson gave varying and conflicting statements as to what had happened. The jury rejected her claim that her husband repeatedly beat and raped her. Subsequent medical examinations and photographs showed no signs of abuse or injuries to the inmate other than those sustained while dismembering the victim.

Extensive Criminal History

The defendant was previously convicted of several crimes including two counts of auto theft and shoplifting on Dec. 10, 1987, hit and run with property damage on July 31, 1989, shoplifting and battery for biting a security officer on July 10, 1989, driving under the influence on Jan. 24, 1990, driving without license on June 17, 1990, and assault with firearm in November 1990.