| For Immediate Release June 22, 2011 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
PAROLE DENIED FOR MAN WHO MURDERED FATHER AND LEFT VICTIM’S 3-YEAR-OLD SON PARALYZED DURING 1977 ROBBERY ATTEMPT
SANTA ANA – The Board of Parole Hearings (Board), California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations, denied the parole today for a man convicted of shooting and murdering a man and paralyzing the victim’s 3-year-old son during a botched robbery attempt in 1977. Johnnie Earl Moore, 54, formerly of Los Angeles, is currently being held at California Medical Facility in Vacaville, CA. Moore was sentenced Sept. 25, 1987, to life in state prison for one felony count of first degree murder and five years for a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a firearm during the commission of a robbery. Deputy District Attorney Douglas Woodsmall originally prosecuted this case. Moore will be eligible for his next parole hearing in 2014. Before denying the inmate’s parole, the Board took into consideration the facts of the case, Moore’s prison record including his eight prison rules violations, and his failure to take responsibility for the murder.
Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Susan Price, who appeared at the hearing to oppose Moore’s parole, read a letter to the Board from Amaya’s daughter, who was an infant when Moore murdered her father. In the letter, Amaya’s daughter says that as a result of the inmate’s actions she is now financially responsible for her mother and brother. She said that her brother has described that, after he was shot in the neck, he just lay in the bed next to his dead father. She asked the court to imagine being a 3-year-old child, bleeding from the neck, knowing your father was dying next to you and unable to help you. She asked the court to think of her mother, who had to watch her husband and 3-year-old son being rushed into the hospital where she worked as a nurse.
Shooting-Murder of Bulmaro Amaya and Paralysis of Mario Amaya
On the night of May 11, 1977, then 19-year-old Moore broke into the home of 25-year-old Bulmaro Amaya, a husband and father of two, by prying open a kitchen window with the intent to burglarize the home. Bulmaro Amaya, his 3-year-old son Mario Amaya, and infant daughter were all inside the residence when Moore entered the bedroom where Amaya and his son were sleeping. Amaya awoke to find Moore in the bedroom holding a wooden jewelry box and attempted to get out of bed. Moore shot Amaya in the upper leg and the chest, murdering him. Mario Amaya, who had been sleeping next to his father, was also hit once in the neck. He became paralyzed from the chest down for the rest of his life. Moore then fled the scene, leaving the jewelry box with his fingerprints behind.
The following morning, Amaya’s mother-in-law discovered the bloody crime scene when the victim failed to deliver the children to her home while his wife worked. Moore eluded authorities for nine years until he was arrested in 1986, when new fingerprint technology positively matched him to the wooden jewelry box left at the scene of the crime.
Career Criminal History and Prison Violations
Moore has an extensive criminal history including a December 1975 burglary conviction and a December 1977 robbery conviction. He escaped prison in May 8, 1979, while on a day-leave pass. On June 1, 1982, Moore was detained and released for being in possession of a controlled substance. On Jan. 23, 1985, the inmate was detained and released for being under the influence of a controlled substance. On July 13, 1986, Moore was detained and released for grand theft auto, and later that same year, the inmate was finally linked to and prosecuted for the 1977 murder of Amaya.