Dozens of child killers spared by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mass commutation

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stunning decision this week to commute the death sentences of all 548 condemned inmates in California could slash the total number of death row inmates across the country by more than a quarter — and also spare dozens of people convicted of heinous crimes against children.

A rough analysis of the state’s current condemned inmate list reveals dozens of criminals whose names have been cited in the murders of minors.

The state doesn’t publish a breakdown of what type of murders each death row inmate commits — but according to one estimate conducted in the 2010s, about 173 to 220 of them were convicted in cases involving the murder of children.

It’s not a guarantee that all will receive commutations; the California Supreme Court also has to weigh in for those with multiple felonies.

But the decision to spare some of California’s most dangerous criminals has left members of law enforcement and many surviving family members of victims horrified.

One of the perps who could be spared is David Westerfield, now 74, who broke into a neighbor’s house at night in 2002, snatched 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, sexually abused her, killed her, then dumped her body on the side of a road, according to prosecutors.

She was missing for 24 days before her body was found decomposed. Westerfield was also accused of possessing child sexual abuse material found on his computer.

One of the most notorious cases was of Richard Allen Davis, who was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1996 for the 1993 kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas from her home in Petaluma. His crime was a primary catalyst for the passage of California’s “Three Strikes” law.

Davis was on parole when kidnapped Polly Klaas at knifepoint from a slumber party and murdered her. Her father, Marc Klaas, had expressed outrage over the governor’s grand act.

“We’re talking about serial killers, spree killers, cop killers, baby killers,” Klaas told the New York TImes. “We’re talking about absolutely the worst people in our society, without a doubt. And he’s putting his energy into commuting these characters?”

Marcus Delon Wesson, of Fresno, committed a mass murder of multiple children and was sentenced to death in Fresno County in 2005 after being convicted of nine counts of first-degree murder.

Among his victims were seven children—ranging in age from 1 to 8 years old—fathered through the abuse of his daughters and nieces, whom he murdered inside a family compound in March 2004.

Fresno police were summoned to what was described as a child custody issue, and a standoff ensued. Wesson told the police to wait at the door, disappeared into the home and came back to the door bloodied.

In the aftermath, police discovered nine bodies. Each victim had been fatally shot through the eye.

Isauro Aguirre was convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstances of torture and sentenced to death in 2018 for the fatal, prolonged abuse and murder of his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son, Gabriel Fernandez, in Palmdale.

Prosecutors said the child was beaten with a baseball bat, shot with a BB gun, burned with cigarettes and forced to eat cat feces and his own vomit. He was locked in a cabinet overnight, sprayed with pepper spray, bound and gagged.

First responders in 2013 found him unresponsive with a fractured skull, broken ribs and missing teeth.

in May 1996 in Yuba City, eight-year-old Michael Lyons was kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered by Robert Boyd Rhoades.

Lyons was kidnapped while he was walking home from school. Rhoades tortured him for ten hours, inflicting 70 to 80 non-lethal stab wounds, raped him, before taking the child’s life the next morning.

His mother, Sandy Friend, said in a statement to the Post that Newsom didn’t even bother contacting her first before the commutations.

“Years and years of fighting, by me, by other people, and by families, and now it feels like it means absolutely nothing. He didn’t even take the time to look at each case, or to sit down with the family members who are affected,” Friend said.

“We fought for justice, and now one man has swiped away these monsters’ true sentences in one moment, just like the monsters who took our loved ones’ voices and silenced our loved ones,” she added.

A former Bakersfield vice principal, Vincent Brothers was convicted and sentenced to death in 2007 for the 2003 murders of five family members, including his three children: 4-year-old Taenizh, 2-year-old Marques, and 6-week-old Marshall.

According to a Kern County deputy district attorney, Brothers killed his family because they were a financial burden.

Karl Darnell Holmes was sentenced to death for the October 1993 Halloween night ambush shooting in Pasadena that killed three teenage boys—13-year-old Edgar Evans, 14-year-old Stephen Coats, and 14-year-old Reggie Crawford.

The ambush was gang-related and was one of Pasadena’s most notorious crimes. Prosecutors said the attackers mistook the teenagers for rival gang members and unleashed a barrage of gunfire in retaliation for an earlier killing.

All on death row now have a chance to avoid death — a possibility that cops and prosecutors across the state blasted.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer ripped Newsom’s decision as “mercy for the wolves and while inflicting the ultimate act of cruelty on the sheep.”

“Governor Newsom’s decision to unilaterally eradicate the decisions of hundreds of juries comes as no surprise, as this is just another step in a calculated march to empty out California’s prisons and send a message that no one should be held responsible for their crimes,” he said in a statement.

“Governor Newsom is setting aside the punishment imposed on criminals for some of the worst crimes imaginable,” he said.

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