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Thread: Calvin Lamont Parker - California Death Row

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    Calvin Lamont Parker - California Death Row


    Calvin Lamont Parker


    Facts of the Crime:

    Sentenced to death in San Diego County on February 24, 2003 for the killing of Patricia Gallego. Parker also raped the Brazilian immigrant and dismembered her body in the August 12, 2000 slaying. The trail that led to a judge sentencing Calvin Lamont Parker to death began when a transient rummaging through a trash bin behind a pet store in the Midway District found a human finger. In the vicinity, police officers discovered eight fingertips, which appeared to be burned, along with a bolt cutter, a used roll of duct tape, cigarette lighters, notes, paperwork, incense, a breathing mask, cologne, clothing, red-stained rubber gloves and numerous other objects, according to court documents. That same day – August 14, 2000 – two women found the body of Patricia Gallego, 29, in Carlsbad.

    The body was wrapped in plastic and stuffed into a large wheeled trash can with several pieces of duct tape on the outside. Parker was arrested, tried and convicted in the murder, rape and dismemberment of his former roommate, a Brazilian native who her parents said came to the United States in 1997 to start a new life. Defense attorney Dawnella Gilzean said outside of court that Parker's having been sexually and physically abused as a child contributed to his sense of isolation and his inability to trust anyone. Wellington denied a defense request to sentence Parker to life in prison without parole.

    Gallego first met Parker in 1998 when she was dating his then-roommate, according to court documents. They moved in together in May 2000, but were not romantically involved. Prosecutors Brenda Daly and Blaine Bowman said Parker wrote about his infatuation with Gallego and superimposed her face on the pictures of at least 75 of the hundreds of women in sexual positions that he had on his walls, his bed and in duffel bags. They said the murder was carefully planned and that Parker tried to steal her money by cashing forged checks after he killed her. Parker had taken a week off from work, telling his boss that he needed to visit his mother. He wrote out a "to-do" list detailing what he intended to do to Gallego that included notes about getting a "small med. car w/ decent trunk, burn palms + face thoroughly." He then attacked Gallego in their apartment, handcuffed her, raped her, hit her in the head and slit her throat. He drained her blood in the bathtub and cut up the body.

    Parker got rid of the blood-and-semen-spattered mattress from her bed in a field in Bonita. The last time Gallego was seen alive was when she left her job at Cafe Chloe on Pearl Street in La Jolla a few days before her body was found. She was killed two weeks before her 30th birthday. Her father, Ruben Gallego, testified during Parker's trial that he had a plane ticket and was planning to visit her for her birthday when he received a telephone call about his daughter's death. Her mother, who attended the trial, was not present at the sentencing. Gallego was her only child. "She didn't die by herself," her mother, Terezinha Ramos Das Silva, said. "It was a family that died with her. I died twice."

  2. #2
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Counsel was hired to represent Parker on direct appeal before the California Supreme Court on June 18, 2008.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S113962

  3. #3
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    On April 20, 2018, a prosecution response to Parker’s initial brief was filed.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...xTUCAgCg%3D%3D

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Parker's direct appeal has been fully briefed before the California Supreme Court since August 13, 2019.

    https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca....xTUCAgCg%3D%3D

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On March 1, 2022, oral argument will be heard in Parker's direct appeal before the California Supreme Court.

    https://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/...rs/SMAR122.PDF

  6. #6
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Death sentence upheld for man convicted of killing roommate in Morena

    The Coast News

    REGION — The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the conviction and death sentence for a man found guilty of raping and killing his roommate in San Diego, then cutting off her fingers in an effort to conceal the killing.

    Calvin Lamont Parker, now 52, was sentenced to death in 2003 for killing 29-year-old Patricia Gallego, with whom he shared an apartment in the Morena neighborhood.

    Prosecutors said Parker attacked the woman after waiting for her to come home from work the night of Aug. 12, 2000.

    Her body, which was found completely drained of blood, was dumped in Carlsbad, but her fingers were found in a trash bin near a Midway-area pet store.

    After she disappeared, a man who identified himself as Gallego’s roommate called both restaurants where she worked and said Gallego had returned to her home country of Brazil, according to the ruling. The roommate asked them not to fire her as she was only in Brazil to visit her mother, who had been hospitalized.

    Prosecutors said Parker cashed a $350 check from Gallego’s bank account on Aug. 12, then tried to cash another two days later.

    One month prior to the killing, he had also arranged for a week off from his workplace from Aug. 7 through Aug.12 because he said his mother had terminal cancer, which turned out to be false.

    He was arrested on Aug. 15 at the apartment he shared with Gallego.

    Parker was convicted of first-degree murder and three special circumstance allegations: lying in wait, killing Gallego for financial gain, and killing her in the commission of rape.

    In his appeal, he made several contentions that his conviction and death sentence should be set aside, all of which were rejected by the state’s highest court.

    Among these were claims that certain evidence was improperly admitted, including hundreds of pornographic photographs found in his home, in which pictures of Gallego’s face were pasted onto other women’s bodies.

    He also argued that crime scene and autopsy photos may have prejudiced the jury and that the defense was improperly limited in their ability to cross-examine a jailhouse informant who alleged that Parker had confided in him about killing Gallego.

    Before he was sentenced, Parker read a rambling, hour-long statement in which he accused his two attorneys and two prosecutors of collusion.

    Parker said he was continually denied a chance to bring up evidence that would prove that witnesses lied and evidence was unlawfully presented.

    “Twelve jurors were duped into believing anything,” the defendant said.

    At the end of his statement, Parker apologized to Gallego’s family, saying the things they heard at trial ” didn’t happen.”

    He said the victim didn’t suffer the way prosecutors said she did.

    “All I really wanted was mutual care and respect,” Parker said.

    https://thecoastnews.com/death-sente...ate-in-morena/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #7
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On March 29, 2022, Parker filed a habeas petition before the California Supreme Court.

    https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca....tSQCAgCg%3D%3D

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