Modesto man is denied parole in 1989 murder

MODESTO -- A Modesto man who pleaded guilty in a 1989 murder again has been denied parole.

Just prior to the start of his scheduled hearing Tuesday before the State Board of Parole Hearings in Corcoran, defendant Stephen Curtis Mendonca, 47, waived the current hearing and his right to have a hearing for five years. The Board of Parole Hearings accepted the waiver.

On Jan. 22, 1989, Kenneth Lawton Stewart was found shot to death on West Keyes Road. Mendonca admitted to a Stanislaus County sheriff's detective that he and another man were solicited by Dennis Lawley to kill Stewart. According to Mendonca, Lawley said Stewart had robbed him of $3,500.

Mendonca admitted to a cellmate that he had killed Stewart with a co-defendant, Brian Seaborne, and that each of them fired one bullet into the victim.

Mendonca pleaded guilty to second-degree murder; Seaborne and Lawley were convicted of the murder. Mendonca also was denied parole in 2007.