Governor reverses man’s parole decision for third time in killing of Modesto couple

For the third time in three years, Gov. Jerry Brown has reversed the state parole board’s decision and ordered Jeffrey Maria to remain in prison for the June 1979 killings of Philip and Kathryn Ranzo, a Modesto couple brutally attacked in their home.

Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager and state Sen. Cathleen Galgiani urged residents to ask the governor to reverse the parole board’s June 6 decision. The victims’ family also has made public pleas to keep those responsible for the murders behind bars.

Maria, now 56, was one of four teenagers who killed the Ranzos and later were convicted of murder. Prosecutors have said Maria, Marty Spears, Ronald Anderson and Darren Lee planned a home invasion robbery of the Ranzos’.

The teenagers pretended to be out of gas and asked the Ranzos to use a phone. They brandished a gun, and Phillip Ranzo was tied up before Spears hit his head with a baseball bat and an ax, according to prosecutors.

Spears ordered Kathryn Ranzo to an upstairs bedroom, where he raped and killed her by beating her with an ax and stabbing her in the throat, prosecutors have said. Spears then stabbed Phillip Ranzo multiple times in the face and neck.

Maria remains incarcerated at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. Prosecutors say changes in the law have allowed Maria and some of his co-conspirators to accelerate the scheduling of their parole hearings.

The victims’ relatives estimate they have attended about 20 of these parole hearings in the past several years, according to prosecutors. And the family plans to attend Maria’s next parole hearing, which was tentatively scheduled for December 2019.

Spears, also 56, was denied parole in July. He remains incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, and his next parole hearing is scheduled for July 2023.

Anderson, 57, was found suitable for parole in December 2017, but the governor overturned that decision five months later. He remains at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad and could get another parole hearing in June 2019.

Lee, 55, has been denied parole five times; most recently in March 2015. He remains at San Quentin State Prison and is scheduled for a March 2020 parole hearing.