Convicted murderer granted parole after nearly 40 years

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KABC) -- A Southern California man convicted of killing an elderly couple 37 years ago has been found eligible for parole.

Cheryl Effron said she has no doubt the convicted killer of her parents will kill again.

"I guarantee you he will kill again," Effron told Eyewitness News. "The only thing I want to say to the parole board is that the blood of his next victim, whether it's me, someone I love or someone else, is going to be on them, and on the governor."

Effron is talking about Jose Gonzalez, the 59-year old man who bludgeoned her parents to death in the basement of their San Diego clothing store back in 1977. Gonzalez was found suitable for parole Tuesday by California's Board of parole. If Governor Brown does not reverse the decision, Gonzalez will walk out of prison a free man in a matter of months.

"This man has shown no remorse, no insight into his crimes. He continued today to say it was other people's fault -- that the other thugs with him forced him to kill our parents," son of the victims, Gary Effron, said.

Gonzalez was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in 1978 for the murders of James and Essie Effron. The California Supreme Court had recently overturned the death penalty. State lawmakers passed a law reinstating capital punishment, but it came too late for the Effron family. There was no law on the books at that time for life without the possibility of parole.

"I was ankle deep in my mother's dried blood," Cheryl Effron said of the day her parents were murdered. "All I can do is just close my eyes and see back to all those years ago, photos or my mother laying face down, basically bludgeoned to death, pulverized."

This was Gonzalez's ninth parole hearing. At each hearing, the Effron family must face down down the killer of their parents and fight to keep him behind bars.

"The fact that this monster has the potential to walk the earth with the rest of people who are law-abiding is disgusting, it flies in the face of common sense," says Cheryl Effron.

San Diego Deputy District Attorney Richard Sachs says Gonzalez showed no remorse at Tuesday's parole hearing at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville.

"To have Gonzalez behave the way he did at this hearing and still get a parole date is a giant slap in the face," Sachs said. "He never even talked if he was sorry about killing them or not. He said nothing."

Gonzalez attorney Michael Beckman tells Eyewitness News that his client is remorseful and takes full responsibility for the murders. Gonzalez, however, still maintains that he never planned to harm the Effrons. Gonzalez claims it was a robbery that turned violent when an accomplice ordered him beat James Effron with a pipe.

"The viciousness of this crime, where he bludgeoned my parents to death with a pipe, bashed their brains in just mercilessly, most normal human beings don't have it within them to do that -- he did," Gary Effron said.

In California, a record number of inmates with life sentences are being set free due to a series of court decisions that place less weight on the crime itself and more weight on whether the inmate is a current risk to public safety.

Cheryl and Gary Effron say the fight isn't over yet. They're planning a letter-writing campaign to Governor Brown to urge him to block Gonzalez's parole.