UPDATE, JULY 6, 9:04 A.M.: As mentioned yesterday afternoon, the parole hearing for Anthony Mahmoud Fathi was continued to 2016.
Parole for Alfonza Calhoun was flat-out denied. The serial rapist who in 1979 murdered a Santa Ana man and raped his wife will next be eligible for a parole hearing in 2018.
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The Board of Parole Hearings, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations took into account the facts of the crime and 49-year-old Soledad inmate's prison violations, lack of remorse, lack of self-help and insight into his crimes, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office.
As with Fathi, Orange County Senior
Deputy District Attorney Paul Chrisopoulos appeared before the board at the Correctional Training
Facility to argue against Calhoun's parole.
UPDATE, JULY 5, 4:57 P.M.: Before his scheduled parole hearing today, Anthony Mahmoud Fathi conceded his release for beating and murdering his girlfriend's
7-month-old baby in 1983 would be denied due to his recent disciplinary history while incarcerated at Soledad.
He agreed to a five-year continuance, which would have him before the board again in 2016.
ORIGINAL POST, JULY 5, 7:19 A.M.: Orange County Senior
Deputy District Attorney Paul Chrisopoulos is doing double duty at the Correctional Training
Facility in Soledad this afternoon, arguing against the parole of two convicted killers.
One, Alfonza Calhoun, raped 12 women beginning in 1978 and killed a man and raped his wife a year later. The other, Anthony Mahmoud Fathi, beat and murdered his girlfriend's
7-month-old baby in 1983. Chrisopoulos is scheduled to appear before the Board of Parole Hearings, California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitations at 1 p.m. to argue against the release of Fathi, 52, who was
found guilty by a jury of first degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison in 1985. His
conviction was overturned on appeal, and Fathi was found guilty by another jury of second degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life.
On Nov. 29, 1983, he was living with his girlfriend, her baby Daniel Teodurezcu and two roommates in a Costa Mesa apartment. While the mother showered for 15 minutes, Fathi whacked Daniel in the
stomach, causing injuries including bruises on his abdomen, three
fractured ribs, an internal 5-centimeter tear, swelling to the abdominal
cavity caused by the containment of fluid, and bleeding to his rectal
area.
The mother and the roommates tried to take the baby to an emergency room because of his visible injuries and difficulty breathing, but Fathi struggled with his girlfriend to delay the trip. He refused to go. At the hospital, Costa Mesa police began a child abuse investigation, which changed to a murder probe when the boy died the next morning.
It turned out Fathi had abused the child repeatedly over the months, including biting him. For his crimes, the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) claims he has failed to accept responsibility or show remorse. Indeed, he blames Teodurezcu's mother for failing to put the child up for adoption, supposedly telling investigators, “This child
would be alive today if she would have done as I said.”
Meanwhile, Fathi has not been a model prisoner, having been found in possession of black tar heroin (for which he was prosecuted and received
an additional four years in state prison), and six other major prison violations,
two as recently as 2010, including manufacturing alcohol, refusal to
submit to a urine sample, and multiple possession of a controlled
substance. He has also been cited for seven minor violations including
failing to report to work, failure to report to sick call, stealing food, delaying yard recall, delaying count, being out of bounds,
and failing to respond in writing.
Two hours after Fathi's hearing is scheduled to begin, Chrisopoulos faces the panel again to argue against parole for Calhoun, 49, who was sentenced on July 23, 1980,
to 45 years to life in state prison after pleading guilty to one felony
count of first degree murder and 13 felony counts of rape with threat
with a sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury.
He was 17 years old on the evening of June 12, 1979, when he climbed
through the bedroom window of a Santa Ana apartment where a 67-year-old man
and his wife were asleep in their bed. Calhoun took
off his clothes and woke the couple as he straddled them on their bed. As they tried to break free and call for help, a naked Calhoun stabbed the husband several times, killing him.
He then placed his knife under the wife's throat, ordered her
to the floor, removed her pants, and raped her. He then fled through a bathroom window.
A Santa Ana police investigation determined Calhoun burglarized two apartments in the same complex, and from that he was linked to the murder-rape. He was later connected to 12 other rapes between September 1978 and
May 1979. Most involved him forcibly
entering residences occupied by women and children,
threatening them, restraining them, raping the women and stealing property and
money before fleeing.
Calhoun, who was convicted as an adult, has also been a problem prisoner, according to the OCDA, which has tallied eight major prison rules violations and 17 other broken rules over the length of his incarceration.
“The inmate
must develop understanding of and insight into his violent and repugnant
behavior,” the OCDA's parole opposition letter states, “before he may be released from prison.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.