UPDATE, JUNE 13, 6:33 P.M.: The California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations' Board of Parole Hearings today denied parole for Steven Yaklyvich, who
planted a pipe bomb that exploded and crippled a man making time with his girlfriend in 1995.
Yaklyvich, who remains locked up at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, will be eligible for his next parole hearing in 2014.
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ORIGINAL POST, JUNE 13, 7:42 A.M.: Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Jerry Schaffer is
scheduled to appear via video
conferencing this afternoon before the state parole board to argue
against the release of a 47-year-old man accused of planting a pipe bomb
that severely injured a guy making time with his girlfriend.
The parole hearing for Steven Yaklyvich, who
is currently being held at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
Then-31-year-old Yaklyvich was also behind bars on March 13, 1995, when he received a visit from
his girlfriend. Jailed for possession of a syringe, Yaklyvich became enraged when he learned his girlfriend was carrying on a
relationship with another man named Ron Robertson.
After
Yaklyvich's release
from jail two days later, he called Robertson, saying he would be
“seeing” the stranger. Yaklyvich went on to plant a pipe bomb under
Robertson's car, and it exploded on April 4, 1995, while the man was
driving. The vehicle's brakes and steering failed, and Robertson's car
collided
with another vehicle. The blast from the explosion had blown a hole
through the
floorboard, causing Robertson's ankle and foot
to break in five places and causing permanent walking impairment.
An Orange police investigation determined that Yaklyvich had recently
been taught how to construct a pipe bomb. At his mother's home, police
found a stolen car, tools, gunpowder and other bomb-making materials
believed to have been used in the Robertson blast. He was arrested in
November 1995, and on Jan. 27, 1997, a jury convicted Yaklyvich of
exploding a bomb causing
great bodily injury and receiving stolen property. He was sentenced to
life in state prison the following March 21.
District Attorney Tony Rackauckas
maintains Yaklyvich still poses an unreasonable risk of danger to
others and that his prison record shows no signs that he has been
rehabilitated. He has denied his involvement in the pipe bombing
for two decades inside, blaming his woes on drug and alcohol abuse,
according to the DA, who adds he's been cited while imprisoned for
battery on an inmate and, twice, for possessing pruno,
inmate-made alcohol.
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.
One Reply to “[UPDATED with Denial:] Steven Yaklyvich, Pipe Bomber Who Crippled Man Making Time with Girlfriend, Faces Parole Opposition”