FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: ASTORINO IMPLORES GOVERNOR CUOMO TO DEMAND NEW SAMUEL AYALA PAROLE BOARD HEARING WITH VICTIMS’ CHILDREN PRESENT.
Murderer and Rapist of Two Westchester Mothers is Level-Three Sex Offender; Definition of a Public Threat.
Hudson Valley-Sept. 9...
Former two-term Westchester county executive and state senate candidate Rob Astorino today implored New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to demand a new Parole Board hearing for Samuel Ayala, with the children of the victims present. Mr. Ayala is a Level-three sex offender and a perpetrator of one of the most horrific crimes in Westchester County history.
Mr. Ayala beat, raped, and murdered two young Westchester mothers in a 1977 South Salem home invasion along with an accomplice — in front of the mothers’ three- and six-year old children. Mr. Ayala laughed throughout the home after 11 shots were fired into the women, according to the surviving children.
The children of the deceased, Bonnie Minter and Sheila Watson, were outrageously denied the right to testify before the Parole Board because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr. Ayala could be released as soon as tomorrow, Thursday, September 10th.
“I implore Governor Cuomo to demand a new Parole Board hearing for Samuel Ayala with the surviving victims present — they deserve to be heard,” Mr. Astorino said. “As a Level Three sex offender, Mr. Ayala is considered a threat to public safety by definition. How is it possible that we’re rewarding an early release to someone this dangerous? It defies common sense.”
Mr. Ayala was controversially granted parole last month by a notoriously liberal three-person Parole Board. The Parole Board has refused to release transcripts of the hearing.
The New York State Parole Board is also under fire for just voting to release Perry Bellamy, a formerly-paroled convict who paid to have his Parole Officer, Brian Rooney, murdered in 1985.
The judge in the Ayala rape-murder case, Justice Richard Daronco, went on record at a 1978 sentencing that his 25-year-to-life sentence was the maximum he could give, making it clear to future parole boards that the vicious murderer belongs behind bars for life. Mr. Ayala refused to say at an earlier parole board hearing whether he would have killed the children had he not run out of bullets. His accomplice, Willie Profit, died in prison in 2016.
“Westchester hasn’t forgotten Bonnie Minter, Sheila Watson, or their children who have the moral right to address the Parole Board before any decision is made” Mr. Astorino said. “Releasing their assailant now — when he’s officially classified a threat to the public — shows how radical our state government has become. Governor Cuomo must demand a new hearing with family members present.”
Mr. Astorino has promised to sponsor legislation in the state senate that would require unanimous Parole Board votes before any convicted murderer or rapist is granted parole in New York State. His legislation would also require that the testimony of surviving family members be heard by the Parole Board, in-person or by video, before any vote is taken. Mr. Astorino would also work to end no-cash-bail in New York, a new law championed by his opponent, State Senator Peter Harckham (SD-40.) Three New York City police commissioners have cited the no-cash-bail law as the impetus for the growing crime wave in New York.
“New York State has become recklessly lenient on violent criminals under one-party rule, and the decisions to release Mr. Ayala and Mr. Bellamy are two stark examples of it,” the former county executive continued. “Albany desperately needs new voices to bring balanced, common-sense opinion back into the debate, and that’s why I’m running for state senate. There’s room for well-thought-out criminal justice reforms, but returning dangerous criminals to the streets early is madness.”
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