ASTORINO: AYALA RELEASE DEMANDS
UNANIMOUS PAROLE BOARD VOTING CHANGE.
Murderer and Rapist of Two Westchester Mothers
to be Released in September.
Hudson Valley-Aug. 31...
Former two-term Westchester county executive and state senate candidate Rob Astorino today announced that he will introduce legislation to require unanimous New York State Parole Board votes for the release of convicted murderers and rapists in New York State, should he be elected to the state senate in November. A simple, two-vote majority is all that is required now for the three-member Parole Board panels.
Mr. Astorino makes his announcement just days before the perpetrator of one of the most horrific crimes in Westchester County history will be released from prison.
Samuel Ayala beat, raped, and murdered two young Westchester mothers, Bonnie Minter and Sheila Watson, in a 1977 South Salem home invasion — in front of their three- and six-year old children. Mr. Ayala laughed after firing 11 bullets into the women as they crawled to their kids. The judge in the case, Justice Richard Daronco, went on record at 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. Ayala’s accomplice, Willie Profit, died in prison in 2016. Family members were denied their right to appear before the Parole Board this year because of Covid-19, and the Board has refused to release details of its recent vote.
“Samuel Ayala is a remorseless murderer who should never be allowed back onto our streets,” Mr. Astorino said. “But this is the warped, one-party criminal leniency we are seeing out of Albany that mocks crime victims and makes our communities less safe. As state senator, I will immediately introduce legislation to require a unanimous Parole Board vote before any murderer or rapist is released. I would also require that in-person or video testimony from a victim's family be presented before any Parole Board decision is made, a courtesy the Minter and Watson families were denied.”
Mr. Ayala, who refused to say at an earlier Parole Board hearing whether he would have killed the children had he not run out of bullets, will also have his voting rights restored under New York’s new, “progressive” criminal justice policies, the former county executive noted.
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