In Re Palermo

In June 1987, when he was 21 years old, Darin Palermo (defendant) fatally shot his former girlfriend, Andrea Naftel (the victim), while she was sitting on the toilet in the bathroom of defendant’s apartment.

According to defendant’s version of the incident, he and the victim had planned to go target shooting together. Believing that he had emptied the bullets from his revolver, defendant foolishly began to play “cowboy” and dry fired the weapon twice as he walked down the hallway toward the bathroom. He then stood in the open doorway to the bathroom, took aim, and fired the weapon, fatally shooting the victim. Stunned because he thought that the gun was unloaded, he called his sister and 9-1-1, and gave the victim mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until emergency assistance arrived. He believed that he committed manslaughter because he did not intend to kill the victim.

The People presented a different scenario. After dating and living with defendant, the victim moved out of defendant’s apartment. There appeared to be some tension between them after defendant began dating another woman and the victim would enter the apartment without defendant’s knowledge or consent while…

Dissenting.

I respectfully dissent. While this is a close case, there is “some evidence” upon which the Board of Parole Hearings (the Board) could rely to find that Darin Palermo is currently dangerous, including the aggravated facts of the murder and Palermo’s continuing lack of insight concerning personal responsibility for his actions. In my opinion, the Board’s denial of parole should be upheld.

Standard of Review

“[T]he relevant inquiry is whether the circumstances of the commitment offense, when considered in light of other facts in the record, are such that they continue to be predictive of current dangerousness many years after commission of the offense. This inquiry is, by necessity and by statutory mandate, an individualized one, and cannot be undertaken simply by examining the circumstances of the crime in isolation, without consideration of the passage of time or the attendant changes in the inmate’s psychological or mental attitude. [Citations.]” (In re Lawrence (2008) 44 Cal.4th 1181, 1221 [ 82 Cal.Rptr.3d 169 , 190 P.3d 535 ].) “[T]he proper articulation of the standard of review is whether there exists ‘some evidence’ that an inmate poses a current threat to…

In June 1987, when he was 21 years old, Darin Palermo (defendant) fatally shot his former girlfriend, Andrea Naftel (the victim), while she was sitting on the toilet in the bathroom of defendant's apartment.

According to defendant's version of the incident, he and the victim had planned to go target shooting together. Believing that he had emptied the bullets from his revolver, defendant foolishly began to play "cowboy" and dry fired the weapon twice as he walked down the hallway toward the bathroom. He then stood in the open doorway to the bathroom, took aim, and fired the weapon, fatally shooting the victim. Stunned because he thought that the gun was unloaded, he called his sister and 9-1-1, and gave the victim mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until emergency assistance arrived. He believed that he committed manslaughter because he did not intend to kill the victim.

The People presented a different scenario. After dating and living with defendant, the victim moved out of defendant's apartment. There appeared to be some tension between them after defendant began dating another woman and the victim would enter the apartment without defendant's knowledge or consent…