State Senator Cathleen Galgiani was joined Monday in Sacramento by the Ranzo family, Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson and Stanislaus County District Attorney Birgit Fladager to implore the Governor to reverse the decision by the Parole Board to grant parole to Jeffrey Allen Maria. 

On June 25, 1979 Jeffrey Allen Maria was convicted of the murder and rape of Phil and Kathy Ranzo.  Maria and his accomplices Marty Don Spears, Ronald Ray Anderson, and Darren Lee, deliberately preyed upon the Ranzos in a home invasion robbery and exploited the willingness of the young couple to help people they thought had run out of gas.  The parole board has determined that Maria is no longer a danger to society, attributing partial responsibility for his crimes to the diminished capacity of a minor, yet Maria was only five months shy of being a legal adult at the time of the murders.  

“How does a mere five months constitute an absolute demarcation between knowingly committing heinous crimes and being unaware of the horrifying acts and suffering being committed right before your eyes?” said Senator Galgiani. “Maria’s parole would result in a complete miscarriage of justice for the victim’s family, and for our communities.  Maria is a danger to any community, and I seriously doubt you will find any community willing to accept him.  We need to return some sanity to our justice system by reversing the decision granting parole to Jeffrey Allan Maria and enacting a restraining order prohibiting his release,.” 

Also attending the press conference were Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth De Jong and family members of the victims including: Patty Giles, Rebecca Naranjo, Cheryl Gusman, Sandy Howell and Carl Abplanalp.