The family of a man beaten to death in 1979 is fighting the release of his killer under California’s Elderly Parole Law.
Walter Joseph Lewis, now 76, was convicted of two murders after stabbing a man to death in 1965, when he was 18, and then beating Robert Chartier to death with a hammer in 1979 after serving 13 1/2 years for the first murder, KTTV reported.
California’s Elderly Parole Law allows anyone over 50 and who has been in custody for 20 years or more to receive a parole hearing.
Chartier’s family has been fighting Lewis’ parole since 2017.
“People over 50 kill, and if it’s in you, it’s in you. I don’t think there’s an age limit to a demon,” said Karla, a relative of Chartier’s, who did not give her last name. She said she fears for her family if the elderly killer is released.
“We’re just in shock that it’s even happening. I can’t believe that somebody would approve of this man being released. They were violent murders, they weren’t self-defense,” she said.
Karla questioned the parole board who approved Lewis’s pending release.
“If it was your family member, would you just stamp that seal of approval and come on out?”
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[Featured image: Walter Lewis/KTTV screenshot]
