LAKE COUNTY — A Clearlake man”s first-degree murder conviction was overturned in a Dec. 14 decision of the Court of Appeal of the State of California, First Appellate District, Division Three. The trial will come back to Lake County”s trial court system, where David Garlow Deason, 68, will again be tried for the same charges, according to the Lake County District Attorney”s Office.
Deason was convicted of the shooting death of his girlfriend and roommate Marie Parlet on Dec. 6, 2004 at the couple”s Lower Lake mobile home. Parlet was shot once in the chest from a distance of approximately 18 inches and once in the back, according to court documents. Deason”s San Francisco defense attorney Jonathan Soglin wrote in an appeal filed Jan. 11, 2007 that Deason admitted to killing Parlet.
“He (Deason) will be brought back and retried on same charges,” chief deputy district attorney Richard Hinchcliff said Thursday.
“The defense … acknowledged that the appellant (Deason) shot and killed Marie (Parlet), but contended that the killing was not premeditated and he was guilty of no more than second degree murder,” Soglin writes.
Evidence of Deason”s .27 blood alcohol content was not admitted in his 2006 trial, according to Lake County District Attorney Jon Hopkins.
“It was the (appellate court) justice”s opinion that the level of blood alcohol should be introduced in the case,” Hopkins said Thursday. Hopkins said he was not sure when the trial would be back in Lake County. The decision will become final when the California Appellate Courts officially sends the case back to the Lake County Superior Court system on Feb. 13, 2007, according to case information found at www.courtinfo.ca.gov.
“What they did not talk about is our whole point, and that was that the blood alcohol level was taken at some point after he (Deason) was arrested and they didn”t arrest him until at least 45 minutes after shooting the victim,” Hopkins said.
“He spent that 45 minutes in his residence with a huge amount of alcohol. The whole point was we have no way, without any testimony, of saying that the final blood alcohol level had any relevance to his mental state when he pulled the trigger.”
An opinion written by First District Appellate Court justice Jeffrey Horner said “the trial court erred in excluding expert testimony about his (Deason”s) level of intoxication and in refusing to instruct the jury that it could consider his voluntary intoxication in determining whether the killing was deliberate and premeditated.”
Deason was sentenced to 50 years to life in a state prison and is currently housed at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, according to court documents.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
