LAKEPORT — A judge will decide today whether a prisoner convicted of a 1986 murder in Upper Lake should receive a compassionate release from custody.
Carl Hampton Wade has spent more than 22 years in prison, but the state”s Board of Parole Hearings has determined the 65-year-old satisfies the criteria for possible early release because he is reportedly terminally ill with six months or less to live. The board referred the matter to the Lake County court in late October.
“We expect that when we send someone to prison for life for an egregious crime, that they”ll spend their life in prison and not get released early under any circumstances,” said Richard Hinchcliff, who will represent the Lake County District Attorney”s Office during the hearing, which is set for 9 a.m. today.
Lake County Superior Court Judge Andrew S. Blum appointed local public defender Komnith Moth on Monday to represent the inmate during today”s hearing. Wade has been in prison since 1989 serving a combined 32 years to life for convictions in Lake County and Colorado, Hinchcliff said. Wade wouldn”t be eligible for parole until October 2019, according to Hinchcliff. Wade reportedly shot John Karns in the stomach and then again in the head several minutes later in June 1986. The two were drinking together at an Upper Lake bar, where Karns punched Wade, according to Hinchcliff. Later that night, they went to Wade”s house, where the shooting occurred, Hinchcliff said.
Wade fled the area, traveled across the country and apparently shot another man in the head in Colorado. He was arrested in September 1988 and pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in Colorado, Hinchcliff said.
A jury trial followed in Lake County and Wade was convicted in 1989 of first-degree murder and use of a firearm. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the Colorado conviction and another 16 years to life for the Upper Lake murder. Wade is housed at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville.
