A man convicted of murdering his adoptive mother in San Rafael in 2010 has been denied parole for three more years.
Richard Leroy Carlson, 36, killed Eleanor Joyce Carlson with a knife at her home on C Street near Gerstle Park. She was 72.
Carlson, who was adopted by the victim and her husband as a child, testified that she abused him physically, sexually and emotionally after the death of his adoptive father years earlier. On the night of the stabbing, Carlson said, his mother pushed him during an argument and said he “wasn’t a part of the family anyway.”
“She told me to get out of the way and pushed me to the side,” Carlson testified. “I said, ‘You will never touch me again.’”
Carlson lived in the East Bay at the time and was a student at Laney College. He was arrested in the East Bay the day after the crime with the bloody weapon in his pocket.
The defense sought a voluntary manslaughter conviction, saying the homicide happened during an explosion of rage. Such a conviction would have carried a potential 12-year sentence.
The prosecution sought a first-degree murder conviction and a sentence of 26 years to life, arguing that the killing was premeditated. Authorities said that Carlson broke into the residence intending to kill his mother, and each time he stabbed her was a premeditated act.
A Marin County jury convicted Carlson of second-degree murder in 2011. A judge sentenced him to 15 years to life in prison.
The parole panel denied his release in a hearing last month, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He had been denied parole twice before.
Carlson’s lawyer, Patrick Sparks, declined to comment.
Carlson’s next parole hearing is tentatively planned for October 2028. He is imprisoned at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, Monterey County.
