A Board of Parole Hearings panel denied release this week to a former Bay Area man who is serving a 20-year state prison term for his role in a 2004 South Davis homicide, according to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office.
It was the first parole hearing for Eric Steven Chase Jr., now 37, who remains incarcerated at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville.
The homicide occurred during the early morning hours of Nov. 18, 2004, when Chase and another man went to victim Dennis Edward Thrower’s residence at what was then known as the Tennis Club Apartments — now called the Clearwater Apartments — on Cowell Boulevard.
“Neighbors heard voices and multiple gunshots, and the police were called. When they arrived minutes later, Thrower was found dead in the open doorway of his apartment. The apartment had been ransacked, possibly from a burglary the previous night,” the DA’s Office said in a news release.
Detectives tracked down Chase at a hospital in his Oakland hometown, where he arrived with gunshot wounds to his hand and forearm he said were the result of a Sacramento street robbery but in fact were inflicted by the 35-year-old Thrower before he died of his own injuries. A blood trail leaving the crime scene was matched by DNA to Chase, leading to his arrest two months after the fatal shooting.
Initially charged with murder, Chase pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, robbery and use of a firearm on March 13, 2008, receiving his 20-year prison term without ever identifying the second suspect who is believed to have fired the fatal shots at Thrower. No other arrests were made.
“It was going to be difficult for the district attorney to prove any malice aforethought,” Chase’s public defender, John Jimenez, told The Davis Enterprise at the time of the plea deal. He described the incident as “a sudden quarrel between the parties that resulted in gunfire being exchanged.”
Yolo County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Garrett Hamilton represented the DA’s Office at Wednesday’s parole hearing, which was conducted by videoconference due to the COVID-19 crisis. A three-commissioner panel heard the matter.
“At the parole hearing, the commissioners stated that Chase would still pose a continued risk to public safety should he be released from prison,” the news release said. “The commissioners cited Chase’s continued patterns of crimes and violations in prison, as well as his lack of genuine remorse for the killing of Dennis Thrower.”
Chase is again eligible for parole in 2023.
“Our office is committed to representing the interests of victims’ families and public safety at these parole hearings, and when it’s appropriate we argue against the release of inmates who are a danger to the public,” District Attorney Jeff Reisig said.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene