For the second time, a Woodland man serving prison time for a fatal barroom stabbing has been denied a bid for compassionate release.
According to his public defender, Jeffery Lemus has just several months to live in his battle with liver cancer, prompting the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to seek a resentencing that would grant him early release. He’s currently due for a parole hearing in March 2021.
Lemus is about four years into the seven-year sentence he received for the Dec. 5, 2015, stabbing death of Kelly Mason Choate, with whom Lemus had a long-standing dispute that came to a head at Kenny’s Bar & Grill in Woodland.
A jury convicted Lemus, now 60, of voluntary manslaughter after acquitting him of first- and second-degree murder charges. Yolo Superior Court Judge David Reed, who presided over the trial, rejected Lemus’ first request for early release in the fall of 2017, citing his continued threat to public safety.
Compassionate release requires an inmate to have less than six months to live and pose no safety risk to the public.
Housed at the CDCR’s California Health Care Facility in Stockton, Lemus has seen his cancer worsen over the past year, leading to a doctor’s prediction in August that he had three to four months to live, his public defender Ron Johnson said during a live-streamed court hearing Wednesday.
Both the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office and Choate’s family have opposed Lemus’ release.
Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Melinda Aiello noted that despite his grim diagnosis, Lemus remains ambulatory in prison and able to care for himself, much like he was he was during his 2017 bid for release.
“It appears to me that Mr. Lemus is in just as good of health as he was back then,” Aiello said. “He certainly does not appear to be on his death bed.”
And despite his lesser conviction at trial, “we are talking about a situation in which there was a loss of life,” Aiello added.
Choate’s daughter Kasie Choate and sister Heidi Kramer also spoke in opposition to the release request, saying it has compounded the anxiety they continue to suffer from since Choate’s violent death.
“I wish I could request a visit with my father. I wish I could hug him,” Kasie Choate said, adding that Lemus should “be a man” and “finish the sentence he rightfully deserved.”
Johnson, meanwhile, disputed Aiello’s assertion that Lemus’ condition remains stable, citing an oncologist’s report that indicates his cancer has grown over the past year and is no longer responsive to chemotherapy.
“Mr. Lemus is unlikely to make it to any parole date,” Johnson said, adding that CDCR officials ruled Lemus would pose a low risk of danger to the community if freed.
But Reed disagreed, saying while Lemus may be terminally ill, the fact he remains ambulatory with little need for assistance indicates “he still poses a threat to public safety,” he said.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
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