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Parole denied to man convicted of 1979 kidnapping, robbery and assault
LAKE COUNTY, Calif – The state Board of Parole Hearings has denied parole for the seventh time to a man convicted of the 1979 kidnapping, robbery and near-fatal beating of a Clearlake man.
William Clark Elwood, 53, was denied parole at a hearing last Thursday at California State Prison in Corcoran.
Lake County Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff attended the Nov. 6 lifer hearing to argue against Elwood’s release.
Elwood – who was prosecuted by then-District Attorney Robert L. Crone Jr. – was convicted by a jury in February 1980 of kidnapping for robbery and assault with intent to murder and was sentenced by Judge John G. Hauck to nine years to life on Feb. 27, 1980.
Elwood’s minimum eligible parole date was April 17, 1997. He has had six previous parole hearings.
According to investigation reports, at 4 a.m. Nov. 8, 1979, a citizen saw the victim walking along Morgan Valley Road east of Lower Lake in the dark with his head covered in blood and bruises. The citizen took the victim to the hospital and the sheriff’s office was called.
The victim told investigators he was at home about 8 p.m. when Elwood and Thomas Botkin came by his home in Clearlake.
After awhile Elwood and Botkin suddenly started hitting and kicking the victim in the face, then got a big kitchen fork and started stabbing him.
They bashed his head into the wall hard enough to break the sheet rock. They then took his wallet, which only contained $20 or $30.
The victim then went outside to try to get away and Elwood and Botkin caught him and started beating him again. They kicked him in the face and head and chest multiple times while he was lying on the ground.
Elwood and Botkin then forced the victim into his own vehicle and drove him to the cemetery in Lower Lake.
They drug him out of the car at the cemetery and started beating him again by hitting and kicking him repeatedly. Then they got him back in the car and drove a few miles out Morgan Valley Road, pushed him out of the car into a ditch, and started beating him again.
The investigation found that Elwood and Botkin beat the victim with a rock that weighed about 15 pounds.
They then stood over him, laughing and making fun of him, while the victim was begging them not to hit him anymore. The suspects responded by saying they were going to kill him.
The victim heard one of them finally say, “I think he’s dead now,” before they drove off and left him for dead.
The victim said each time he was being beaten Elwood and Botkin kept saying they wanted to kill him. They then returned to the victim’s residence and tried to clean up the blood.
Officers later located two large rocks on Morgan Valley Road that were covered in blood and hair, and large amounts of blood inside victim’s residence.
A Department of Justice criminalist determined that the two rocks investigators found that had been used to beat the victim had been one rock that broke in half.
When the two defendants were arrested and placed in a patrol car together for transportation, they were recorded expressing extreme surprise and displeasure that the victim had lived.
A witness advised investigators that after Elwood and Botkin returned from the beating that Elwood told her that they had done something big, adding, “You would be proud of what we did.”
On Nov. 15, 1979, Elwood’s parole officer interviewed him, and he told his parole officer he knew he was going to prison, and he said of the victim that he hoped “the son of a bitch dies.”
Elwood claimed he was high on whiskey, tequila, reds and LSD when he committed the crime.
The victim had so much swelling and hemorrhaging in the mouth and throat that a tracheotomy had to be performed to save his life.
He also had multiple bone fractures to the face that were so severe that the facial bones were completely separated from the remainder of the skull.
Bones forming the lower part of both eye sockets were so severely crushed that they had fallen into the sinus cavities. Numerous teeth were missing. The lower jaw was broken in several places. A doctor told investigators that it would take 150 Gs of force to cause damage that serious.
The victim suffered multiple stab wounds and had to undergo numerous surgeries. He also received internal injuries and his pancreas was severely damaged.
During Elwood’s time in prison he has had 71 serious disciplinary actions, including 20 that were violence-related, six that were drug- or alcohol-related, and for possession of a cell phone in prison.
In 1983 he was found in possession of an inmate stabbing weapon and was prosecuted and sentenced to an additional two years.
At the parole hearing Hinchcliff submitted a letter from the victim asking that Elwood be denied parole.
Hinchcliff asked the Board of Parole Hearings commissioners to deny parole on the ground that Elwood still presented an unreasonable risk of danger to the public if released, and failed to sufficiently participate in prison rehabilitation programs that would alleviate that danger.
The Board of Parole Hearings commissioners agreed and issued a seven-year denial of parole.
Elwood’s next parole hearing will be in 2021.