State officials knew that two transients now accused of raping and killing four women were violating the terms of their parole by associating together and supervised them as “low risk” even after they cut off their GPS trackers and fled the state, according to records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.
The records raise new questions about how well state parole agents monitored the men’s conduct during their alleged killing rampage in 2013 and 2014.
Franc Cano and Steven Dean Gordon were considered compliant with the terms of their parole, according to the nearly 1,000 pages of daily logs and other records reviewed by The Times.
The two men turned up faithfully once a week at the Anaheim Parole Office. They checked in the morning after allegedly raping and killing one woman, Martha Anaya, and one of the offenders reported on the day police say the men killed another woman, Jarrae Estepp, The Times reported.
The logs show they typically reported to the Coronado Street parole office on the same day, at the same hour, sometimes to the same agent, according to the newspaper.
There is no indication in the records provided that parole officials investigated their association, even though they knew the men had twice shed their GPS monitors and fled the state together.
“Cano seems to be influenced by Parolee Gordon,” one parole agent wrote after the fugitives were captured the second time, in Las Vegas, The Times reported.
Both men were arrested in April 2014 in connection with the series of slayings and face the death penalty on multiple charges of murder, rape and kidnapping. They have pleaded not guilty.
Throughout three years of state supervision for Gordon and more than four years for Cano, the state classified both men as being at relatively low risk of re-offending, so they received only the most basic supervision, according to The Times. That entailed a single monthly visit by a parole officer who could be assigned up to 40 parolees.
The chief of the state parole officers’ union said in comments reported by The Times that supervision of Cano and Gordon suffered because agents carried workloads that exceeded state safety limits.
—City News Service