Parole was denied for a 72-year-old man imprisoned for killing a Cypress police sergeant during a burglary of a medical clinic in 1976.
A parole board found that Bobby Joe Denney failed to take full responsibility for gunning down Cypress Police Sgt. Donald Sowma and continued to deny that he was shooting at an officer when he fired his handgun, according to Roxi Fyad of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The panel also considered Denney’s accumulation of “prison rule violations for refusing to report to work and possessing inmate manufactured weapons,” and determined that the he minimized his role in the killing, blamed others, failed to appreciate the effects of his acts and has not participated sufficiently in self-help programming, Fyad said.
Remaining concerns were also expressed over Denney’s drug and substance abuse and the panel ultimately decided he was an unreasonable risk to public safety and would not be released, Fyad said.
Senior District Attorney Jim Tanizaki joined the slain officer’s family and other Cypress police officers at the hearing at the California Institute for Men in Chino to oppose Denney’s parole bid.
District Attorney Tony Rackauckas praised the parole board panel for keeping Denney behind bars for at least the next five years, when he can again apply for release.
“This case illustrates the danger a police officer faces in the line of duty. He or she never knows what danger lurks whenever they answer a call,” Rackauckas said.
“Orange County is grateful to the panel who correctly assessed this inmate’s danger to the community, sending a strong message that the killing of a police officer will not be tolerated.”
Denney was convicted of first-degree murder on June 15, 1977, for shooting Sowma about 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 19, 1976, according to Fyad.
Sowma, 44, had responded to a burglary call at a medical clinic where Denney, the son of an Oklahoma sheriff’s deputy, was trying to steal drugs, Fyad said.
Officers were dispatched to the location when Denney, who was armed with a revolver and was equipped with burglary tools and an earpiece and radio capable of monitoring police communications, tripped a silent alarm as he forced entry through a locked window, Fyad said.
Sowma “heard a noise coming from a room in an art gallery adjacent to the doctor’s office, and as he approached the doorway, Denney fired a single shot,” Fyad said.
“The round struck Sowma in the chest and Denney delayed rescue attempts by firing a second shot toward the responding officers,” Fyad said. “Officers risked their lives to retrieve Sowma and transport him to a nearby hospital, where he later died as a result of the bullet wound.”
Denney, who along with his wife had booked a hotel room across the street from the medical office, refused to surrender for more than six hours and fired a third shot at officers who tried to take him into custody, Fyad said.
Denney was given a life sentence at a time when sentences of death or life without the possibility of parole were not available in California.
—Staff and wire reports
That guy is dead now