Eric Pfeiffer

Omaima Nelson has been in prison for two decades after murdering her husband William E. Nelson and then cooking and eating parts of his body. She was sentenced to 27 years to life by the state of California but is now seeking parole, after her attorneys claim she has been fully rehabilitated. 

However, the Orange County district attorney’s office contends that theory and offers up some compelling evidence:

Prosecutors said Nelson has a pattern of violence toward men. She was convicted of assaulting a former boyfriend, Robert Hannson of Huntington Beach, in 1990 by tying him up and demanding money at gunpoint.

She also bit a security guard’s breast and has had several run-ins while in prison, though she has kept out of trouble since 2006, when she was last denied early release, said Orange County Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Randolph J. Pawloski

Prosecutors also stated that she has not taken advantage of prison self-help programs, failed to admit to drug and alcohol problems, has a callous disregard for others and remains a risk to the community.

 ”She should be kept in prison for the maximum denial period,” Pawloski said.

This story in the Washington Post today is both sad and strange. Veronica King and her son Steven King left their 70-year-old relative alone after she fell. Worse, after Mary Coleman was deceased, neither Veronica nor Steven called Wisconsin police to report the death because, and instead left Coleman’s body hidden in the basement, because, in Steven’s words, “we had other things to do that day.”

And part of that busy schedule apparently included spending funds from Coleman’s Social Security funds. It sounds too extreme for any sane family to make such a reckless decision. And in fact, further down in the story, it’s revealed that a 2009 search warrant found that Steven King, “had a number of untreated mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Asperger’s syndrome.” Still, that has to be the first story I’ve ever read about pizza that didn’t have a happy ending. The Kings have been charged with first-degree reckless homicide, hiding a corpse and recklessly subjecting an individual at risk to abuse.