Jason Adam Greenwell, one of several people convicted of murdering Santa Maria teen Dystiny Myers in 2010, has been granted parole suitability by the California Board of Parole Hearings.
Greenwell was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the murder of Myers, a 15-year-old whose burned and beaten body was found partially buried in a Santa Margarita field in 2010.
Greenwell was the only one of five defendants to testify in the 2013 trial and received the lightest sentence of those defendants as part of a deal reached with the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office, according to previous Tribune reports.
At the time, Greenwell agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder on the condition that he be eligible for parole after 15 years.
Ty Michael Hill, Frank Jacob York and Rhonda Wisto are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for Myers’ murder.
Cody Miller, the fourth person convicted in the murder, died in prison in 2016.
On Thursday, Greenwell was granted parole suitability, but that is not a guarantee that Greenwell will be paroled, according to parole board spokesman Luis Patiño.
He said the proposal must now undergo a 150-day review period that will culminate in Gov. Gavin Newsom reviewing Greenwell’s eligibility for parole.
He said Newsom can choose to uphold, reverse or modify the decision, or he can send it back to the full board or take no action.
In that case, Greenwell’s parole decision would move forward, Patiño said. Greenwell is incarcerated at the California Institution for Men in Chino.
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office responded to the news of Greenwell’s potential parole on Friday evening, saying both the agency and members of Myers’ family “strongly objected” to the board’s preliminary decision.
According to a news release, a representative of the county District Attorney’s Office attended Thursday’s hearing and “voiced a forceful objection to the release of Greenwell based on the vicious nature of the crime and continued danger to the community should he be released.”
“I strongly disagree with the Parole Board’s decision to release Mr. Greenwell into our community after serving only 11 years for such a shocking crime,” District Attorney Dan Dow said in the news release. “My office will aggressively seek review and repeal of the parole board’s decision in this case.”
According to the news release, Dow will seek a review and reversal of the parole board’s decision directly to Newsom.
— Kaytlyn Leslie is a reporter for the San Luis Obispo Tribune. Contact her at kleslie@thetribunenews.com.