By Bee Staff
The only child of a Sacramento couple who plotted their murders to collect life insurance benefits is due a parole hearing.
A Sacramento Superior Court judge sentenced Robert James Casebolt, now 37, to 25 years to life for the Dec. 16, 1990 bedside slaying of Michelle Casebolt, 36, and the attempted murder of her husband, Robert, then 39.
Jackie Aaron Henderson, now 36, was convicted of being the triggerman and is in prison.
A third man, Eric Borchert, now 38, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. A prosecutor described Borchert as a "little devil" who encouraged Casebolt in the plot.
According to Robert Casebolt's pre-plea report, the plan to kill his parents for what he said was more than $1 million in death benefits evolved from years of what he felt was unfair treatment at home, The Bee reported.
His mother yelled at him constantly, sifted through his mail and listened to his telephone conversations, telling him, when he complained, that she had a right to invade his privacy because she "was paying the bill, " Casebolt told investigators.
His parents had "grounded" him for two years, he said.
Another cloud in the stormy relationship with his mother and father was a requirement that he turn over two-thirds of a paycheck from a part-time job at a fast-food restaurant to help with the family's finances, the report said.
James Casebolt confirmed that his son had been contributing to the family monetary needs, but said a ledger of his contributions was being maintained and that they intended to repay him in the future by way of a college education and a car upon graduation from high school.
Casebolt wasn't shy about telling his schoolmates he needed help killing his parents. At least one other teen turned him down before Henderson agreed to do the job for $25,000 in cash, a car, housing and any other expenses that might arise, investigators said in court documents.
The plan called for Casebolt to let Henderson into the house after his parents had retired, stage a break-in to make it look like a burglary, and then kill the Casebolts as they slept, using pillows to muffle the sound of gunfire.
Their plans went awry when a bullet fired through a pillow flattened out and failed to penetrate the head of James Casebolt, 39.
Casebolt's hearing will be Dec. 21 at the Pleasant Valley State Prison where he is incarcerated.
If you want to give your opinion of an inmate's suitability for parole, you may mail a letter to:
Martin Hoshino, executive director
Board of Parole Hearings
1515 K Street
Sacramento, CA 95811
For more information on the Board of Parole Hearings, go to:
http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/BOPH/index.html
Bee researcher Linda Beymer contributed to this report
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