By Bill Enfield
benfield@sacbee.com
A killer dubbed "Batgirl" for her tattoos and who murdered a Sacramento man in 1991 is due a parole hearing this month.
A Sacramento Superior Court judge sentenced Michelle Cummiskey, now 39, to 25 years to life in prison plus one additional year for extreme violence for the slaying of Philip Inhofer, 58.
Cummiskey stabbed Inhofer 32 times, bludgeoned him with a blunt object and stuffed his body into the closet of his South Natomas mobile home on March 5, 1991. She placed a plastic bag over his head and took his red 1975 Mercedes.
Cummiskey was dating Inhofer, investigators said. An Inhofer family spokeswoman told The Bee last year that Cummiskey misrepresented her age, name and background to her victim.
Sacramento County homicide detectives, with the help of the FBI, sought Cummiskey, a former prostitute at the Mustang Ranch brothel outside Reno.
She was apprehended two months after the slaying in Biloxi, Miss., with Inhofer's Mercedes, which she had re-painted.
Cummiskey was eligible for the death penalty. Although court records show she told several acquaintances of her plan to kill him and take his car, those theft charges were dropped during a plea bargain where she admitted to first-degree murder.
Prosecutors said it was uncertain whether Cummiskey would have received the death penalty or been convicted of first-degree murder because she claimed to be on mind-altering drugs at the time of the slaying.
Cummiskey was dubbed "Batgirl" by investigators because of a tattoo of bats circling her upper left arm and a tattoo of a vampire bite, complete with blood droplets, on her neck.
Cummiskey's hearing will be March 10 at the Valley State Prison for Women, Chowchilla, where she is incarcerated.
Inhofer family members are planning on speaking at her parole hearing and urging that Cummiskey be denied parole because they believe she would be a danger to society, the spokeswoman said.
The family also will urge that the length between parole hearings for Cummiskey be pushed to the maximum of 15 years, the spokeswoman said.
If you want to give your opinion of an inmate's suitability for parole, you may mail a letter to:
Martin Hoshino, Executive Officer
Board of Parole Hearings
Post Office Box 4036
Sacramento, CA 95812-4036
For more information on the Board of Parole Hearings, go to:
http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/BOPH/index.html
Call The Bee's Bill Enfield, (916) 321-1058.
Bee researcher Linda Beymer contributed to this report
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