Tracy man convicted of torturing, beating teen will have to wait for parole fate
TRACY -- A 43-year-old man convicted in 2011 for participating in the torture and beating of a teenage boy inside a Tracy home for over a year will have to wait four to six months to determine his eligibility for parole.
Anthony Waiters, imprisoned at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, was granted parole by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on March 30 after serving 11 years of his sentence for his role in abusing a then-16-year-old boy Kyle Ramirez.
However, on Tuesday an En Banc hearing was held in Sacramento with the CDCR executive board after Gov. Gavin Newsom requested that Waiters remain in custody.
Following the hearing, the board decided to refer the case to a rescission hearing.
A rescission hearing's purpose is to evaluate new information or a fundamental error committed by the granting panel that may indicate that a grant of parole was improper and will be heard by two commissioners and a deputy commissioner, according to the CDCR.
The board on Tuesday heard pleas from Waiters' brother and niece to set him free while the victim's family asked for parole to be denied.
"My brother has accepted his punishment...he showed remorse for the crimes he's been convicted of," Waiters' brother told the board. "He is not going to go home scot-free, he is going to have to carry this weight with him for the rest of his life."
He alleged during his speech at the hearing that the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office was fear-mongering the community.
Kyle's aunt and uncle, visibly emotional and upset, spoke at the hearing.
"Kyle will carry his scars of physical and emotional torture for the rest of his life ... he (Waiters) should serve every single day of his sentence, he should never be paroled," said Kyle's aunt.
The prosecuting attorney on the Waiters case, Angela Hayes, said Waiters did not show remorse and claimed he recited the list of Kyle's injuries like a grocery list.
"This was not a youthful offender, this was a 30-year-old man raised by a mother and a father in an upper middle-class community," Hayes said.
In 2007, Kyle was taken to live with Waiters' next-door neighbors, the Schumachers, by his foster mother Caren Ramirez.
Collectively Waiters, the Schumachers, and Ramirez brutally tortured Kyle and kept him chained to a fireplace until he managed to escape in 2008.
According to the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office, Waiters sliced Kyle's right forearm with a steak knife about four to five times while Ramirez held his arm down.
Waiters and Ramirez then poured bleach, salt and butter in Kyle's wound and wrapped it in tissue and tape. Waiters one time also wore boxing gloves and pummeled the victim's body as he was chained to the fireplace, prosecutors said.
During the assault, the victim lost consciousness, fell onto the still-burning fireplace grate and was left there for an extended amount of time, causing him to suffer third-degree burns.
Kyle was also beaten with a heated-up metal bat, denied food, had his pants lit on fire after lighter fluid was poured on him and suffered other heinous acts of torture, prosecutors said.
