Parole board frees San Francisco child killer, blocks release for two other city murderers
Newly-released transcripts of recent parole hearings for state prisoners convicted in San Francisco show a child murderer winning release, a man once sentenced to death for his third killing being denied parole but told his prospects are improving, and a man who choked, punched, and threatened to kill his girlfriend, while already on parole for murdering a previous girlfriend, losing his latest bid for freedom.
Child killer Leonard Boone won parole at a hearing on September 4 2025.
Boone murdered his infant son, Hezekiah, at his Potrero Hill home in 2002. Months of abuse culminated in his punching the 16-month-old to death so he could take drugs in peace.
He was sentenced to 56 years to life in state prison.
In 1995 another child in Boone’s care was scalded after she grabbed a pot on a stove in which he was cooking crack. He told the girl’s mother he would kill her and cut her into pieces if she told authorities. He had repeatedly physically abused the child.
He was on parole at the time and had moved in with the woman and her daughter three months earlier.
The parole board heard that the trial judge, Gerald Ragan, told Boone that he would either die in prison or be killed by other inmates.
“[H]is plans, particularly with the help of the Public Defender’s Office in San Francisco, appear to be comprehensive,” assistant district attorney Andrew Clark told commissioners.
“He’s got a lot of support. I’m happy to see that. But I’m concerned for the safety of children in our community. He’s done a great job to this point. I think he’s come a long way, but that’s the position I’m taking on behalf of the city and county of San Francisco.”
Clark’s remarks would have been taken as a tacit endorsement of Boone’s release.
“He was sentenced to 56 years to life,” said San Francisco public defender Danielle Harris. “There was no elder parole at the time. He had no hope for release at the time when he decided to change.”
“Because of his true and transformative rehabilitation, his long ago crimes are no longer evidence of current dangerousness…because he now understands his past and he’s addressed those root causes and those character defects.”
“We feel you have developed adequate insight into your criminal behavior,” said presiding commissioner Kevin Chappell, “and, more importantly, you’ve developed healthy coping skills to prevent you from re-offending in the future.”
He and deputy commissioner Timothy Kelly approved his parole. Chappell recommended that the Division of Adult Parole Operations place him in a transitional living center in San Francisco.
Unless Governor Gavin Newsom intervenes, Boone will be released from Corcoran State Prison by the new year.
Three-time killer Clifford Bolden was denied parole on September 11 2025, but it is clear that he is on a trajectory for release, perhaps in as little as a year.
Bolden stabbed to death San Francisco accountant Henry Pedersen, whose body he went on to mutilate, in 1986. At the time of the murder he had been free four months after serving a sentence imposed for stabbing to death one of his earlier victims, Cruz Ramirez.
Found guilty and sentenced to death by a San Francisco jury, a 2020 resentencing instigated by then district attorney Chesa Boudin resulted in his death sentence being quashed and replaced with a term of 47 years to life.
Much of the hearing was occupied with 72-year-old Bolden rehearsing his case that it was his military service that caused him to become “a disturbed and unusual person” and an alcoholic.
“He’s made progress,” said assistant district attorney Andrew Clark of Bolden, “but I think it’s clear that he needs a little more work before he’s released into the community.”
“At this point we respectfully request that parole be denied, but that he be given some recommendations for what will enable him to become a more suitable candidate in the future.”
This was a departure from the position adopted by his colleague Linda Moore in 2024 who pointed to Bolden’s “long” and “exceptionally violent” criminal history and drew the panel’s attention to the unconvincing nature of his explanation – in essence, that it was an accident – as to how the victim came to be mutilated. He also lacked insight into what triggered his violence, she said.
“I don’t want you to be discouraged by this denial,” said presiding commissioner Dianne Dobbs, “but I want you to listen carefully and I want you to take heed of what we’re pointing out to you so that you can address them going forward.”
Dobbs told Bolden that he would have another parole hearing scheduled in three years’ time, but that he could ask for it to be brought forward.
Gordon Kimbrough, 63, was denied parole on October 1 2025. He strangled and stabbed to death his girlfriend, Christie Ramsey, in San Francisco in 1993. He was released after serving 20 years in prison then, while on parole, choked, punched and threatened to kill a girlfriend at her Treasure Island home.
The hearing was notable for the appearance of the victim’s sister, Samantha Campbell, who remembered Christie to commissioners as “a kind, beautiful soul” and laid out in excruciating detail the catalog of abuse she suffered at Kimbrough’s hands.
“I just think about how much my sister would have done had she been given a chance to be here,” Campbell said.
“I want to make it abundantly clear,” said assistant district attorney Andrew Clark, “that the people of the city and county of San Francisco are entirely opposed to the release of Mr Kimbrough.”
Presiding commissioner William Muniz and deputy commissioner Thomas Sparks refused to release Kimbrough. He was told he will have another hearing in a year.
Boone was represented by an attorney from San Francisco Public Defender’s Office – who traveled 240 miles to sit beside him in Corcoran State Prison for a hearing everyone else attended by Zoom.
This isn’t at all unusual. A San Francisco public defender drove 300 miles to High Desert State Prison to sit beside ‘life without parole’ child killer Edward Kennedy last year in his unsuccessful parole bid also conducted by video conference.
This representation is unnecessary as inmates up for parole are provided with a ‘panel’ attorney by the board of parole hearings. At a time when the public defender’s office complains it cannot represent criminal clients before courts in San Francisco, it is an open question why its employees are gallivanting the length and breadth of the state to lavish unneeded attention on convicts when they have more pressing demands on their time back in the city.
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