Parole for parolee who shot dead visiting U.S. Navy sailor on San Francisco street
A felon convicted of the unprovoked murder of a U.S. Navy sailor on a downtown San Francisco street will walk out of San Quentin in days after the state parole board, asked to look again at its release decision by Governor Gavin Newsom, voted to affirm it today.
Ladaris Greer, 58, shot Darnell James in the face outside an amusement arcade on Market Street in the early evening of September 5 1991. Greer had been harassing sailors enjoying shore leave while their ship, the U.S.S. Flint, had put in at Pier 50 for repairs. He shot James, 20, for no reason.
Greer was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 35 years to life. He had a lengthy rap sheet, was on parole at the time of the killing and, three years’ earlier, was arrested for attempted murder.
The decision marks the culmination of Greer’s attempts to secure release. In 2023 Judge Brendan Conroy cut his sentence by ten years by dismissing ‘enhancements’ for use of a gun, having a previous ‘strike’ and having already been to prison. The judge noted that district attorney Brooke Jenkins’ office “expressly” stated it did not object to the resentencing.
Greer was originally granted parole at a hearing on December 17 2025. After deliberating for 16 minutes commissioner Excel Sharrieff and deputy commissioner Christopher Vose announced that Greer would be freed.
This prompted Governor Newsom to tell the board to reconsider the case.
“A number of historic risk factors bear on Mr Greer’s current risk, including his history of antisocial coping mechanisms and lack of self-awareness into the nexus between his offending and his own childhood trauma,” Newsom said in a letter to the board.
“I ask the board to determine how these factors bear on Mr Greer’s current risk level and if his proposed parole plans and community supports are sufficient to support his success on parole.”
Newsom chose not to reverse the grant of parole outright.
At today’s hearing of the full parole board in Sacramento, commissioners heard from the victim’s family members.
“Darnell was 20 years old, a navy man, shot point-blank in his face by Ladaris Greer for no reason. I don’t believe Ladaris should walk free,” said Holly Peterson, the victim’s cousin.
“I do believe in rehabilitation. I do believe that people can change. I don’t believe that he has…When he got out of jail the last time, he murdered Darnell. And if he’s let out again, he will kill again,” she added.
The board heard that Greer’s son had recently been murdered.
“His life crime was random and senseless and he laughed at witnesses after the murder,” San Francisco prosecutor Andrew Clark told commissioners.
“We are opposed to his release,” he said.
But Clark’s colleagues presented a more nuanced position in 2023 when they refused to stand in the way of a resentencing that removed 10-years of ‘enhancements’ from Greer’s sentence and praised his rehabilitation.
“Striking one year from Petitioner’s sentence would not endanger public safety,” wrote assistant district attorney Alex Bernstein in a motion. “Nor do the People object to the 9-year sentence reduction that Petitioner requests from the court. Legislative intent, the diminished culpability of a 24-year-old offender, the growth and maturity and rehabilitative efforts Petitioner has shown indicate that this sentence reduction is appropriate.”
Bernstein was the Chesa Boudin protege who notoriously blindsided the family of slain schoolgirl Maxina Danner by backing her killer’s release at a parole hearing in 2023 and who helmed the 2022 resentencing of ‘life without parole’ child murderer Edward Kennedy, who this month won compassionate release.
San Francisco D.A. Brooke Jenkins distanced herself from both of those developments, and appeared not to know they were happening. Greer’s case is yet another instance where she may have had the wool pulled over her eyes and raises more questions about how effectively she got to grips with leading her office.
Bernstein eventually left his post in circumstances Jenkins would not elaborate on.
Also today: the parole board took a different tack in the case of Roberto Detrinidad – the HIV+ home invasion rapist who attacked a San Francisco woman in her apartment in 2013. The board referred him to a rescission hearing, the next step toward his parole being cancelled.
He remains in prison.
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