An Oakland man sentenced to 39 years to life for first degree murder after shooting his robbery victim in the back, then executing him as he lay defenseless on the ground, has won his freedom after 31 years behind bars thanks to California’s expansive youth and elderly parole laws.
Hamisi Spears murdered 24-year-old Simeon Andrades in the early hours of June 4 1995 in the city’s Lower Dimond neighborhood. Spears and two accomplices approached their victim on the street and told him to empty his pockets, prompting Andrades to throw a beer bottle at Spears and run away.
“In a rage,” Spears pursued his victim, drew a gun and opened fire.
The medical examiner found Andrades had been shot four or five times, including in the back while he was fleeing.
Other bullets struck him in the chest, arm and face.
A local resident saw Spears rifle through the dying man’s pockets and steal his wallet. He was arrested a week after the murder by detectives investigating other robberies that had taken place in the intervening period. Officers quickly determined he was the prime suspect in Andrades’ murder.
Now 54 years old he was 22 at the time of the crime and had a rap sheet featuring robbery, battery, gun possession, drug possession and domestic abuse. His murder conviction was his second strike.
He was denied parole at his first hearing in 2020. At his second hearing on October 9 parole commissioners approved his release.
Spears displayed “just incredible callousness, with complete disregard for the human life,” in committing the crime, said presiding commissioner Emily Sheffield according to a newly released transcript of the hearing.
“You shot your victim in the back and then shot him three times while he lay dying on the ground.”
Nevertheless, Sheffield said, Spears had now cut ties with a black prison gang, stopped taking drugs in prison, improved his behavior and developed detailed plans for his release.
Sheffield believed his expression of remorse was “sincere” and that he should be granted parole.
“I’m not the person that I was back then in 1995 on June 6 when I took the life of Simeon,” said Spears. “If given a second chance, I will be a law-abiding, productive citizen and I will make daily amends and help those that are in need of help,” he added.
The hearing was notable for the absence of a prosecutor from the Alameda district attorney’s office.
Spears’ parole grant came nearly a decade before the minimum term of 39 years imposed by an Alameda judge expired.
Parole rules – constantly loosened by state legislators – now allow most inmates aged 50 or over to automatically secure parole hearings after serving 20 years.
They also allow those who committed their crimes before the age of 26 to qualify for hearings after serving between 15 and 25 years’ imprisonment. Spears qualified for consideration under both tracks.
Spears remains in San Quentin state prison awaiting a mandatory review of the parole decision by the Board of Parole Hearings’ decision review unit – which checks all grants of parole for legal and factual accuracy – that must be completed by February 6 2027.
After that check, unless Governor Gavin Newsom exercises the authority he enjoys in murder cases to modify or reverse parole decisions, Spears will be released.
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