Parole win for man who beat to death San Francisco woman in 1984
Newly released transcripts of state parole hearings show a man who beat to death a San Francisco woman as she screamed for help was granted parole last month, while other killers from San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties were denied parole.
John Brown, 80, who beat his girlfriend to death with an exercise bar in San Francisco in 1984, was granted parole at a July 8 hearing, his twelfth, after more than forty years in prison.
Brown was convicted of second-degree murder for killing Teresa Tompkins. She died of traumatic injuries and extensive blood loss.
He had beaten and choked the young woman before.
Her last words were a screamed plea to neighbors: “Help me, call my mama and daddy.”
“Call any motherfucker you want,” Brown was heard to reply.
Two months before the murder he beat and pistol-whipped another woman.
“Why did you kill her?” asked presiding parole commissioner Michael Ruff.
“I killed her because I used violence to control women,” Brown told him. “That was my lifestyle.”
The admission came after the inmate fully confessed to the crime for the first time.
“When was the first time that you can recall that you actually told the truth about what you did?” asked Ruff.
“Just now I’m telling the truth, sir,” Brown replied.
“Well, have you told the truth at previous hearings?”
“No sir. I was ashamed of what I did. Completely ashamed of what I did. I killed a beautiful lady.”
The parole panel heard that Brown’s rap sheet included a juvenile adjudication for strong arm robbery and adult convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, auto theft and resisting arrest.
“To inflict that type of damage to another human being was the result of an unadulterated, sustained, vicious and prolonged rage,” San Francisco prosecutor Alison Macbeth told commissioners.
“He must have continued to beat her longer than the two to three minutes, all while Teresa cried out for help from her mom, her dad, anybody.”
“There’s no agency, there’s no responsibility, there’s no understanding that he is the causative factor. He is still blaming Teresa today.”
“It is our position that he still poses an unreasonable risk to public safety and is not suitable for parole at this time.”
San Francisco deputy public defender Evan Franzel said his client, who he claimed had an IQ of 73, had developed impulse control and interpersonal tools that would prevent him from murdering other women.
Teresa’s two daughters addressed the hearing, reminding commissioners of the litany of violence Brown inflicted on their mother and underlining their view that he should remain behind bars.
After 17 minutes’ deliberation Ruff and deputy commissioner Christopher Vose announced Brown would be paroled.
He remains in Solano State Prison awaiting a mandatory review of his parole decision by the Board’s ‘decision review unit – which checks all grants of parole for legal and factual accuracy.
After that check is complete, unless Governor Gavin Newsom exercises the authority he enjoys in cases of murder to modify or reverse parole deciaions, Brown will be freed.
In 2025 Newsom reversed decisions by the board of parole hearings to release murderers on nine occasions. Last year the board completed 3,458 hearings and granted parole in 832 cases.
Vincent Denmon, 67, a paranoid schizophrenic who shot to death an 18-year-old San Francisco girl in 1986, was denied parole at a July 7 hearing.
“I got a gun now, bitch,” Denmon told Trina Armstrong before opening fire five times.
He was running a crack house at the time and carrying the gun, he said, for protection from other drug dealers.
Denmon was repeatedly found incompetent to stand trial and was committed to Atascadero State Hospital for competency restoration before his conviction.
The inmate told the panel he was not ready for parole but might be in future. San Francisco prosecutor Andrew Clark agreed with that assessment.
“The indication from the comprehensive risk assessment is that he’s delusional, paranoid, believes he’s in the CIA,” Clark told the hearing. “He needs his medication. All these factors contribute to our very serious concern about his ability to cope with living in the community.”
The victim’s daughter, Tracy Miles, who was 20 months old when her mother was killed, showed commissioners a photograph of Trina Armstrong and spoke about the life the two of them could have had together.
“Every day that goes by, we still deal with this. I still think about her, I still deal with the pain of her loss. It’s not in the past for me. It’s today, everyday.”
“She was an unarmed 18-year-old mom. She deserved to see me grow up.”
After 24 minutes’ deliberation presiding commissioner Michelle Minor and deputy commissioner Kathleen Newman denied Denmon parole for five years.
Ebony Haynes, convicted of murdering a man during a 1995 home invasion robbery in Oakland, failed in his bid for parole last month.
Haynes shot 25-year-old Kelvin Bibbs in the chest shortly after midnight on January 23 1995. Bibbs and his girlfriend had been woken from their sleep moments before he opened fire.
The killer went by the nickname “Half Dead” because he had himself been shot several times during robberies. He eluded capture for four years and was arrested for the murder in 1999.
He was sentenced to 15-years-to-life.
At a hearing held July 8, presiding commissioner Michael Ruff put it to Haynes that he had been dealing drugs in prison and acting as a ‘shot caller’ in prison politics. Haynes denied the allegations.
Bibbs’ daughters, Canisha Smith and Kalina Puente, remembered their father to commissioners and called on them to keep his killer behind bars.
“I don’t think he’s ever going to be remorseful for what he did,” Smith said of the inmate.
After 16 minutes’ deliberation Ruff and deputy commissioner Christopher Vose denied him parole for seven years.
No prosecutor for Alameda County appeared at the hearing.
Antoni Dean, 59, who stomped a 17-month-old child to death in 1986, failed in his tenth bid for parole last month.
Dean killed the child, Ashley, during an attack on his girlfriend and her daughter. He was also convicted of assault over the 1986 death of his own infant daughter, Amber, in a ‘shaken baby’ case.
Dean told the July 10 hearing that his intent was not to hurt Ashley but her mother, and that the child’s death was “a negative byproduct” of the attack.
Contra Costa County prosecutor Michael Gressett opposed his release.
“There is literally no explanation for these children’s deaths that we’re presented with, other than wanting to get to [the mother] through Ashley somewhat, and even that became minimized in today’s hearing.”
After 32 minutes’ deliberation commissioner Troy Taira denied Dean parole for three years.
Main image: John Brown (l) and Vincent Denmon (r)
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