An Oakland man given life without parole for a depraved rape and murder has quietly been granted compassionate release, it has emerged – two years after a ‘resentencing’ masterminded by ex-Alameda D.A. Pamela Price made him eligible, and two days after his accomplice was paroled.
Neil Jones was convicted of first-degree murder for the 1980 home-invasion rape, kidnap and shot-to-the-head execution of Charlotte Turner, and the attempted murder of her husband.
He was released with little fanfare earlier this year after prison officials told an Alameda judge he had “an end-of-life trajectory” and ought to have a prompt hearing to decide whether he should be freed.
Six days later Judge Michael Risher – an ex-public defender and ACLU lawyer – ordered that Jones be released. Corrections officials say he left High Desert State Prison on July 16 2026.
Remarkably his accomplice, Sterling Jones – no relation – left prison two days earlier having been granted parole – parole for which he became eligible when his life-without-parole sentence was ditched during the same resentencing exercise.
When Sterling Jones was freed, it was not publicly known that Neil Jones was also poised for release. No indication of the compassionate release hearing or order appeared on the publicly viewable docket of Neil Jones’ Alameda Superior Court case, unlike his 2024 resentencing.
Neil and Sterling Jones broke into the home of 22-year-old hairdresser Charlotte Turner and her husband in the early hours of July 20 1980. They took turns to rape Turner and forced her to perform sex acts while holding her husband at bay with a gun.
They then drove their victims to a deserted road near Oakland Airport where Neil Jones shot Turner in the head. Her husband survived, with a gunshot wound, after a misfire prevented Jones from firing further.
The predators had come across their prey by chance after getting into an auto accident with them on East 14th Street, now International Boulevard, in Oakland, and then trailing them home.
The pair were convicted of first-degree murder, attempted murder and rape. Although prosecutors originally sought the death penalty, they were ultimately sentenced to life without parole.
“The court finds the nature of the crime peculiarly offensive,” said trial judge Stanley Golde in 1982.
But in 2024, Alameda’s ‘progressive’ district attorney Pamela Price decided that both defendants ought to be resentenced.
The prosecutor she assigned was Chesa Boudin acolyte Andrea Crider, who marched into court and demanded they be given a life-with-parole sentence. Judge Thomas Stevens was only too happy to oblige and inked the new judgment on August 8 2024.
In her motion, Crider falsely told the court that the elected district attorney of San Diego was supportive of resentencing. A spokesman for San Diego’s top prosecutor Summer Stephan rejected the claim and stressed she had never resentenced anyone convicted of kidnapping, rape or special circumstances murder, nor any prisoner serving life without parole.
Crider now works for Boudin at Berkeley Law School.
Less than two years later, Neil Jones would be released on compassionate grounds.
“Clinical executives have determined that Mr Jones has an end-of-life trajectory,” prison health chief Brittany Brizendine wrote in a letter to Alameda Superior Court on June 11 2026.
She told judges they must schedule a hearing on whether to release Jones within 10 days.
Such compassionate release is not available for ‘life without parole’ inmates; had Jones not been resentenced he would not have been eligible and would have died in prison.
Judge Risher promptly ordered Jones’ release.
“After reviewing the Director’s letter, the attached documents, and the court’s files, the court finds that the defendant’s medical condition meets the criteria for release eligibility under § 1172.2(b) and that defendant does not pose an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety as defined in §1170.18(c),” Risher wrote in a June 17 order.
“He has not been sentenced to death or to life without the possibility of parole,” noted Risher – wrongly, as Jones was sentenced to life without parole before Judge Stevens cut his sentence less than two years earlier.
Risher also ordered that details of Jones’ medical condition be sealed.
Sterling Jones was granted parole on February 24 2026 and left prison on July 14 after Governor Gavin Newsom declined to intervene.
The release of both predators marks a sensational victory for the cadre of progressives brought by Price into the prosecutors office and ends a disgraceful episode in Alameda judicial history.
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