San Francisco killer given 126 years for 1995 double execution secures parole hearing despite judge’s vow
A three-strikes felon given 126 years to life for the 1995 execution of his ex-girlfriend and her mother at their San Francisco home will go before the state parole board within weeks – despite a pledge by the trial judge that he would never be freed and just one year after he had his sentence cut by a court.
Ronnie Seymour kicked down the door of his ex-girlfriend’s Ingleside district home in the early hours of Thursday September 21 1995. He shot both 32-year-old Nadga Schexnayder and 64-year-old Gloria Schexnayder in the face.
His and Nadga’s infant son was found in a pool of blood next to Gloria’s body.
Seymour had previously told Gloria that he was going to murder both her and her daughter. The pair’s relationship had broken down after it emerged Seymour had also been living with another girlfriend.
The case became a cause célèbre and later inspired current lieutenant governor hopeful Fiona Ma’s unsuccessful push to create a statewide registry of domestic violence offenders.
Seymour had a 20-year history of attacks against women and was on parole at the time of the murders. In 1977 he beat a girlfriend in the head with a hammer and left her for dead. In 1992 he broke into the home of a girlfriend and held her and another woman at knifepoint while threatening to kill them both.
He was found guilty of two counts of first degree murder in January 2002 and, on each count, was sentenced to 25-years to life for murder plus an additional 25-years-to-life for use of a firearm.
In addition to those consecutive terms, an additional 26 years were added to the sentence because Seymour had a previous serious felony conviction, a prior state prison term and had used a gun.
The trial judge said that his intention was for Seymour to remain in prison for his natural life.
The 66-year-old will appear before the California Board of Parole Hearings on December 18.
The scheduling of Seymour for a parole hearing stems largely from California’s so-called ‘elderly parole’ laws – now extended to cover inmates aged 50 or older – devised to facilitate the release of offenders who received swingeing sentences for exceptionally grave crimes.
His bid for freedom was further aided by a San Francisco judge’s decision to resentence him last year.
Judge Brendan Conroy struck two ten-year firearm enhancements and replaced them with a single three-year term after finding that “the aggravated terms…are no longer supported by the facts.” He also removed a five-year enhancement for a prior serious felony and a one-year enhancement for a prior prison term.
Judge Conroy went further, vacating Seymour’s obligation to pay $20,000 in restitution to the victims’ family after learning that, as of 2024, he had managed to pay scarcely $485.
The judge, however, rejected Seymour’s request to overturn his first-degree murder convictions and replace them with lesser charges such as voluntary manslaughter or second-degree murder.
Ex-public defender Conroy is perhaps best known for resentencing a man given life without parole for torturing and killing a child as he begged for his life.
Seymour’s resentencing was opposed by San Francisco prosecutors.
“Petitioner was a danger to the community and he showed no signs he would ever be anything else,” wrote assistant district attorney Michael Hartmann in a motion.
“That Petitioner was 36 years old, and well past being a young man who was subject to the impulses of youth, is a factor in aggravation.”
Hartmann noted that a ‘comprehensive risk assessment’ determined Seymour’s risk to the public was “high”.
Although the trial jury had seen straight through Seymour’s attempts to portray himself as mad – roundly rejecting his insantity defense – his attorney, Bobbie Stein, enterprisingly tried her luck again with Judge Conroy.
“In the days before the shootings,” wrote Stein, “Mr Seymour grew increasingly more paranoid and fearful and believed that Gloria Schexnayder had put a voodoo hex on him and that the family was after him and shooting at him.”
“Throughout his life, Mr Seymour manifested several different personalities,” she explained. “Sometimes he identified as Star Child, and other times, David Seymour, Earl, John Mainy, or Mr Porter.”
The shootings, she claims, were committed after “Mr Porter” emerged – who appears to have been described as a ‘stern commander’.
Seymour also complained he was unfairly treated at sentencing because he was black.
Seymour’s case is the latest in which a copper-bottomed guarantee made by San Francisco trial judges to victims’ families at murder sentencings – that the killer would never again see the light of day – has proven worthless.
He is scheduled to appear before parole commissioners by videoconference from Corcoran State Prison on December 18 2025.
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