UPDATE:

On April 17th, 2023 Hadas received increased justice retroactively, and Jesse received a much longer sentences for newer crimes. If you would like more information on his new sentences, please visit What Came Next and listen to the episode entitled, [Amy B. Chesler] The Darkest Times Are All Behind Me. There are many intricacies of the updates, and hearing it directly from me will help to clarify a lot of it. 

On September 25th, 2007 my brother Jesse violently murdered our mother (Hadas, seen in the photo above) after both she and I faced over ten years of documented domestic violence at his hands. Although he admitted guilt the evening of her death, it took over four years to convict him because of his abuse of the legal system. Eventually, he received a sentence of 15 years to life, plus another one year for using a knife.

However, on April 16th, 2021 I received noticed of Jesse's first parole hearing. It took place on August 3rd, 2021, less than ten years after his sentencing. 

At his Zoom-based, recorded parole hearing he:

1) admitted to stabbing many people and only "[becoming] worse" since conviction

2) explicitly threatened to have my whole family killed

3) asked to postpone his hearing based on a "COVID loophole" he had heard about; this allowed him to postpone it for two years

4) waved a stack of letters purportedly from "supporters" and said that maybe in the two years of postponement he had been allotted he'd take some "self-help classes and get better"

5) before I gave my Victim's Impact Statement, he asked if he legally had to listen to it. The Parole Board said "no," and he left the room.

Thus, I will be revisiting the parole process and making another statement in one year from now; I expect to be notified of his parole hearing in April of 2023, and appear for the hearing in August 2023.

UPDATE: 

Jesse is about to be sentenced for five more charges (related to the attempted murder of a correctional officer), and another charge for threatening the lives of my family and myself. He has conceded to pleading guilty on April 17th, 2023. Because of that, he has postponed his next parole hearing until 2025. Even if he is sentenced for these new crimes, he will still be up for parole again in 2025. He needs to complete his sentence for my mother's murder in order to begin serving the next, impending sentence. 

I would like to garner as many signatures in that time as possible to make sure the parole board knows how many people know of his case, and just how many people want to keep him behind bars for the brutal slaying of our mother. The abuse I've faced at my brother's hands for almost twenty-five years now is ENOUGH. Please stand with me and sign to keep him in prison as long as possible at this next parole hearing. 

Thank you deeply for your support,

Amy