A parole hearing for Clayton A. John, a Linda man convicted of a 2020 knife attack in Marysville, was revoked last week by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), ensuring he remains in state prison for at least three more years. John was sentenced to 31 years to life after a Yuba County Superior Court Jury found him guilty of multiple charges.
The charges included three counts of assault, criminal threats, possession of a concealed dirk or dagger, and committing a third strike offense. The Yuba County District Attorney’s Office stated that the incident occurred in 2020 when John, described as being high and hearing voices, approached Dagoberto Ramirez, a stranger pumping gas at a Flyers station in Marysville. John began shouting at Ramirez, pulled out a knife, and lunged at him while threatening to kill him. Ramirez defended himself by drawing his own knife, pointing an air rifle at John, and squirting him with gasoline, threatening to light him on fire. John then fled the scene and was subsequently arrested by the Marysville Police Department, who found a concealed dagger in his possession.
At the time of the attack, John had been on parole for only one month. His criminal history included two prior strike offenses in Sutter County from 2017 and 2018, one of which also involved a knife attack. Following the jury’s verdict, Judge Julia Scrogin sentenced John to 31 years to life in state prison under California’s three-strikes law. This sentencing followed a denial of a motion from defense attorney Robert Romero to have three of John’s prior convictions removed from consideration. John has been incarcerated in a state prison since July 28, 2020.
This recently revoked hearing was to be John’s second parole review since his sentencing in March 2021. Under Proposition 57, a voter-approved measure, inmates serving life sentences become eligible for parole hearings after completing their base term. For John’s conviction of assault with a deadly weapon, this base term was three years, with an initial three-year extension set in 2023. The CDCR cited John’s “higher-moderate risk rating, criminal history and past performance while under supervision” as the factors leading to the denial of his parole.
The Yuba County District Attorney, Clint Curry, has publicly criticized Proposition 57, which was approved by more than 60% of voters on the November 2016 ballot, according to state voting records. Proposition 57 aimed to allow parole consideration for nonviolent felons, alter policies on juvenile prosecution, and authorize sentence credits for rehabilitation, good behavior, and education. However, Curry contended that the measure allows CDCR to “hand out credits like candy,” which he described as an insult to crime victims and a hindrance to public safety. He argued that the legislation has made it more difficult to keep the community safe from individuals he believes should not be released.
Curry advocated for “truth in sentencing” and suggested that CDCR should be required to publish online the exact credits awarded to individual inmates and how their release or parole eligibility dates are calculated. He asserted that since Proposition 57’s passage, CDCR has been granted authority for early releases with minimal public scrutiny or accountability. Furthermore, Curry proposed eliminating the “deceptive ‘nonviolent’ early parole process” and capping custody credits by law to ensure that offenders serve more of their imposed sentences.
The Yuba County DA argued that Proposition 57 has undermined California’s criminal justice system. While acknowledging that the measure helped reduce CDCR’s prison population, as it was sold as a step to combat overcrowding, Curry maintained that it did so “at the expense of truth and public safety.” He also expressed frustration that the proposition focuses on rehabilitation at the expense of accountability, highlighting the perception that convictions for serious crimes like assault with a deadly weapon do not always equate to the full sentence imposed.
Conversely, the CDCR’s latest statewide recidivism report states that former inmates are less likely to return to prison if they have successfully completed rehabilitative programming. The report for individuals released in Fiscal Year 2020-21 claimed that “More than 66 percent of those released stayed conviction free,” marking the second lowest recidivism rate on record.
Despite the recent denial, Clayton A. John is expected to come before the parole hearing board again in another three years, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
