SANTANA SHOOTER HAS FIRST PAROLE HEARING TUESDAY

Update September 11, 2024 -- Parole has been denied for Williams. At yesterday's hearing, Board of Parole Hearings Commissioner Kevin Chappell stated that Williams still poses a threat to public safety, telling Williams "“By your testimony today, it is really unclear if you understand why you committed this horrendous act of violence.”  Testimony was overwhelmingly against Williams' release, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

By Miriam Raftery

September 9, 2024 (Santee, CA) – It’s been 23 years since 15-year-old Charles Andrew “Andy” Williams took his father’s revolver to school and repeatedly opened fire, killing two students and injured 13 other people at Santana High School in Santee.

Tomorrow, as the result of a new law regarding youthful offenders, he will have his first parole hearing—drawing a strong response from community members, many stilll traumatized by loss and grief.

 Facing trial as an adult, Williams pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 50 years to life. But a new California law requires that defendants under 16 be tried as juveniles, and released by age 25. The same saw allows any youths previously convicted as adults to have a parole hearing, though there is no guarantee that parole will be granted. Even if a judge grants parole, Governor Gavin Newsom could revoke it.

Among those opposed to Williams’ parole is Mike Fowler, superintendent of the Grossmont-Union High School District. He’s spent 28 years as a teacher and administrator in the Grossmont District.  In a letter to the parole board and Governor Gavin Newsom, Fowler recalls, “Three weeks after the Santana shooting our District experienced a second shooting, this time at Granite Hills High School. Rarely has a day gone by without me interacting with someone deeply affected by one of these incidents, and I can tell you that many in our organization still bear scars, both visible and not.”

The Superintendent adds, “Each time another school shooting captures the nation’s attention, wounds are opened again...releasing him a mere 23 years after committing his heinous, atrocious, and cruel crime will inflict lasting damage on a community which has not fully healed from the original offenses.”

Michelle Zuckor, mother of slain student Bryan Zuckor, 14, told CBS 8 after learning that Williams could be granted parole, “Andy Williams should never have that chance. It’s not like I am not a forgiving person but he took my son and he took my son’s future from him.”

For Mari Gordon-Rayborn, mother of the other murdered student, 17-year-old Randy Gordon, life has become a nightmare.  "It destroyed my family. I got PTSD and I got too sick to work,”she told CBS 8 last year. “Then we lost our home. I lost my other two kids, and everybody in my family left me."

As of the CBS interview last month, she was homeless, living out of her vehicle, hunched over with a crippling back condition and also suffering from depression and other ailments. She strongly opposes the release of her son’s killer. “If you don't have an understanding between right and wrong, I think you're going to be a reasonable danger to society,” she told CBS, adding that she hopes to be reunited with Randy when her own life ends. "I have a date in heaven, now I just need to get there.”

Before Williams fired those fateful shots, he had been bullied at school, suffered divorce of his parents and a cross-country move with his father. Years later, he revealed he had been sexually abused by an adult he met during skateboarding; that adult has since been convicted of child molestation in another state. Williams has since said he was suicidal and hoped to be killed by police, though he changed his mind and surrendered when an officer entered the bathroom from which he had been firing.

Williams, in prison, has expressed remorse, even writing letters to families of his victims.  “I am so verry sorry for the inexcusable and senseless murder of Randy. You had an amazing family unit and I had no right to break into your lives and steal such a promising young man away from you,” he wrote to Randy Gordon’s parents.  “My callous actions took your boy from you and with the deepest remorse, I am sorry.”

While in prison, Wiliams has done “everything in his power to become a positive for the world instead of a negative,” his attorney, Laura Sheppard, told the San Diego Union-Tribune.  While incarcerated, Williams has earned his high school diploma and associate degrees, including social and behavioral sciences. He is working on a bachelor’s degree. Also a certified substance-abuse counselor and offender-mentor counselor, he helps other inmates overcome addiction and other issues.

Around 42 people have signed up to testify tomorrow. While most oppose Wiliams’ parole, his attorney says some plan to speak in favor of his release.

Supporters have previously made unsuccessful efforts to have his sentence commuted or to allow him to be retried as a juvenile as a result of the new law.

Those opposed to his release include prominent community leaders with ties to the shooting. They include  El Cajon Councilman Phil Ortiz, who was a student heading to a classroom just across the aisle from the restroom the shooter was in. He heard what sounded like firecrackers or a fight, when someone pulled him back and he ran away.  “I almost got hit by a car...I jumped in the back of some random person’s truck,” he said of the chaos that fateful day, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Santee Chamber of Commerce President Kristen Dare was a junior at Santana when the shooting occurred. Still traumatized decades later, she and her husband opted not to send their own children to Santana.  State Senator Brian Jones, whose brother-in-law was a Santana student during the shooting, has also written to the parole board, calling release “inconceivable” before even half of Williams’ sentence has been served.

Even before news of Williams’ possible parole came out, victims of the Santana shooting have continued to struggle with grief and memories of those lost. At a March 5, 2001 candlelight vigil commemorating the 20^th anniversary of the shooting,  around 100 parents, students and teachers gathered, as ECM reported.

Rachel Maurice, who was a student when the shooting occurred, said at the vigil, “That day for me was… awful, and it was something I would never wish on anybody. People say you never get over it. And you don’t. It’s a journey. There are many students who were there that day, and they don’t come, and haven’t come in 20 years. They’ve never been able to come back to campus. It means so much to have the community support.” 

She added, “We’re here because Randy and Bryan were killed, and they can’t be here. Their voices are lost forever.”

To fellow survivors of mass violence, she also offered this plea. “Please, reach out for help. Please know that you are not alone. “