The man who confessed to gunning down well-known East Palo Alto community leader David Lewis was set free by the San Mateo County court on Tuesday, Feb. 5.
Gregory Leon Elarms Sr., 60, was released from jail three months after a San Mateo County Superior Court judge threw out first-degree murder charges against him after finding that San Mateo police violated his Miranda rights. The California Attorney General is appealing the decision.
Elarms confessed that he gunned down Lewis on June 9, 2010, after following him to the Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo, where Lewis was fatally shot in the parking garage. His motive remains unknown, but the two were childhood friends, police said.
While Elarms awaited trial on the murder charges, he was found to be mentally incompetent and was placed in a state mental hospital to receive treatment. A judge found he was restored to competency in May 2012.
Tuesday’s court ruling by Judge Craig Parsons was a double blow to prosecutors, who had sought to keep Elarms behind bars on weapons charges while the appeals court reviews the murder case. Elarms had been in custody on $500,000 bail.
Elarms pleaded no contest on Jan. 3 to possessing handmade “shanks” while in jail, including a sharpened toothbrush, a sharpened spork and two sharpened pencils tied together to work as a stabbing instrument.
Elarms was in court Tuesday for a hearing to withdraw his plea and to set a date for sentencing if the withdrawal was denied. His request for a new attorney and move to represent himself were denied.
But a defense motion to continue the hearing was granted, and the court agreed to release Elarms on his own recognizance. Elarms was released from jail on the condition that if he fails to appear at a court hearing or commits a new offense, the maximum four-year state prison sentence limit he could receive on the weapons charges would be removed.
Prosecutors vehemently objected to the release.
This is unbelievable – we now have a person who confessed to a stalking and ambush murder, who then armed himself repeatedly while in
custody, back on the streets. Where is the safety of the public here?
Yesterday’s Daily Post printed the salaries for Redwood City Police Officers–some of which are making almost $300,000 per year (with a 90% pension in the wings). This is what paying these outrageous salaries is buying the residents of Redwood City.
When this man kills again–and it is difficult to believe he won’t–everyone associated with this case will have blood on their hands!
What a travesty! No wonder no one trusts government any more!!
Re comment above – what does Redwood City have to do w/this case? San Mateo PD screwed up, not Redwood.
This is an utter travesty that was avoidable. So did the stupid cops get into trouble for their screw up?
thank you, Hmmm.
I also wonder what RWC has to do with this.
We can always hunt him down ourselves??
If I saw this guy on the street????
He was released because the judge followed the constitution.
The constitution does not care who kills who or what. You mess up (in this case the police), you pay the price for your mistake.
Miranda Rights are there for a reason. What a complete diservice to the public that the arresting officers neglected to advise him. Making ‘good arrests’ is what the public expects from them.
> I also wonder what RWC has to do with this
My mistake.
Like it or not, criminals are our first line of defense against governmental overreaching. It is tragic that the police violated this person’s right not to be a witness against himself. The right itself arose in reaction to the Star Chamber made famous by the Tudors and Stuarts for nearly 200 years and a right guaranteed to us since the English Revolution of 1641. This same right that was asserted by those accused in Senator McCarthy’s hearings in the early 1950s. It’s the same right that our honored soldiers have fought and died for for centuries. Criminals also protect our right of privacy, our right not to have our cars and homes searched by governmental authority on any whim.
While it is reprehensible that this crime occurred, and it’s possible that a guilty person may go free, it has always been one of the hallmarks of our freedom that we, as a society, would prefer to allow a guilty person to go free rather than wrongly convict an innocent person. Don’t blame the judge who, I am quite certain, only with great reluctance threw out an illegal confession. Blame the police who, despite excellent training, violated their own, and our, procedures to ensure that a confession is legally obtained.
Lovely. Another killer walks amongst us.
Thoughtful, thanks so much for commenting upon the fact that, if a criminal’s constitutional rights are not upheld, then none of us are secure.
This is shocking. I am all for prisoner’s rights, but what about the public’s rights?
The question I would like to know is how often does this happen? How often do criminals get let off because of mistakes made by the arresting police?
@resident: try a search, perhaps arrest + miranda + free, or freed, or released, for answers to your questions. The google machine is quite fun. You should try it when you have a moment. In the meantime, you may want to search on ‘Constitution’ or ‘civil liberties’.
Then we can REALLY have fun, with the whiners who want a less talented police force on the cheap, versus those who want our civil right protections and a high quality, fairly compensated public servant.
Elam got off because his civil rights were violated, as the LAW prescribes. An awful situation, but the correct one. If Mr Elam’s sanity is still intact (see recent history, also available under the google machine) Mr Elam will move far away. My prediction is that he won’t.
And some wonder why homeowners feel safer with a Glock in their house …
“And some wonder why homeowners feel safer with a Glock in their house …”
I wonder as well, with all evidence pointing that the gun is far more likely to be used on someone in the home than outside the home.
That said, Mr Elam allegedly (and admitted to) murdered someone he knew for a very long time. He did not invade a home.
Dear And-They – easy mistake to make. After all, it’s hard to remember what screw up belongs to which police dept. It was the former Redwood chief who get caught w/the Sheriff at the hooker house in Vegas.
“…if he fails to appear … or commits a new offense, the maximum four-year state prison sentence limit he could receive on the weapons charges would be removed.”
I assume the author meant to say that the sentence you be reinstated.
To equate the failure to say the “magic words” of the Miranda warning (that no one pays any attention to), with the Star Chamber or other forms of torture, is ridiculous. The Supreme Court’s Miranda decision was wrong, and was not and is not necessary to protect the Constitutional Rights of innocent people falsely accused of a crime. Those who treat Miranda with some sort of patriotic reverence are misguided and only serve the interests of hardened criminals.
This is an extraordinary example of our system both failing [due to a processing error by the police] but working extremely well [where someone who’s rights were not correctly upheld gets to go home].
Naturally it appears to be a travesty for a common sense view of justice and I can only hope that a case can be remade and successfully prosecuted to get this dangerous person off our streets.
“The Supreme Court’s Miranda decision was wrong”
Don’t think we’ll agree on much of what you say after such a patently ridiculous statement. Haven’t heard of many, if any, attempts to overturn so “wrong” (in your opinion.)
Is it any wonder why so many choose a life of crime? the justice system has become a joke. He may very well also be killed himself in retaliation for his crime. What a mess.
It never ceases to amaze me how any sort of Weekly article about crime manages to bring out the Neanderthals to the Town Square Forum.
Don’t blame the Miranda Decision for the cops’ goof. An I suspect Elarms will be back in the CJ (Mental Health) system, sooner than later. Hopefully, no one harmed in the process.
@Human Rights Fan: Takes one to know one. Look in the mirror.
Was the confession the only evidence against Mr Elarms? Was there no witness, no weapon found? I am outraged that a confessed assassin was set free. David Lewis was a humanitarian that did much for the community. I am deeply saddened by his murder and now the injustice of allowing his murderer to go free. And I can’t help thinking that if he were of a different ethnicity, a different community or in a different social status things would have turned out differently for Mr Elarms as they did for Hinkley, Booth, Oswald, James Earl Ray and other assassins.
This is too nauseating for words. The victim can never rest in peace until justice is done. May Elarms be haunted all his remaining days!
Folks that hurt people NEED TO KEEP THEM IN PRISON, and they can sit around, but NO exercise machines etc., just use their body. Not machines building massive muscle (since they will hurt others).
Pitiful truly…
Have them make cards, and use paints, and no one will be hurt from that.
Maybe dance.
The Appeals Court WILL reinstate the confession. Write down the date. You heard it hear first. Don’t assume you know all the facts because you read them on a website. I love how some of you call Elarms the “alleged” killer, but automatically assume the police are in the wrong….In a matter of months, you will all look ignorant and uninformed.