Lawrence Singleton

Lawrence Bernard "Larry" Singleton (July 28, 1927 – December 28, 2001)^[3] was an American criminal known for perpetrating an infamous rape and mutilation of an adolescent hitch-hiker in California in 1978. Released from prison after serving only eight years of his fourteen-year sentence, he went on to murder a second woman, for which he was sentenced to death in 1997. He died in 2001 of natural causes before the sentence could be carried out.

Biography

Singleton was born in Tampa, Florida.^[2] He worked as a merchant seaman.^[7]

First conviction

On September 29, 1978, Singleton picked up 15-year-old Mary Vincent of Las Vegas while she was hitchhiking in Berkeley, California, raped her, and then severed both her forearms with a hatchet and threw her off a 30-foot cliff outside of Modesto, California, leaving her naked and near death. She managed to pull herself back up the cliff and alert a passerby, who took her to a hospital. By the time of Singleton's arrest, Vincent wore prosthetic arms.

Six months after the assault, Vincent faced Singleton at his trial, where her testimony helped to convict him.^[8] Singleton was sentenced to 14 years in prison, the maximum allowed by law in California at that time.^[8]

While Vincent won a $2.56 million civil judgment against Singleton, she was unable to collect it when Singleton revealed that he was unemployed, in poor health, and had only $200 in savings.^[9]

Along with the particularly gruesome and callous aspects of the crime, the case became even more notorious after Singleton was paroled after serving only eight years in prison. He was paroled to Contra Costa County, California, but no town would accept his presence, so he had to live in a trailer on the grounds of San Quentin until his parole ended a year later.^[2]

According to TIME magazine, "as authorities attempted to settle him in one Bay Area town after another, angry crowds and Tampa's Chapter of Guardian Angels led protests, screamed, picketed and eventually prevailed."^[10] In Rodeo, about 25 miles northeast of San Francisco, a crowd of approximately 500 local protestors were up in arms and forced officers to move him under armed guard from a hotel room. Authorities tried housing him across the street from Concord's City Hall, but that was met with protests and failed too.^[11] He was removed from one apartment in Contra Costa County in a bullet-proof vest after 400 residents surrounded the building to protest a decision to place him there permanently.^[12] Governor George Deukmejian ordered that Singleton be placed in a trailer on the grounds of San Quentin for the duration of his one-year parole.

The outrage at this sentence resulted in legislation, supported by Mary Vincent, which prevents the early release of offenders who have committed a crime in which torture is used: in 1987 Singleton's parole led to passage of California's "Singleton bill", which carries a 25-years-to-life sentence. (Harrower, 1998). The leniency of the legal system shocked and outraged many. One journalist who interviewed him remarked, "What was most surprising to me, however, was not his sentence. It was that Larry Singleton had worked his crimes around in his mind so completely that they did not warrant punishment at all."^[13] Right before Singleton's parole ended, Donald Stahl, the Stanislaus County prosecutor at Singleton's trial, said, "I think, if anything, he's worse now. He has not taken responsibility. He lives in a bizarre fantasy land and acquits himself each day. He doesn't accept his guilt and won't resolve never to do it again."^[14]

Move to Florida

Singleton returned to his native Florida after his release. In 1990, he was twice convicted of theft. He served a 60-day sentence for stealing a $10 disposable camera in spring 1990 and in the winter received a two-year prison term for stealing a $3 hat. Before his sentencing for the latter crime, he described himself to the judge as "a confused, muddleheaded old man".^[15]

In the spring of 1997, a neighbor called police to report Singleton assaulting a woman in his home. When police responded, they found the body of Roxanne Hayes; she had been stabbed multiple times in the upper body.^[16] Hayes was a mother of three and worked as a prostitute.^[17]

Mary Vincent traveled from California to Tampa to appear at Singleton's sentencing.^[18] During her testimony, she described Singleton's attack and the toll the ordeal had taken on her.^[19] The judge sentenced Singleton to death.^[20] Singleton died in 2001 of cancer in a prison hospital at the North Florida Reception Center in Starke, Florida.^[2][21]

References