Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of sexual assault. If you or someone you know needs help, please call Women’s Center of San Joaquin County/PREVAIL (rape crisis center) at (209) 465-4878 or the 24/7 Sexual Assault Hotline: (209) 465-4997.
The grieving family of a 75-year-old Stockton woman who was raped, tortured and killed in 1996 by her teenage neighbor is speaking out as the man convicted of her killing seeks parole.
James Dennis Lynch, now 46, was convicted in 1997 of the Jan. 6, 1996, rape-murder of Hilda Armanino Boggiano, an older woman who lived alone and was awaiting knee surgery.
For nearly three decades, Lynch has been serving a 36-year sentence and is currently incarcerated at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California, a place he seeks to be free from.
Parole hearings are conducted by a panel of one or two commissioners and a deputy commissioner from the California Board of Parole Hearings.
At a second parole hearing held Jan. 15 by the California Board of Parole Hearings, Lynch was granted parole by Presiding Commissioner David Long and Deputy Commissioner Neal Chambers.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) website states that following a parole hearing, the decision is considered a proposed decision. It is still subject to review by the parole board’s chief counsel.
Lynch’s grant of parole is subject to review at a rescission hearing by the California Board of Parole Hearings.
Armanino Boggiano’s family urged the board to reconsider its decision, because of the violence of his offense and fearing that Lynch is capable of again committing such crimes.
“I haven’t slept for many, many nights since January,” said Carol Browning, the younger of Armanino Boggiano’s two daughters. “I just can’t believe this person can be released. To me, it terrifies me. I worry about the safety of the public and our family as well because (Lynch got my niece’s home address) and that scares me for her.”
Armanino Boggiano’s granddaughter, Shannon Wadsworth, had her personal information revealed to her grandmother’s killer.
“My family and I are extremely concerned that he could come after us, retaliation,” Wadsworth said. “He knows where I live.”
Wadsworth said in 2012 she sent her information to the victims and survivors office so Lynch could not live in a certain-mile radius of her residence.
“I have no idea how this happened, but it ended up in his cell … all my personal information,” she alleged. “The warden I spoke to said that they had found all my information hidden underneath his mattress.
“Obviously, that’s extraordinarily scary. That’s the last thing I want to hear.”
She said that when she came home from a trip, a letter from Lynch was waiting for her. In the letter, he asked how her how she was related to the case.
“I just remember at the end of it, it said, ‘Be safe,’” she said.
‘Grandma has been murdered’
Browning said she still remembers the morning she received the news that her mother had been murdered. Her 16-year-old son entered her bedroom on July 7, 1996, saying, “Grandma has been murdered.”
“Of course, we jolted awake and thought, ‘What?’” Browning said.
She said those words have haunted her for decades.
In addition to learning that her mother had been killed by Lynch, Browning said the details listed in the autopsy were “horrific” and changed her life forever.
In a March 6 letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Browning pleaded with him to reverse Lynch’s parole decision.
CDCR’S website states that parole decisions that become final are subject to review by the governor. On May 22, Newsom referred Lynch’s parole grant for review by the full board.
She told Newsom that the autopsy report indicated that her mother had been brutally beaten, bitten and raped. She said there were four stab wounds to her mother’s neck and head.
“Very gruesome and has kept me awake most nights,” Browning said. “It’s crazy to think that somebody that young can be that evil.”
Not only have the memories of her mother’s killing been difficult, but Carol Browning said both parole hearing dredges up the case and murder for her.
The victim’s family has consistently attended the parole hearings and voiced their concerns and thoughts regarding the status of Lynch’s parole.
Lynch describes the murder
According to CDCR, if an inmate is found not suitable for parole, state law requires the next hearing to be set 15, 10, 7, 5 or 3 years in the future.
Lynch was denied parole on Jan. 28, 2021, for five years and, in January this year, was granted parole.
During the January parole hearing, Lynch said he first tried to kill his father while he was asleep on the couch. His father woke up, startling him, and he fled, according to a transcript document from the hearing.
He said he saw Armanino Boggiano’s garage door open but could not get inside, which frustrated him.
“I made the decision that I was gonna murder whoever was in that house,” Lynch said.
He said when he entered the victim’s front room through a screen door, she began yelling at him. Armanino Boggiano told Lynch he didn’t belong there and to get out, according to Lynch.
Those words added to his frustration, anger and madness because they brought him back to his childhood, he said.
“I ran at her and I attacked her,” Lynch told the commissioners. “I brutally hit her and knocked her down.”
He said when the victim fell down, her shirt lifted up, and at that moment, he decided he was going to have sex with her, a decision he said he justified to himself at the time.
Lynch said he went into a rage when he could not physically get his body to respond sexually.
“I bit and beat her,” Lynch said to the parole board.
He raped Armanino Boggiano with a knife and then ransacked her home.
“I shamefully walked past her like she wasn’t there,” Lynch said to the board.
Board approves parole
At another point during the January hearing, Chambers asked Lynch if it was a possibility that he would ever rape, torture and murder again.
According to a transcript document from the hearing, Lynch answered, “Being that I’ve already committed it once, there’s absolutely a possibility that I could, given the right set of circumstances … if I relapse into any other areas that could absolutely lead me down the road of sexually offending again or committing an act of sexual violence.”
Bud Browning, son-in-law of Armanino Boggiano, said he believed that response showed that Lynch was not ready to reenter society.
“We don’t want this guy out,” Bud Browning said. “We believe that he is not ready to come out.”
During the hearing, Lynch discussed in detail the rehabilitation, classes and steps he has taken to change his life and make amends for his crime.
He pointed out that he had paid restitution to the family, plans to attend college in Sacramento, and acknowledged that there may be triggers if he returns to society.
Bud Browning said the decision came back in about 20 minutes.
Long and Chambers entered a recess for deliberations at 11:41 a.m. and returned to the record at 12:08 p.m., according to a transcript from the hearing. Both commissioners granted parole to Lynch.
Long said based on legal standards and the evidence the board considered they did not find that Lynch posed an unreasonable risk to public safety. Therefore, he was found suitable for parole.
“They had already made up their minds,” Bud Browning said. “There’s no way they could have digested all the stuff we said and everything that came up in the second hearing and then come back in 20 minutes and say he is good to go.”
At the time of the parole decision reading, Chambers said Lynch’s understanding that he has a risk of relapse “is actually a very positive consideration because it shows that you understand the need to stay on top of yourself at all times and to know your triggers and to never become complacent.” Chambers added, “Somehow, maybe thinking that you would be healed or cured, that that would not be a good thing.”
Wadsworth said it was shocking to have the parole board cite Lynch’s response to reoffending as “a reason to let him out because he was being honest.”
“To me, that is absolutely crazy,” Wadsworth said. “The parole board just glossed over the case. They didn’t really read the facts and look into the details of it, and they just try to release the prison population.”
Before giving their answer regarding Lynch’s parole, the commissioners told the victim’s family that the decision did not minimize or forgive the “horrific” crime or the loss it caused.
“It’s based solely on the legal standard we must apply in assessing the current risk of danger to society, as well as the work that Mr. Lynch has done to rehabilitate himself,” Long said.
At an en banc hearing on June 17, the full parole board was required to reconsider the parole grant before a final decision could be made. Ultimately, the board ordered a hearing to determine if the grant of parole should be rescinded.
The next step in Lynch’s parole is a hearing tentatively scheduled for Sept. 30.
Information about parole hearings and inmates’ parole status is available at https://ciris.mt.cdcr.ca.gov/.
Record reporter Victoria Franco covers public safety in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at vfranco@gannett.com. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Man who raped, killed elderly Stockton woman may get parole. Terrified family says ‘no’
Reporting by Victoria Franco, The Stockton Record / The Record
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By Victoria Franco, The Stockton Record | USA TODAY Network
