Double murderer Betty Broderick up for parole

For the second time since her double-murder conviction, former San Diego socialite Elizabeth “Betty” Broderick will appear Wednesday before a parole board after spending decades in prison.

Broderick, who is now 69, was convicted of second-degree murder for the 1989 shooting deaths of her ex-husband, medical malpractice lawyer Daniel Broderick, 44, and his wife, Linda Kolkena Broderick, 28.

It was a sensational case that drew national attention. The events were turned into a made-for-television movie.

Broderick was sentenced in 1991 to 32 years to life and now is housed at the California Institution for Women in Chino. Her first parole hearing was in January 2010, when a two-person panel found her unsuitable for release.

One commissioner from the Board of Prison Terms said Broderick showed “no significant progress in evolving” from where she was emotionally at the time of the killings.

The victims were shot the morning of Nov. 5, 1989, as they slept in their home near Balboa Park in San Diego. According to the district attorney’s office, Broderick used a key that she had taken from her daughter weeks earlier and sneaked up the stairs as the couple slept.

She fired five shots from a revolver, three of which hit the victims as they tried to dive for cover.

Daniel Broderick attempted to reach for the telephone to call for help. He was shot in his back and fell off the bed.

Betty Broderick then pulled the phone from the wall and left it in the hallway, out of reach. She left the home and was arrested later that day.

Although she never denied committing the shootings, Broderick contended at two trials — the first ended in a mistrial — that she was driven to do it after enduring a bitter divorce in which she claimed she was emotionally and psychologically abused.

Prosecutors argued that Broderick was an angry and violent stalker who sought revenge against her ex-husband and the younger woman he had left her to marry. She left numerous obscene messages on Daniel Broderick’s answering machine, prosecutors said, and once drove her vehicle through the front door of the couple’s home.

The San Diego County district attorney’s office has said it will oppose Betty Broderick’s request for release. Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Sachs is expected to argue at the Wednesday hearing that Broderick remains a danger to society.

The board could find that she is suitable for parole and set a parole date, or deny parole for three, five, seven, 10 or 15 more years.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @danalittlefield

Littlefield writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune