Woman, Ex-Lover Convicted of Killing Her Father for Inheritance

A jury convicted a woman and her ex-lover of the bludgeoning death of the woman’s 72-year-old father in a scheme designed to get her inheritance.

“The evidence was overwhelming that they both killed him,” jury foreman Richard Stephens said Thursday after the jury convicted Jeri Anne Richards, 44, of Ontario, and Alfred George Parady, 59, of San Dimas.

After deliberating 5 1/2 hours, the Riverside County Superior Court jury convicted Richards and Parady of first-degree murder during a robbery and a burglary. The jury found the killing was for financial gain.

Riverside County Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Sussman argued that Richards persuaded Parady to help her kill her father for an inheritance of more than $750,000 and business property.

Emanuel Klein was struck 23 times in the head with a hammer and table leg in his Hemet home Sept. 4, 1987. The murder weapons were never found.

A day after the killing, an off-duty police officer looking for cans to recycle found bloody clothing of Richards and Parady and a paper with Richards’ telephone number that Parady dumped in an Ontario trash bin.

After her arrest, Richards offered a fellow jail inmate $200,000 to lie for her in court, authorities said. Richards’ former husband, Kirk, testified that she earlier had asked him to kill Klein.

Parady and Richards surprised Klein, murdered him and stole a box containing financial records, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in bank notes, authorities said. Richards was described as being “obsessed” with the box.

Jurors called Parady “cold and calculating” and Richards “greedy.”

In his will, Klein left his money to Richards, his only child.

But Sussman said the conviction bars Richards from collecting her father’s estate, which goes to her children. Richards may collect the portion of the estate belonging to her mother, who died after Klein.

Richards will be sentenced on Aug. 10 and Parady on Aug. 23. The defendants face sentences of life in prison without possibility of parole.