Woman Gets 25-Years-to-Life Term in Father’s Murder : Courts: Judge rejects special circumstance that she hired two men to do the killing, which would have barred parole. She will serve at least 17 1/2 years in prison.

An Orange County Superior Court judge Friday sentenced a Mission Viejo woman to 25 years to life in prison for killing her father, but overruled a jury’s recommendation and left open the possibility that the 44-year-old woman might one day be paroled.

Deborah Ann Werner was convicted Sept. 24 of first-degree murder in the 1989 contract slaying of her father, David Werner, a 72-year-old stockbroker.

The jury also found that because the woman hired two men to kill her father, she was guilty of the special circumstance of murder for financial gain. That crime carries with it a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

However, Judge Donald A. McCartin yesterday rejected the special circumstance, saying that he believed the killing was partly a function of the woman’s relationship with her abusive father; that she was not likely to commit a similar crime if she was released; and that, given her age and ill health, she was likely to die in prison anyway.

With time off for good behavior, Werner will have to serve a minimum of 17 1/2 years in prison before she can be considered for parole. But a retired prison official estimated that anyone convicted of first-degree murder would probably serve 30 to 35 years before being paroled.

Under the provisions of Proposition 115, which governs sentencing for crimes committed after 1990, the judge would not have been able to overrule the jury’s recommendation of life without parole, attorneys said.

Deborah Werner was convicted of hiring several of her daughter’s friends to kill David Werner as he slept in his home three years ago. Deborah Werner told them that she was psychologically abused by her alcoholic father.

After sentencing Werner, McCartin sentenced Miguel (Mike) Ruiz, 23, to life in prison without the possibility of parole, as recommended by the same jury that tried Werner and a third participant in the crime.

The judge, noting Ruiz’s heretofore clean record, the fact that he had a job and his strong family support, said he considered striking Ruiz’s special circumstance as well, in hopes of freeing him by the time he is 50 or 55 years old.

A sentence of life in prison without parole permits only the governor to free an individual. But the murderer must serve 30 years.

But McCartin said he could not do so, because of the senseless and brutal nature of the killing, in which David Werner was stabbed in the throat while in his bed.

Ruiz told the judge that he was guilty of nothing more than “poor judgment in picking friends.”

Sentencing for a third man convicted of the killing, Charles Clemmons, 21, was continued to Dec. 21.

A fourth participant, Carrie Marie Chidester, 21, earlier pleaded guilty to her role in the slaying and testified as a prosecution witness against Werner, Ruiz and Clemmons. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter.

Cindy Diebolt, Deborah Werner’s daughter, who is also charged with murder in connection with the slaying, is scheduled for trial next week.