Fla. panel reduces sentence for 'TV intoxication' killer
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CNN's Susan Candiotti revisits the trial of Ronny Zamora, the Miami, Florida, man convicted of killing an elderly neighbor at age 15. At trial, Zamora unsuccessfully used 'television intoxication' as his defense (February 20)
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TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) -- A Miami man convicted of fatally shooting an elderly neighbor at age 15 when his "television intoxication" defense failed had his sentence reduced Wednesday by seven years.
Ronny Zamora, now 40, will be released from prison June 7, 2005, the Florida Parole Commission ruled. He was originally expected to finish the 25-year mandatory portion of his life sentence on June 7, 2012.
Zamora was denied parole in February 2001. The panel had set the presumptive June 2012 release date at the time but agreed to review the case again.
"I'm thrilled. 2012 -- 2005. That's seven years and we're very pleased with that," said brother Manny Zamora, of San Diego.
"Ronny had to pay dearly for what he did. He did commit a very serious crime. Where we're at now is the light at the end of the tunnel. We can finally see the light," the killer's brother said.
Zamora's case was one of the most sensational in Florida's history and among the first to be televised after cameras were allowed into courtrooms.
Defense lawyer Ellis Rubin tried to show Zamora was insane from watching violent television programming when he killed 83-year-old Elinor Haggart at her Miami Beach home in June 1977. The judge, however, refused to let most of Rubin's expert witnesses testify.
Zamora, a quiet, dark-eyed teenager, was arrested with friend Darrell Agrella after Haggart was found shot to death in her Miami Beach home. Police said the woman was killed when she caught the two youths burglarizing her home -- taking $400 and the victim's car for a weekend spree with friends at Walt Disney World. Agrella, who was then 14, was released from prison in 1986.
Rubin tried to portray Zamora as a youngster driven insane by years of watching violent television programs and unable to distinguish the real world and his television fantasy world.
The defense attempted to subpoena actor Telly Savalas, star of "Kojack," and experts who had studied the effect of television on young minds. But trial Judge Paul Baker barred the testimony since it did not apply directly to Zamora's state of mind.
