Napa County District Attorney Allison Haley has announced that Oscar Tapia-Felix, a convicted murderer from Napa, has been denied parole and will not be eligible for reconsideration for another three years, as reported by the Napa County District Attorney's official website. In 2017, Tapia-Felix was sentenced to 15 years to life following a series of events in 2015 that ended with the death of 67-year-old Rosalina Abalos Punieg Perez of San Jose.
Details emerging from a teleconference held by the California Board of Parole Hearings on September 24 paint a grim picture, Tapia-Felix engaged in a deadly episode of drunk driving after consuming 11 beers at an American Canyon bar, leading him to flee an attempted traffic stop, and race through the residential area with his lights off, ultimately colliding with the vehicle driven by Perez at over 80 miles per hour; her death, along with Tapia-Felix's major injuries, were the result of this collision in which he was found to have a blood alcohol content of .21 percent, nearly three times above the legal limit as stated in the report above.
The decision to deny parole came with an account given of Tapia-Felix's past, which included three prior DUI convictions and was compounded by the recklessness showcased on that tragic night. This saga was detailed at length in the Napa Valley Register. This history painted a consistent pattern of behavior that the parole board could not overlook.
While Tapia-Felix was deemed eligible for an early parole hearing through Proposition 57's enactment, which offers inmates like him the chance to earn additional time credits for good behavior and participation in rehabilitation programs despite the severity of their crimes, Napa County Deputy District Attorney Agnes Dziadur, alongside the son of the victim, appeared before the hearing to underscore the gravity of Tapia-Felix's actions and his lack of insight into the seriousness of his crime which posed an unreasonable risk to public safety and his problematic rehabilitation plan, according to Napa County District Attorney's official statements. "Having to make the call to her son and inform him that his mother’s killer is eligible for early parole due to a change in state law that helped him easily accumulate sufficient time credits was heartbreaking," Dziadur stated, pointing to the broader implications this law has on victims of crime and public safety.
Phillip Perez, the son of the decedent, detailed the grueling fallout of his mother's absence in a victim impact statement that was originally obtained by the Napa Valley Register, expressing that the “loss of my mother has changed every aspect of my life, my father’s life, and the future of my entire family,” detailing how she supported both him and his father, along with relatives back in the Philippines.
