A 72-year-old man who helped carry out a murder-for-hire plot in Somerville nearly five decades ago has been denied parole after his initial parole hearing in March, with the Massachusetts Parole Board citing more than 100 disciplinary reports and admitted struggles with sobriety behind bars. Michael Fountain pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in January 1977 for his role in the October 1975 killing of Peter DiNatale and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
The board's decision, issued Monday, came after Fountain's first parole hearing in March, nearly 50 years into his sentence. As reported by MassLive, Fountain killed DiNatale at the request of two people who owed DiNatale money, according to court documents, and recruited two associates to help carry it out. State parole records reviewed by Hoodline identify those accomplices as co-defendants Robert Mitchell and Lawrence Purves, with Purves firing two additional gunshot wounds into DiNatale after the three men lured him into a vehicle under the premise of collecting a debt before driving him to Somerville.
According to the state record, Fountain shot DiNatale five times before the group drove to Quincy, and an anonymous caller later alerted police to the location of DiNatale's body, leading to the trio's arrest. The parole board's denial cited Fountain's troubled disciplinary record during incarceration, including the disciplinary reports, and his next parole eligibility falls in 2028, per the same account.
The Board’s October Decision
The October 19 decision denied Fountain parole and set a two-year review window before he can try again.
Fountain has been incarcerated since 1977. The board considered his case at the March hearing.
Nearly Two Decades of Waived Hearings
Fountain's initial parole hearing didn't happen until this year in part because he waived his own scheduled reviews in 2006, 2013, 2016 and 2021, delaying his first formal appearance before the board by roughly two decades. Fountain appeared before the board at the March hearing.
Even if Fountain eventually wins parole on the murder conviction, he will not walk free right away. On October 19, 1977 — nine months after his murder plea — he received additional consecutive sentences out of an unrelated Middlesex County case, including three to five years for armed robbery and one year for carrying a dangerous weapon and illegal firearm possession, both ordered to run after his life sentence concludes.
A Broader Pattern of Long-Serving Lifers
A second-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. Massachusetts regulation 120 CMR § 200.02, titled “Parole Eligibility Calculations,” addresses parole eligibility, as shown in Cornell Law School's linked regulation.
A report hosted by NYU Law says people serving life-without-parole sentences made up 13% of the Massachusetts prison population in its cited context.
A Broader Pattern of Long-Serving Lifers Hoodline has previously reported on a Wareham killer's repeated denial.
