By Larry Judkins
Glenn County Observer
Even Francisco Medina admits he is unsuitable for parole.
On Wednesday, January 29, a parole hearing for Medina was held at California State Prison, Corcoran. Glenn County Assistant District Attorney Michael Coffey attended on behalf of the people of Glenn County to oppose his release.
Also in attendance were three family members of the victim, Christopher Clark, just 19 at the time of his murder. They were supported by victim-witness advocate Leticia Ojeda.
At the hearing, Medina submitted that he was unsuitable for parole. The board of parole accepted his stipulation and denied his parole for three years.
The victim’s brother, Eloy Guzman Clark, responded on Facebook:
“This guy knew that he wasn’t going to be ready for parole and still let us waste more court and taxpayer money on someone who would rather stay in prison doing drugs than get out and be a responsible person.
“I’m tired of having my family go through all this [bullshit] every time he has a parole hearing. Every single time, he says he’s not ready but yet here we are, going through the entire case again, having the right letters or showing up in person, bringing all this crap back up for my mom to have to go through over and over again.
“If you ain’t ready, you know it. Quit wasting money. Don’t set the date.
“He’d rather do drugs [than] get out.”
Francisco Medina was just 18 years old when he committed an act that not only robbed Christopher Clark of his life, but robbed himself of his own young adulthood. It has now been more than 25 years – well over half of Medina’s lifetime – since Medina murdered Clark in the streets of downtown Willows.
For Medina, what could have been a period of joyous milestones – graduations, engagement and marriage, and births of children – is instead a period dominated by walls, locks and guards, the sole purpose of which is to totally stifle individual liberty, thereby making all significant milestones (with the possible exception of that final milestone, death) impossible.
On October 28, 1999, Medina gunned down Christopher Clark near Sycamore and Butte Streets in Willows. Medina was reportedly assisted by four others, two of them juveniles.
It was reported that Clark and Medina belonged to rival gangs. One of Medina’s fellow gang members (and provider of the weapon with which Clark was shot), parolee Edwin Speer, is said to have taken a beating from Clark or Clark’s gang, thereby making revenge the motive for the murder.
Medina was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. His first parole hearing took place in 2013, and, obviously, parole was denied.
In 2017, Medina was convicted of another felony: possession of heroin in prison. This added two more years to his sentence.
On August 14, 2020, another parole hearing for Medina was conducted. Again, parole was denied.
Still another hearing was held on February 18, 2022. The parole board denied his chance for release for three years.
And, of course, most recently, a hearing was held on January 29, 2025. As stated above, parole was denied, and the next hearing is ordered for a presently unspecified date in 2028, at which time he will be in his late 40s.
And over these three years, the one precious life Francisco Medina will ever know will continue to waste away behind the walls of prison.
The Glenn County Observer 