By Charlotte Aguilar
New information from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Monday (Oct. 30) shed light on the state parole board’s reasons for keeping convicted “Wig Shop Killer” Dror Goldberg in prison for at least another five years, the maximum allowable “set-off” for another review of his case.
The board’s ruling on Goldberg’s first review, which was handed down on Friday, cites the nature of the crime for which he was convicted and the amount of time served — about half his 48-year sentence — as reasons to deny his parole, concluding that “…the offender poses a continuing threat to public safety.”
The board also deemed that the “length of time served by the offender is not congruent with offense severity and criminal history.”
Victims’ rights advocate Andy Kahan of Crimestoppers Houston was encouraged by the board’s decision. “Since Goldberg has refused to accept responsibility for his crimes and to date has shown no remorse, his chance of being paroled in the near future remains slim to none,” Kahan told EssentialsNews. “Under current scenarios, I would be shocked if he was ever paroled prior to serving at least 90 per cent of his sentence.”
He is serving his sentence in the W.F. Ramsey Unit in Rosharon in Brazoria County, a mixed rural facility that houses both minimum and maximum security prisoners.
Goldberg, now 44, was 19 and a Bellaire resident and University of Houston student on Nov. 27, 1998. That was when he was IDed by an eyewitness as the man seen fleeing Wigs by Andre in Weslayan Plaza, where a brutal knife attack had just occurred. Manuela Silverio, 54, a longtime employee, died instantly when her throat was slit, owner Roberta Ingrando suffered 14 stab wounds and barely survived her internal injuries, and co-owner Roland Ingrando had slash wounds that weren’t life threatening.
Although he was taken in within hours for questioning based on the I.D., and investigators believed he was connected to the crime, Goldberg was released after his family hired legendary criminal attorney Dick DeGuerin — and then disappeared. Indicted while traveling abroad, he was finally located in Germany, extradited and charged. In 2000, a Harris County jury convicted him of murder and sentenced him to 48 years in prison.
Despite law enforcement’s belief that the crime was done for “the pure pleasure of killing somebody” — and that the Ingrandos identified Goldberg as having visited the shop the morning of the attack in what was seen by prosecutors as pre-meditation, the death penalty was never on the table. Germany abolished capital punishment in 1949 and will not cooperate with extraditions if a suspect faces death as a punishment.
Goldberg has served about half his sentence and was due this year for his first parole review, which was announced in March and set for August. It wasn’t until last week, Oct. 25, that the daughters of Silverio testified before a parole board member, and two days later, the decision was released.
Kahan has said that he and the daughters, Yvonne Palmer and Yvette Menendez, “have made a pact to meet up again in 2028 to once again protest his parole.”
For now, Palmer told EssentialsNews that she was relieved the board “understood that he is a violent, remorseless psychopath who is still a threat to society — and will always be.”
Following is the full explanation for the board’s decision:
NATURE OF OFFENSE -THE RECORD INDICATES THE INSTANT OFFENSE HAS ELEMENTS OF BRUTALITY, VIOLENCE, ASSAULTIVE BEHAVIOR, OR CONSCIOUS SELECTION OF VICTIM’S VULNERABILITY INDICATING A CONSCIOUS DISREGARD FOR THE LIVES, SAFETY, OR PROPERTY OF OTHERS, SUCH THAT THE OFFENDER POSES A CONTINUING THREAT TO PUBLIC SAFETY.
TIME SERVED – THE RECORD INDICATES THAT LENGTH OF TIME SERVED BY THE OFFENDER IS NOT CONGRUENT WITH OFFENSE SEVERITY AND CRIMINAL HISTORY.
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