Politics & Government

Man Convicted of Fatally Shooting Wife Granted Parole

Dennis Anderson, who gunned down his estranged wife and her boyfriend more than 20 years ago in San Mateo, was found suitable for parole on Monday.

A former lawyer convicted twice of fatally shooting his estranged bride and her former boyfriend in San Mateo more than 20 years ago has been found suitable for parole.

Dennis Brian Anderson was first found guilty of two counts second-degree murder on Oct. 15, 1985, after a four-week jury trial determined he shot to death his wife Karen Stoker and her friend Donald Mason.

The next month, on Nov. 8, 1985, Anderson was sentenced to 17 years to life in prison on both counts, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

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The case was retried in 1996 because a federal appellate judge determined Anderson had been mentally incompetent at the time of the first trial.

Anderson pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity at his second trial, but a jury in Redwood City found he had been sane when he went on the shotgun rampage in the fall of 1984, and he was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced again to two 17-to-life terms.

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In fall 1984, Anderson married Stoker, 35, but after a disastrous honeymoon in Paris she told him she was leaving him for her former boyfriend Donald Mason, 46. Within two weeks, both were dead.

Present at Anderson’s parole hearing Monday were several of Stoker’s family members, including her father who, along with Stoker’s two young children, had witnessed the double murder.

The case will now go through Parole Board administrative review and then to the Governor’s Office for review.

Bay City News contributed to this report.


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