NORTH COAST, Calif. – The family of a woman who was set on fire in 2001 by her then-boyfriend is gearing up to argue to the state Board of Parole Hearings on Tuesday that the convicted attacker should not be released from prison.
The parole hearing for Gregory Patrick Beck of Mendocino County will take place on Tuesday morning at Soledad Correctional Training Facility, according to Phyllis Kline, whose daughter, Sherry Carlton, was left disabled and disfigured after Beck brutally attacked her in August 2001.
The Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office said Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Norman will attend and argue that agency’s opposition to Beck’s parole.
This will be the third hearing Kline has attended to speak against her daughter’s attacker. Both she and her ex-husband, Jeffrey Carlton, Sherry Carlton’s father, plan to speak to the board.
Kline called Beck “absolutely evil.”
Beck and Sherry Carlton had been together 12 years when Carlton decided to end the relationship and move out of the home they shared.
“She had so much going for her,” Kline said of her daughter, who she recalled as a loving, beautiful young woman. Carlton was Kline’s only child.
After moving out, Carlton went back to the home where Beck lived to retrieve personal belongings. It was then that Beck attacked Carlton, soaking her with lighter fluid and setting her on fire, and then later trying to stage the scene to make it appear that she had been injured by a barbecue, according to a case history.
At the time of the attack Carlton was 32 years old and had a 12-year-old child with Beck.
Beck was convicted in 2002 of gravely injuring Carlton by means of torture, assault with caustic chemicals and corporal injury on a cohabitant.
The attack left Carlton disfigured, unable to walk, speak or care for herself. “She was trapped inside her uncooperative body. She couldn't talk, she couldn’t move, but she could understand what you were saying,” Kline said.
Carlton spent the years following the disfiguring attack in a Lake County care facility. She had a close relationship with her stepmother, Michelle Carlton, who quit her job as a registered nurse and went to work for the trust that oversaw Sherry Carlton’s care, Kline said.
“I’m just so indebted to her and Jeff,” Kline said of the Carltons.
Kline credited Michelle Carlton with exceptional, loving and compassionate care of her daughter, and also lauded the work of Alicia Lopez for helping keep her daughter as comfortable as she could be.
In March 2011, the Board of Parole Hearings found Beck unsuitable for parole, concluding he had failed to take responsibility for the attack and had shown failures in rehabilitation. At that time the board ordered that he not be eligible for another parole hearing until the passing of 10 years, as Lake County News has reported: http://bit.ly/2ETRqft.
Only seven years have passed, and Beck is making a return to the board.
In the intervening years, Sherry Carlton’s family continued to care for her and try to give her as much quality of life as possible.
On March 18, 2016, the day after her birthday and nearly 15 years after the attack that changed her life, Sherry Carlton died, Kline said.
“I think he should be charged with murder. He basically murdered my daughter, it just took 14 and a half years,” Kline said of Beck.
“What a monster,” she added.
One thing that hasn’t changed since Beck’s last parole hearing is the opposition being shown to his release.
The last time he faced the board, commissioners had noted that they were impressed with the 100 letters and hundreds of signatures on petitions opposing his release.
Carlton’s family is ready again, and this time they have even greater support.
Kline, who lives in Southern California, said she has not only received hundreds of signatures on paper petitions but also, as of Sunday night, her online petition against Beck’s parole had collected 50,399 signatures.
The petition can be found here: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/328/208/588/refuse-parole-to-convicted-torturer-gregory-patrick-beck-cdc-t61119/.
Kline intends to argue that Beck is a dangerous, mentally disturbed, egotistical person who has made threats against other people and hasn’t told the truth about the case in which he attacked Carlton.
“I won’t take it for granted but I think it’s going to be pretty obvious how devious he is,” she said, noting that she thinks he believes he is fooling everyone.
Despite the emotional toll of the hearings, Kline said she’s ready.
“Sherry deserves justice,” she said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Parole hearing set for man convicted in 2001 torture case
- Elizabeth Larson
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