Despite Commutation, California Man Denied Parole For Murdering Wife In 1980

Jan. 15—The state has denied parole for a Rialto man who 40 years ago shot his wife to death as she slept and then shot himself in a failed effort to fool investigators into believing that an intruder had fired the bullets.

Deborah Bailey, 26, a graduate of Verdugo Hills High and UCLA, was killed on Dec. 24, 1980.

Thomas Edward Waterbury, 61, on Jan. 7, 2021, received his first hearing before the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Parole Board after Gov. Gavin Newsom commuted his sentence of life without parole in order to allow him to one day seek freedom.

Five of Bailey's family members, a San Bernardino County District Attorney's investigator and Waterbury's brother attended the virtual hearing.

The board, in rejecting Waterbury's request, said he can have another parole hearing in three years.

"We were prepared for him to be released because of age. We were very pleased. We are ready to battle when it comes up again," Bailey's brother Jeff, 60, said in an interview Friday, Jan. 15.

Deputy District Attorney Connie Lasky made the agency's plea to keep Waterbury behind bars.

"Mr. Waterbury showed the parole board that he remains the manipulative, selfish murderer who shot his sleeping wife in the head to collect her life insurance and that he remains too dangerous of an individual to be released back into society," she said in a statement on the DA's website.

On Christmas Eve in 1980, Waterbury shot Bailey twice in the head and then called police, claiming that an intruder had fired on both of them. But investigators couldn't verify that story and learned that Waterbury had taken out a $100,000 life insurance policy on his wife and that he had a mistress who he planned to move into their house.

Waterbury, after posting bail following his arrest, presented his mistress to family members as his wife and showed off an engagement ring, Jeff Bailey said.

The District Attorney's Office won a murder conviction against Waterbury in 1981, and it appeared he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison.

But on June 26, 2020, Newsom granted 35 pardons or commutations of sentences, including that of Waterbury.

The governor noted that Waterbury earned a bachelor's degree in theology and a master's in ministry. He led inmates in the Prison Ministries program and has been the provost of the School of Ministry since 2013. Waterbury also helped develop software that is used in prison pharmacies and warehouses.

Jeff Bailey rejected the notion that Waterbury had transformed himself. He said Waterbury waited until 2019 to take a domestic violence offender course in prison.

"Religion, I think that was just another strategy for him to get out," Bailey said.

Rialto Police Chief Mark P. Kling, in a letter to the Parole Board, said he would expect any prisoner who faces life without parole to find religion and assist other inmates.

"Especially, from a husband who murdered his wife," Kling wrote. "Make no mistake, Thomas is a violent domestic terrorist and domestic batterer who has attacked his own family members and has not demonstrated any remorse for his destructive behavior. Rest assured, if granted release from prison, Thomas will re-offend."

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