DISTRICT ATTORNEY RESPONDS TO GOVERNOR NEWSOM COMMUTING DEATH SENTENCES FOR 548 INMATES

Today, Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni responded to Governor Gavin Newsom's decision to commute death sentences for 548 inmates: "With the stroke of a pen, Governor Newsom has told hundreds of grieving families that their loss no longer matters. These sentences were not handed down lightly. They were earned through the worst crimes imaginable and imposed by juries of ordinary Californians who sat through weeks of harrowing testimony, weighed the evidence, and carried the weight of that decision. One man erased all of it. This is not mercy. It is a political act timed after the elections and just before his exit, aimed at his legacy and his future ambitions, and the cost is borne entirely by the victims. He will not have to look their families in the eye. He will not have to explain to them why a political calculation outweighed a jury's verdict. The victims were never given a commutation. Their families were never given a choice. And now the voices of the people of California, spoken through their juries, have been silenced by executive decree. I stand with the victims and the survivors who deserve far better than this."

The following are the cases in which Monterey County victims were murdered by defendants whose death verdicts Governor Newsom commuted. Except for Manibusan, the other cases must be reviewed by the California Supreme Court to determine whether the Governor legitimately exercised his power to grant clemency.

Kristin Hughes

Defendant was convicted of the September 7, 1989, murder of his neighbor Kim Hickman. The murder occurred in Pacific Grove during the commission of a burglary, robbery and forcible sodomy. When the police found the victim dead in her apartment she was found on her back, in her kitchen, her clothes ripped or torn away, with her legs and ankles propped up against the wall. Defendant's suspenders were wrapped around her neck. She suffered from numerous deep stab and puncture wounds to her chest.

The forensic pathologist determined the stab wounds did not immediately kill the victim. She was still alive when she was strangled by a pair of defendant's suspenders and the pressure of thumbs to her throat.

Judgment of death - October 2, 1990. CA Supreme Court affirmed death sentence on January 28, 2002.

RonaldWayneMoore

Defendant was convicted of the March 4, 1998, murder of his 11-year-old neighbor Nicole Carnahan. The murder occurred in Salinas during the commission of a burglary and robbery. The victim suffered a 4-inch slash wound to her neck that severed her jugular vein and carotid artery. She also suffered blunt force injury to her head that resulted in a fractured skull and a laceration to her brain.

Judgment of death - August 16, 1999. CA Supreme Court affirmed death sentence on January 31, 2001.

Kenneth Bivert

Defendant was convicted of the February 5, 1997, murder of Salinas Valley prison inmate Leonard Swartz. Swartz died 17 days after Bivert stabbed Swartz in the neck damaging his carotid artery. The jury also found true that Bivert had been convicted in 1988 of three previous murders he committed in Yolo County for which he was serving a sentence of 52 to life when he murdered Swartz. In 1987 in Yolo County, Bivert and a cohort noticed a fisherman with a pickup truck camping near a slough. Bivert told his friend he wanted to use the fisherman's truck to rob a nearby bank and was willing to shoot the fisherman to get the truck. The two friends approached the fisherman, and after a few minutes of conversation, when the fisherman knelt to set a hook, defendant shot him in the back of the head. The following Tuesday, defendant skipped school and, with his uncle's handguns, again visited the slough with a friend, where they ran into a couple who were fishing. Defendant told his friend he wanted to take their car to use to rob a bank. After a few minutes of conversation, defendant shot the woman in the back and then continued shooting, hitting and killing the man. When the woman continued to scream, defendant shot her in the head, killing her. Defendant was "jovial" when he threw their bodies and belongings into the slough and took their car.

Judgment of death - July 19, 2001. CA Supreme Court affirmed death sentence on July 11, 2011.

After Governor Newsom signed an executive order placing a moratorium on all executions in 2019, the state moved death-row inmates out of San Quentin and transferred Bivert to Salinas Valley State Prison. In 2025 he attempted to murder a fellow inmate by stabbing him with an inmate manufactured weapon. His prosecution is pending in case 26CR003669.

Joseph Manibusan

The Defendant murdered for the thrill of doing so. He was convicted of the January 1, 1998, murder of Priya Mathews and the attempted murder and aggravated mayhem of Jennifer Aninger. The crimes occurred on the Monterey Wharf while the females were drinking coffee and talking. A codefendant shot both victims during a drive-by shooting with Manibusan at the wheel. Ms. Aninger suffered brain damage and other life-long injuries as a result of the shooting.

Defendant was also convicted of the February 1, 1998, murder of Frances Olivo. The murder occurred in Seaside mere hours after the Monterey shooting when Manibusan shot the victim during a drive-by shooting while the victim was walking on the sidewalk.

Judgment of death - January 24, 2001. CA Supreme Court affirmed death sentence on December 2, 2013.

Joseph Nissenshon

Defendant was sentenced to death on December 11, 2013, in El Dorado County for the 1981 murders of 13-year-old Tammy Lynn Jarschke and 14-year-old Tanja Jones which occurred in Monterey County. Defendant was a serial killer who later murdered in El Dorado County where his trial was held.

The juveniles met Nissenshon at a Denny's restaurant in Monterey and never returned home. Three months after their disappearance their bodies were found in the rugged hills of Chews Ridge in Carmel Valley. Jones naked body was found hanging from a tree with an electrical cord tightly wrapped around her neck. Jarschke's body was found about 40 feet down the ridge. Her chest was gruesomely pierced by a screwdriver which was still in her body. Her skull had been bludgeoned by blunt force trauma.

At this same trial Nissensohn was convicted of the 1989 murder of a fifteen-year-old girl. She told friends she was going for a ride with Nissensohn and was never seen alive again. Her skeletal remains were found in 1990 by hikers in an isolated wooded area of El Dorado County.

In 1990 Nissensohn was convicted of murder in Tacoma Wahington for the stabbing death of a female. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for that crime and was about to be released when he was tried in El Dorado County.

Judgment of death - June 14, 2014. CA Supreme Court briefing just finished on October 20, 2026.