Edhat StaffBy edhat staff
A Solvang man who was convicted for shooting and killing a man in 2005 during a Buellton road rage incident was denied parole on Friday.
Louis Calvin, now 61, was convicted of manslaughter and three other counts, including shooting from a vehicle, in the shooting death of Wayne Shaw, 49, of Buellton on March 16, 2005.
Shaw allegedly became upset by Calvin’s driving and followed him to the parking lot of the Buellton Town Center. According to witnesses, Shaw approached Calvin’s van and threw a punch when Calvin drew a gun and shot him in the neck.
Calvin claimed self-defense but over a year after the incident he received an almost eight-year sentence for the charges and additional 25 years for a special allegation that he used a firearm, causing death. He was sentenced to serve 32 years to life in prison.
In June of this year, Governor Newsom granted Calvin a commutation of his sentence. The commutation entitled Calvin to the parole hearing conducted on Friday after serving roughly half of his original sentence.
A parole hearing took place on Friday at San Quentin State Prison by video and included opposition statements from Shaw’s family members and Supervising Deputy District Attorney Scott Donahue.
The Parole Board denied Calvin’s release for at least another three years.
sounds like self defense to me
Sounds like a bitch to me, he’s old school enough to throw hands, he sounds like one of these new generation wussy’s that use weapons instead of the old fashion beat down
That’s a nutty sentence. He deserves some punishment… but by all accounts it was the other guy who was the aggressor and was out of control. Guy Literally followed someone and then attack them. That’s pretty wild/nutty…
ALEX, you are out of your mind if you think the average person should be expected to reverse a vehicle and drive away while being punched
What a joke. I won’t claim to know all the details of what happened. But at face value, if a DRUNK, roadraging person approached my vehicle and tried to punch me and I had a gun? I would do the same. There is a reason he was pardoned by the governor.
I was a bit surprised at how harsh the sentence was considering the circumstances. I think a lot of it was the defendant was not really a local and the fellow who died was and had friends and family here
Dude, maybe just drive away rather than shoot someone in the head.
Thanks for the article…still sounds like self defense…even if the victim was a father of 4 and a soccer coach etc….
Doesn’t change anything for me. Whether the handgun was illegal or not, it is still self defense and he was still attacked. Play stupid games like road rage fistfight, win stupid prizes. I am very sorry the man made the choices he did. If he had not committed the original crime of assault, he would be alive.
If goad someone into a fight, and then pull out my illegal and concealed handgun and shoot them dead, I want you -all on my jury. In the meantime, I think I will stick to pepper spray as my weapon of choice.
It makes no sense he got the maximum sentence. There are tons of mitigating factors here. He deserves some punishment…but the seemingly only justification for the maximum sentence is that the guy had 6 kids and coached youth sports. Other than that, how do you possibly justify a max sentence here????
Good! Murderer deserves it