http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/local/oc-model-turned-cannibal-denied-parole-20111005
Santa Ana - A onetime model who killed her husband and then cooked parts of his body over the 1991 Thanksgiving weekend was denied parole today and will not be able to make another bid for freedom until 2026.
Omaima Aree Nelson was given the "uncommon 15-year denial" following a hearing at the California Central Women's Prison in Chowchilla, said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney's Office. She was last denied parole in 2006.
Nelson, 56, is serving a 25-year-to-life sentence on a second-degree murder conviction with a sentencing enhancement for using a knife and for an unrelated assault with a gun.
Nelson killed 56-year-old William Nelson, who she wed in November 2001 after a two-month whirlwind courtship. The couple had only been married for about two weeks before she stabbed and dismembered him in their Costa Mesa apartment.
"They were in the throes of lovemaking" when she got the better of him, said Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Randy Pawloski, the original prosecutor on the case.
She tied him up and slammed an iron and a lamp over his head before stabbing him with scissors or a knife, Pawloski said. Because the body was so mutilated, investigators had to piece together what happened with evidence such as pieces of the victim's scalp left on the lamp and iron, he said.
The Egyptian-born beauty, who according to Pawloski "had a history of attacking boyfriends with knives," claimed that her husband repeatedly raped and beat her and told of going into a trance-like state after the killing and spending 12 hours carving up his body.
She admitted today that she told a psychiatric expert after her arrest that she donned red-colored hat, gloves and shoes and put barbecue sauce on some of the victim's body parts and tasted them, but said she gave that statement under the influence of drugs given to her in custody and denied doing what she had said, Pawloski said.
Nelson also denied the cannibalism allegation during her trial and at her last parole hearing in 2006, Pawloski said.
William Nelson's daughter attended the hearing and told the parole board how her father was taken from her when she was a 15-year-old high school sophomore.
In tearful testimony, Margaret Nelson told the parole board that she got married a couple of years ago and gave birth and should have been sharing those experiences with her father, Pawloski said.
"The last day she spoke to him was Thanksgiving. She was upset he went off and got married without talking about it with her," Pawloski said.
Pawloski noted in his opposition the heinous nature of the crime and said Nelson has not taken advantage of prison self-help programs, has failed to admit her drug and alcohol issues and remains a risk to the community.
The parole board also noted in its denial reports that Nelson has had conjugal visits with older men while incarcerated to make money, according to the District Attorney's Office. She has had at least six "boyfriends" while in custody, Pawloski said.
Nelson cut off the victim's genitals and then cooked his head and placed it in a freezer. She boiled his hands in oil and used a garbage disposal to destroy much of the body, while other body parts were dumped in a trash bin outside the apartment building.
One neighbor testified during the trial that the garbage disposal was on for days, and was loudly "grinding," Pawloski said.
Additional body parts were found in the victim's Corvette and in the couple's apartment, where she mixed some of the remains with leftover turkey. The two had apparently had Thanksgiving dinner together, Pawloski said, noting that one neighbor said he saw the victim that day and his daughter recounted how she talked to him on the phone.
Costa Mesa police arrested his bride on Dec. 1, 1991, after she called an acquaintance to help dispose of body parts.
Pawloski, who was with police when they executed a search warrant at the apartment, said the years have done little to dampen the horror he witnessed. "But today I was more concerned for Margaret Nelson and her chilling ordeal of life without a father the last 20 years," he said.
Nelson's attorney argued at trial that the victim repeatedly beat and raped her. Prosecutors, though, say medical examinations did not bear out her claims.
Nelson has seven major rule violations on her record between 1993 and 2005, such as fighting, battery on a staff member, hiding contraband and stealing donated headphones. She also racked up eight minor rule violations from 1995 to 2004, including disrupting class when she got into an argument, possession unissued property, failing to go to class, failing to go to work and using the phone when it wasn't her time to do so, according to prosecutors.
She also has an extensive criminal history, including convictions for car theft, shoplifting, hit-and-run with property damage, biting a security officer, driving under the influence and assault with a gun.
