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Richard Labarbera, 67, who was convicted of killing Pearl River 16-year-old Paula Bohovesky in 1980, has been released from prison. He had been previously released last year, but violated his parole after getting drunk shortly after his release and he was sent back behind bars.
In October 1980, LaBarbera and Robert McCain attacked Bohovesky, an honor student who was picked up off the street a few blocks from her Pearl River home. She was “brutally” beaten, stabbed and left alone to die in a pool of her own blood with her clothes strewn about.
Two days after the attack on Bohovesky, both LaBarbera and McCain - who has repeatedly been denied parole - were arrested and charged in connection to Bohovesky’s death, which the medical examiner called “the most brutal he had ever seen” at the time of her death.
In a 2009 letter to the Parole Board at the Great Meadow Correctional Facility, former Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe emphatically urged members to deny both men’s parole requests.
“Throughout the day and evening of Oct. 28, 1980, the inmate and co-defendant Robert McCain were drinking at a local bar. Sometime after 7 p.m., when Paula left the library, the inmate and co-defendant saw her walking alone past the bar and began to follow her.
“(Paula) was viciously struck in the head with a rock and then pursued as she attempted to escape down a driveway. (She) was caught and overpowered, being knocked to the ground. She was then viciously beat about the head and neck until she was unconscious. (McCain) then pulled her pants down and raped her as the inmate watched.” happen, but if it sadly does, that it won't happen again.”
This week, Rockland County Executive Ed Day chimed in, saying that “we cannot allow this monster back into our community” while calling on residents to contact the New York State Board of Parole on behalf of Bohovesky’s mother, Lois.
“This is the least we can do to support Lois, who has suffered these last nearly 40 years without her beautiful and talented daughter,” he said. “I remind all that this beast of a man was on parole when he murdered Paula four decades ago. He cannot be trusted nor allowed to walk our streets again.
"We have no forgiveness for those who let this monster out of jail, but that said, we are demanding that LaBarbera never breathe any air in Rockland County, whether it be by visitation or by residency," Day added.
"So we're asking the parole board to make sure that his parole location is nowhere near Rockland County and that a condition of parole will be set that if he even crosses bridge into Rockland County he could be sent back to jail again."
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