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In October 1980, Richard LaBarbera and Robert McCain attacked 16-year-old Paula 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.
In 2017, LaBarbera was turned down at his ninth parole hearing since 2005. This week, LaBarbera was granted his parole. McCain will be in front of the parole board in June to determine if he will be released from federal prison after nearly four decades.
Two days after the attack on Bohovesky, both men 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.
Both men were tried, convicted and sentenced to between 25 years and life in prison. They were first eligible for parole in 2005 and had their freedom denied by a panel biennially until this week.
In a statement, Rockland County Legislator Alden Wolfe condemned the decision to grant LaBarbera parole, calling it “a complete insult to Paula’s memory and to the life she could have lived if not for the monstrous actions of her convicted killers.”
Wolfe noted that “neither killer has ever taken responsibility for their deeds nor showed remorse.”
“Paula’s mother and brother will never be free of this loss, and they will never be paroled from the pain and suffering this crime has caused them,” he added. “I utterly condemn this parole and the parole board for this unexplainable and despicable decision.
“I send my sincerest condolences to Mrs. Bohovesky, to Paula’s brother Peter and to all who continue to miss Paula. I also want to thank all of those who have worked so hard for so many years to help keep these killers behind the prison bars where they belong. This reprehensible decision has nothing to do with the supporters of the Bohovesky family, but everything to do with a disgraceful parole board ruling.”
In a 2009 letter to the Parole Board at the Great Meadow Correctional Facility, 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.”
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