Napa judge orders compassionate release for convicted killer with cancer

NAPA, Calif. (KGO) -- A Napa County Superior Court Judge Friday granted a convicted killer's request for his compassionate release from prison.

The man has cancer and less than a month to live, but his release is a tremendous blow to the family of the man he killed.

ABC7 News' I-Team first investigated this as a cold case in 1999. It took seven more years for police to catch the killer.

Randy Weeks, 55, is at Marin General Hospital right now, with less than a month to live because of liver cancer that has spread through his body.

The judge granted him compassionate release, the first ever in Napa Count despite tearful testimony from his victim's daughter.

Savannah Njuguna was only 18 months old when Weeks stabbed her father, Edwin, in a street fight. She and her mom were so upset on Friday.

"How is it fair that he gets to go home, be with his family in his last few days when he didn't give my dad a chance to be with his family?" Njuguna said.

Dan: The judge said just because Weeks didn't show your life partner compassion there in the street doesn't mean that we as a society shouldn't show him compassion now.

What do you say to that?"

"I disagree with that because I have no compassion for him," victim's life partner Autumn Child said.

Weeks' family members said they understand how Njuguna's family members feel, but they just want a chance to say goodbye.

"Currently there's only direct family involved, they're the only people who can go see him. I myself can't see them currently, so we want to just want to be able, the nieces nephews and everybody to be able to say goodbye," Week's father-in-law Mike Foerder said.

ABC7 News' I-News first investigated this as a cold case. Dozens of witnesses where there when Edwin died outside a house party at Weeks' home.

Still, the police were stuck. His brother, Rick, said he was fighting with Njuguna. He said he was the first one on the victim and the last one off, but denied knowing who killed him.

Dan: "You say yourself that you were in close proximity throughout the fight to him, at most five or six feet away and you have no idea who killed him?"

"It was dark, I mean, I couldn't tell you," Rick said.

Rick didn't say at the time that his brother, Weeks, ganged up on Njuguna and attacked with a knife. Weeks received a 12-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter. He would have gotten out in July 2016, if not for Friday's ruling.

"Their son was sent to prison, to have him come home to die, it's kind of a small satisfaction I think, but at least he gets to do that," defense attorney Mervin Lernhart said.

Edwin's family members are afraid Weeks will live past the one month doctors give him and that they'll see him on the street.

"Not only did he not serve his time, he didn't get enough time to begin with, but he's not serving the rest of his time and he's going to be released to the same city that my daughter lives in," Childs said.

The department of corrections has 30 days to make sure Weeks' family is capable of caring for him and then releasing him, with no supervision at all.