A man convicted in 2002 of a brutal torture case that left his former girlfriend disabled and disfigured has been denied parole, and won't be eligible for reconsideration for another decade.

A two-member panel of the California Board of Parole Hearings denied Gregory Patrick Beck’s request to be released on parole at a March 2 hearing in Corcoran.

Beck was convicted by a Mendocino County jury in 2002 of gravely injuring Sherry Carlton by means of torture, assault with caustic chemicals and corporal injury on a cohabitant. Carlton was Beck’s then 32-year-old girlfriend and the mother of their then 12-year-old child.

Today, Sherry Carlton lives in a Lake County care home where she remains unable to care for herself as a result of the attack. She cannot speak, walk or otherwise care for herself without assistance from hospital staff.

Citing Beck’s “vicious and callous” attack on Carlton and his continued lack of true remorse for the crime, the Board of Parole Hearings issued an order that Beck shall not be entitled to another parole hearing for 10 years.

The board also heard testimony against the release by Carlton's parents, Jeffrey Carlton of Kelseyville and Phyllis Kline of Southern California, and received close to 100 letters from community members speaking against the release, the Board of Parole

“We can finally breathe again,” said Michelle Carlton, Jeffrey Carlton's wife, who called Beck “an animal.”

A report from the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office explained that, after a tumultuous 12-year relationship, Sherry Carlton chose to separate from Beck and moved out of the home they had shared.

On Aug. 21, 2001, she went back to the home to retrieve some personal belongings and Beck came home while she was still at the house. According to the report, he attacked Carlton by soaking her with lighter fluid and intentionally set her on fire.

Carlton then ran from the yard and into the street screaming for help. A neighbor testified that Beck did nothing to help. Instead, Beck went about “staging” the scene to make it appear as if Carlton’s burning body was the result of a barbecue accident, the District Attorney's Office reported.

Despite her obvious agony resulting from severe burns, Carlton was still able at that time to tell responding law enforcement officers and medical personnel that Beck had intentionally set her on fire, according to the report.

The March 2 hearing, also attended by Mendocino County Deputy District Attorney Shannon Cox, lasted five hours at the prison in Corcoran.

During the hearing, Beck answered questions by both the parole board and Cox regarding the circumstances of his attack on Carlton, his motivation and the steps, if any, that he had undertaken to redeem and rehabilitate himself while incarcerated.

Jeffrey Carlton and Phyllis Kline offered victim impact statements by describing the continuing agony their daughter endures and the ongoing heartbreak they continue to experience due to Beck’s “despicable” attack, which left their only daughter with no hope for a meaningful life.

Also presented were photos of Sherry Carlton prior to the attack, depicting a strikingly beautiful blonde woman in her early 30s. A video taken in January was submitted that memorialized her current state of existence: horribly disfigured, blind, confined round the clock to a convalescent bed and fed via a feeding tube.

The board also listened to the haunting 911 call she frantically made immediately after she was attacked, in which she screams in agony, begs for help, and then cries that Beck had burned and tried to murder her.

During the hearing, Beck acknowledged that he purposefully set Carlton on fire as a sort of “revenge thing” because he was upset she had left him, the district attorney's office said.

Although Beck claimed he was sorry for his actions and that he had sought to rehabilitate himself through anger management classes while incarcerated, the board determined that Beck was not remorseful for his actions and that he had little insight into why he did such a terrible thing to the mother of his child.

One commissioner noted that Beck ranked near the top of all prisoners who fail to show any emotion for the pain and suffering inflicted on a victim. The commissioner also observed that Beck has yet to admit to the son that he purposefully attacked Carlton or demonstrated that he has attempted to make amends to his son for taking away the son’s mother.

The board focused on Beck’s ongoing issues with women in general, noting Beck’s history of domestic violence against Carlton, his attempts to cast some of the blame for the attack on Carlton’s own actions, and his confrontational manner at the hearing with the all-female parole board panel.

District Attorney C. David Eyster asked Cox to attend the hearing to express his focused opposition to Beck’s release. As part of that focused opposition, it was argued during the hearing that Beck continues to pose an unreasonable danger to the community and that the original crime remains so shocking and atrocious as to deserve maximum punishment.

As part of the hearing process, the board was duly impressed by the almost 100 letters sent by various members of the community voicing outrage at the prospect of Beck’s release, as well as the hundreds of signatures on petitions opposing parole for Beck.

Michelle Carlton called the public outcry “amazing,” noting that police departments, the Mendocino County Deputy Sheriffs' Association, Congressman Mike Thompson and the people who care for Sherry Carlton at the convalescent home were among those who wrote letters against Beck's release.

Eyster extended his thanks to those in the community who responded to his call for action by writing those letters and signing petitions.

In finding Beck unsuitable for parole, the parole board found that Beck was not credible in his explanation of the attack and the reasons behind the attack.

The commissioners further observed that Beck had failed to “internalize” anything he had been working on to rehabilitate himself while in prison, and, in fact presented to the board as a “self-absorbed and self-centered” felon.

Due to Beck’s gross shortcomings in rehabilitation, along with the highly callous, vicious and atrocious nature of the attack on Carlton, the board found Beck unsuitable for parole and ordered that he not be eligible for another parole hearing until the passing of 10 years.

Michelle Carlton said her family was thrilled with the outcome.

She credited Marsy's Law with allowing the parole board to set the next parole hearing out to 10 years, rather than three.

The California Attorney General's Office reported that California voters passed Marsy's Law – known formally officially as Proposition 9, the Victims’ Bill of Rights Act of 2008 – in November 2008. The ballot measure was mean to provide rights and due process to all crime victims.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation documents explained that Marsy’s Law amended the California Penal Code by changing the period for scheduling a prisoner’s next hearing after a parole denial from up to two years for non-murderers and up to five years for murderers to 15, 10, seven, five or three years for all prisoners.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .