California death row decision reopens wounds for sister of murdered Las Vegas teen

In the 25 years since the brutal murder of her sister, Tiffani Parker has learned that time does not heal all wounds.

Parker was a teenager when her 16-year-old sister, Michelle Curran, was kidnapped from their Las Vegas neighborhood, sexually assaulted and tortured before being shot in the head and left in a horse trailer in Jurupa Valley, California, in 2001.

For months, Parker and her family had to endure listening to and viewing the grisly details of the crime as the trial unfolded. With Parker’s family in the courtroom and her mom clutching a stuffed Dalmatian, one of Michelle’s favorite animals, a Riverside County jury convicted Michael Thornton and Janeen Snyder in 2006 of charges including first-degree murder with special circumstances.

A judge later sentenced both to death.

Thornton died at age 68 in the hospice unit at California Medical Facility in 2024. Snyder, now 47, is among the 548 people on death row whose sentences California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would commute to life in prison without the possibility of parole — a decision Parker said has revictimized her and potentially everyone involved in the trial.

“I don’t think I’ve been healed,” Parker said. “I think I’ve been able to deal with it with what has been going on over the past 25 years, speaking about Michelle in all the positive ways and putting it in the back of my mind because I felt justice was served. Now, it’s bringing back the same feelings I felt when I was in the trial.”

Open wounds

On the day her family was notified of Michelle’s death, Parker was at home with her mother and grandmother when a man with some sort of badge pulled up to their door.

She recalled hearing her mother scream. When Parker ran inside, she found her mother on her knees, wailing.

“I remember being angry with the man for no reason,” Parker said. “It wasn’t his fault, but I just remember being mad and walking in my bedroom and punching a wall.”

During the months-long trial, prosecutors described how Thornton went from owning beauty salons to becoming addicted to methamphetamine and abusing underage girls. Police said Snyder met Thornton when she was a teenage runaway and later became his lover and accomplice, luring young girls and plying them with drugs before sexually abusing them.

“She was not merely a puppet or a pawn,” Judge Paul Zellerbach said of Snyder during sentencing.

Parker recalled taking a deep breath at the conclusion of the proceedings before Snyder began screaming, “I hate you,” at Thornton.

“I remember thinking, ‘You are not the victim,’ and then I was just angry again,” Parker said.

Parker said the conviction and death sentences had helped her a little, allowing her to transition from thinking about the abhorrent things Snyder and Thornton did to trying to keep Michelle’s memory alive.

She said her daughter reminds her of Michelle — from her facial expressions to her fun, goofy, and outgoing personality.

But Parker said she was caught off guard when she learned on social media that Snyder, who was admitted to the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, on Sept. 13, 2006, would have her death sentence commuted to life without parole.

“It’s tough because I sat through the trial for six months and the things we had to witness — not just family but the jurors, attorneys, law enforcement and judge,” Parker said. “After looking and listening at these pictures, they came to a conclusion that these people deserved the highest form of penalty.”

California’s death row

Although California is one of 27 states that still permit the death penalty, Newsom said there had been a “de facto” moratorium since 2006. He instituted a formal moratorium in 2019 after taking office.

Clarence Ray Allen, who was convicted of murdering three people, was the last person executed in the state. He died by lethal injection on Jan. 17, 2006, at what was then known as San Quentin State Prison.

Governor-elect Xavier Becerra previously said that, if elected, he would maintain the moratorium.

“Governor Newsom’s death penalty moratorium represented an important step toward a more just criminal justice system,” Becerra wrote on social media earlier this year. “As Governor, I will extend California’s moratorium on executions and continue moving our state away from a costly, flawed system that disproportionately impacts Black and brown communities and too often gets it wrong.”

The Legal Defense Fund estimated that there were 1,973 people on death row nationwide as of the summer of 2026.

Newsom’s commutations could spare the lives of 529 men and 19 women in California, according to the governor’s office.

Newsom wrote in his Nov. 5 open letter that California’s death row was the largest in the Western Hemisphere.

Newsom’s decision

In his letter, Newsom said he listened to a wide range of voices — from victims and survivors to public safety experts and civil rights and community leaders. He concluded it was immoral for the state to serve as executioner and that distinguishing between crimes and offenders would create a two-tier system of offenders: perpetrators that deserve execution and those remaining.

“This decision is among the most difficult of my career, not because I doubt its necessity for our state but because I know its announcement may surface excruciating memories for victims’ families,” Newsom wrote. “I deeply respect the views of those who will strongly disagree with my decision, including some families of victims who have suffered the worst possible loss. I hold this painful truth along with the belief that this is a righteous action. Today, I am acting on my long and deeply held conviction that individually and collectively we are stronger as a society when we reject state-sanctioned killing.”

The executive order, which would mark the largest commutation in U.S. history, is not a done deal for all inmates on death row.

In his letter, Newsom acknowledged that the state constitution requires the California Supreme Court to review clemency requests for twice-convicted felony offenders. Out of the 548 inmates covered by the executive order, 382 have been convicted at least twice of a felony.

Snyder is not among those 382 inmates, though Riverside prosecutors believed she was involved in the death of another teenager, according to a 2006 article in the Daily Breeze.

Thornton and Snyder were also arrested in San Bernardino in 2000 on suspicion of lewd acts with a child under 14 and false imprisonment after another teen alleged she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by the pair. Although prosecutors declined to move forward with the case, citing insufficient evidence, the alleged victim testified in Thornton and Snyder’s trial.

“I can’t believe that a governor can just wipe it clean like they didn’t deserve this penalty,” Parker said. “I don’t believe she deserves a second chance. My sister didn’t get one.”

Contact Devan Patel at [email protected].