Man who beat, killed 67-year-old with cane in the 90s in Exeter denied parole

TULARE COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The man sentenced for beating and murdering a 67-year-old in the 1990s has been denied parole for the third time, the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office said.

The DA says 51-year-old Gary Brasuell received a three-year denial of parole for the third time. He was previously denied parole back in 2023, and is currently serving a life sentence at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione after being sentenced for the beating and murder of a 67-year-old man in 1995.

The DA’s office report Brasuell sometimes stayed with the victim at his Exeter home, despite the victim’s family being against it. On June 16, 1995, a family member, who would regularly check in on the victim, discovered him in a chair covered with a sheet and his cane across his lap.

Brasuell was questioned about the incident, and court records reveal that he admitted to grabbing the cane and beating the victim with it, causing bruising, lacerations, two broken ribs, a broken breastbone and broken dentures. Then, realizing that the victim was injured, he got a rope and strangled the victim “to put him out of his misery.”

He was found guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon in October of 1997, and sentenced to 26 years-to-life in state prison.

Wednesday was Brasuell’s third parole hearing, in which a deputy district attorney argued against the inmate’s release in this case.