Modesto man who’s spent 45 years in prison for heinous ’79 Ranzo killings gains parole

Over 45 years since one of Stanislaus County’s most heinous crimes, one of the men convicted for participating in the 1979 murders of Phillip and Kathy Ranzo was granted parole Thursday.

The California State Board of Parole determined that Darren Lawrence Lee, 61, qualified for elderly parole and youthful offender considerations, and that he did not pose a risk to public safety. Lee was 16 at the time of the crime.

Jan. 9 was Lee’s ninth parole hearing, according to a news release.

“Even though he is not the actual individual who murdered Phillip and Kathy, (Lee) is the most psychotic, disturbed individual,” Maurene Todd-Ranzo, the couple’s former daughter-in-law, said in a Facebook post. “He has been denied parole — most recently just a year and a half ago — due to lack of insight, attempted prison breaks, being caught with illegal substances, altercations and the list goes on.”

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Surviving members of the victims’ family have attended 33 parole board hearings and other post-conviction hearings for Lee and Marty Jackson (aka Marty Spears), Ronald Anderson and Jeffrey Maria, who also were convicted for their involvement in the Ranzo murders.

Maria is the only other offender who has been granted parole. He was released in August 2023.

The board’s decision to grant parole now goes to the Decision Review Unit of the Board of Parole Hearings, which has 120 days to review the grant of parole, according to the release. If the Decision Review Unit approves the grant of parole, Gov. Gavin Newsom will receive notice of the parole grant and has 30 days to reverse, modify, refer to the full board, or let the grant of parole stand.

Those who wish to comment on Lee’s potential parole release can contact Newsom by mail at 1021 O St., Suite 9000, Sacramento, CA 95814; phone 916-445-2841; or go online to www.gov.ca.gov/contact. Scroll down to the comment subject “parole – governors review” and include Darren Lawrence Lee, CDCR #C16213.

“I feel like the judicial system owes it to (Mark Ranzo, Phillip and Kathy’s son) to keep these people locked up for life,” Todd-Ranzo told The Modesto Bee. “They murdered two people. They butchered two people with no regret.”

Kathy and Phil Ranzo were murdered in their Modesto home on June 25, 1979.
Kathy and Phil Ranzo were murdered in their Modesto home on June 25, 1979.

Couple hogtied and tortured in 1979 slayings

Phillip and Kathy Ranzo met at a party after they had both graduated high school — Phillip from Ceres High and Kathy from Turlock High — according to Phillip’s sister, Sandy Ranzo-Howell.

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They had one son, Mark, who was 10 years old and not home at the time of his parents’ murders.

During that time, Phillip Ranzo was a pharmacist at City Pharmacy on 18th and H Streets and Kathy owned Hair Refinery on Coffee Road. They were both 30 years old.

Late in the evening of June 25, 1979, the four teens — Lee, Spears, Anderson and Maria — planned to rob the Ranzos’ home at 1404 Fernview Ave. in Modesto. They believed there was a large amount of cash kept inside.

The teens drove around the home as many as five times, according to a news release, before stopping the car and leaving Anderson in it as the lookout.

Armed with firearms and carrying rope, Spears and Lee knocked on the door, telling Phillip Ranzo they had run out of gas and wanted to use the phone. Maria was hiding in the bushes.

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Phillip Ranzo offered gas from a can he had in his garage, and as he led the teens into it, Spears and Lee pulled out their guns and threatened to kill him.

Phillip Ranzo was forced to the ground and hogtied before being struck repeatedly in the head with his son’s baseball bat.

Lee and Spears then went into the Ranzo home, where Kathy Ranzo was forced at gunpoint into her bedroom upstairs and tied up, raped by Spears and struck in the head multiple times with the blunt end of an ax.

Lee and Maria ransacked the couple’s home and then fled with money and jewelry while Spears remained inside.

Lee told a sheriff’s detective days after the crime that “no one was dead” when he and Maria left, according to Modesto Bee archives.

The couple were found dead — Phillip in the garage and Kathy in an upstairs bathroom — with blunt-force injuries, plus torture wounds to their eyelids and faces. Phillip had a fatal stab wound to the neck and Kathy had a fatal stab wound to the throat.

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A medical examiner estimated the couple’s time of death between 11 p.m. June 25 and 1 a.m. June 26, according to Bee archives.

All four teens were arrested less than a week later. Each was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to two concurrent life sentences without the possibility of parole.

The sentences were later modified to two concurrent terms of 25 years to life due to the their ages.

“The depravity and senselessness of this crime shocked our community in 1979, and once again the Ranzo family and our community find themselves re-traumatized and shocked by the decision to release Lee,” said District Attorney Jeff Laugero.