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 David Weidert, 52, was sentenced to life in prison without the
possibility of parole for the 1980 murder of Fresno-area resident
Michael Morganti, 20.
A California parole board ruled in January that Weidert was no
longer dangerous, leaving the possibility of his parole from the
state's overcrowded prison system up to Brown.
Brown reversed the decision before a midnight deadline to decide
whether to prevent Weidert from being paroled from the Correctional
Training Facility in Soledad.
"Mr. Weidert committed a premeditated, vicious murder of a friend
... As Mr. Morganti pleaded for his life, Mr. Weidert stabbed him,
beat him with a bat, strangled him and buried him alive," Brown said
in his parole decision. "He currently poses an unreasonable danger
to society if released from prison."
 Weidert was convicted of beating and stabbing Morganti, who was
forced to dig his own grave, and then burying the young man alive,
leaving him to suffocate to death.
Prosecutors said Weidert feared the developmentally disabled
Morganti would testify against him about his involvement in the
burglary of a doctor's office, according to court documents.
Morganti was used as a lookout while he committed the crime,
according to court records.
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The victim's family expressed relief on Friday after urging the
governor to keep Weidert in prison, saying the crime was especially
heinous.
"The person who murdered my brother is a special kind of evil, a
psychopath, someone who should never be set free to kill again,"
Morganti's sister, Vikki VanDuyne, said in a statement after Brown's
decision.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los
Angeles, and Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa
Lambert and Paul Tait)
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