Man who killed wife in ’79 loses parole bid
‘Evil genius’ Michael Nelson keeps ‘presumptive parole release’ of 2050.
Michael Nelson, the “evil genius” who was convicted of killing his third wife in 1979 and was suspected in more murders, has lost a bid to shorten his prison term.
At a hearing April 18 in Tallahassee, the Florida Commission on Offender Review voted to leave in place the “presumptive parole release date” of Nov. 28, 2050, when Nelson would be 104. His next hearing opportunity would be in November 2024, seven years from now.
Commissioners voted 2-0 to reject a recommendation for a reduction by an investigator who interviewed Nelson Jan. 24 at the state facility near Miami where he’s been incarcerated.
This month’s hearing, which lasted 2 minutes and 40 seconds, consisted almost entirely of the reading of a letter by Donna Trombly, Linda Nelson’s sister, who urged prosecutors to read a December 2017 Palm Beach Post story about Nelson.
“He picks his victims, determines what will create trust, and then murders them for his own gain, primarily financial,” Trombly wrote from Southern California. “Do not mistake clever manipulation for charm and change of heart. He is totally frightening.”
Nelson was not at the hearing. Now 72, he has spent half his life in prison. He told The Post on Oct. 16, in a four-page handwritten letter, “I’ve murdered no one,” adding, “nor ever had any real intent to do so.”
Nelson was convicted in the Sept. 12, 1979, murder of his wife Linda, 32, at their Delray Beach condominium.
His prosecutor in that case, now-retired U.S.
Magistrate Ann Vitunac, told The Post last year she believes that Nelson likely fatally poisoned his mother as well as his first wife, who survived.
In advance of a 2006 parole hearing, Vitunac wrote the commission to say, “If released from custody, Michael Nelson will kill again.” And in advance of an 2011 hearing, she called him “the personification of an evil genius.”
Police and prosecutors would say Nelson’s weapon of choice was aconite. The “queen of poisons,” which comes from the wild plant wolf ’s bane, affects the heart and at one time was either difficult or impossible to detect.
Nelson’s mother, Jeanne Myers, 46, died suddenly in Orlando in May 1969. Her cause of death was listed as a brain hemorrhage.
Sherrie Braswell, Nelson’s first wife, testified in his trial that soon after she bought a large life insurance policy, she had five medical incidents and asked Nelson point-blank whether he was trying to poison her.
Nelson “said he loved me and I wouldn’t ask him such a thing if I loved him,” Braswell testified. The couple divorced in 1974.
Sometime after that, police would say, Nelson married a woman from Pakistan named Mia Querashi. Nelson would say she got cancer and returned to her homeland. Authorities at the time were unable to learn
Police and prosecutors would say Nelson’s weapon of choice was aconite.
her whereabouts.
Nelson’s third wife was Linda Eileen Ingles Sachsenmaier, fresh off a divorce. Prosecutors argued Nelson twice tried to poison Linda for a life insurance policy worth $80,000 — more than $267,000 today — and when that didn’t work, held her underwater in the tub until she died. Jurors agreed.
At a November 1980 sentencing hearing, Nelson begged to escape the electric chair, but jurors recommended death. In March 1982, Circuit Judge Marvin Mounts instead sentenced Nelson to life with no parole for 25 years in his wife’s murder — and for her attempted murder two weeks earlier, another 30 years to run after the life term ends.
Nelson has in ensuing years filed various court challenges. All have been turned down.