93-year-old man denied parole for 1973 Tulare County murder

TULARE COUNTY, Calif. ( KSEE/KGPE ) – A 93-year-old man serving a life sentence in Tulare County was denied parole for a 1973 murder of an advertising executive from Los Angeles, according to the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office.

District Attorney Tim Ward said a virtual hearing was held Wednesday where prosecutors secured a three-year denial of parole for Gerald Daniel Walker for murder.

Ward says on February 27, 1973, deputies with the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office received a call from Beverly Hills that something terrible had happened at River Valley Ranch in Springville. When deputies responded they found the body of William Ashlock, an advertising executive from Los Angeles, in a bedroom wrapped in a bedspread shot in the head.

Investigators say Ashlock, Walker and Hope Nivens Masters were at the ranch.

According to the DA’s office, Walker was pretending to be a photojournalist profiling Ashlock’s status as an “eligible bachelor” in Los Angeles – and Masters was the daughter of a partial owner of the ranch.

After the murder, the DA’s office said Walker and Masters traveled to Beverly Hills where Walker used a fake name of “Tyler Taylor” as his name and told Tulare County authorities that Masters had witnessed a murder and that her life was in danger.

Masters contacted her parents, telling them she had witnessed a “hit” and had been raped by the killer. Walker was located in early March using Ashlock’s credit cards at a Howard Johnson’s hotel in North Hollywood. Masters later testified against Walker at his trial. He was found guilty of first-degree murder in 1974 and sentenced to life in prison.

This was Walker’s 15th parole hearing. The District Attorney’s Office says it regularly attends life parole hearings and a Supervising Deputy District Attorney argued against the inmate’s release in this case.

At the hearing, commissioners noted Walker’s recorded lack of programming and self-reflection while in custody. Walker refused to be part of the proceedings.

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