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Parole denied for Turlock convict
SJ jail

Parole has been denied again for a former Turlock resident imprisoned for murdering his best friend after learning he had beaten a young child.

Ronald Bartell, aka Donald Dewayne Bartell, 52, was found unsuitable for parole during a July 12 hearing of the State Board of Parole Hearings held at the state prison in Corcoran.

In March of 1989, Bartell learned that best friend, Troy Meadows, had beaten a 7-year-old child while Bartell was on a trip to Reno. The child belonged to Bartell’s ex-girlfriend, who was serving a jail sentence at the time. When he returned, Bartell lured Meadows to a remote area in Stanislaus County and murdered him with a single gunshot to the head.

Bartell pled guilty to first degree murder and was sentenced to a term of 27 years to life in state prison. With the passage of Assembly Bill 1308 by the Legislature, Bartell qualified for special consideration as a “Youthful Offender” since he was 23 years old at the time of the killing.

During the hearing, Stanislaus County Deputy District Attorney Michael Karimi argued to the Board that Bartell should not be released because he still posed an unreasonable risk to public safety. The Board agreed and denied parole for three years in large part due to Bartell’s history of continued and repeated drug abuse both in and out of prison.

Bartell was previously denied parole for three years on March 30, 2017, but under the new law he was able to get another hearing in just one year. Despite this second three-year denial, as a “Youthful Offender,” Bartell will again be able to seek another parole hearing in just one year.