Relatives of a Las Vegas woman and her 4-year-old son say they were blindsided to learn that the man convicted of killing them in 1993 had quietly been approved for parole. Michael Domingues was granted parole late last year and is eligible for release on Friday, and the family says Nevada officials never notified them.
Parole action appears in state file
State parole records show Domingues among inmates granted parole in December, with an eligibility date set for release on Friday. The Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners’ December actions report lists his case as “Grant Parole,” noting the board’s decision and a mid-February effective date on Friday.
Victims’ family says they weren’t told
Siblings Tawin and Vernon Eshelman told reporters they did not receive notice that the parole board had voted to free the man who killed their sister and her son. As reported by the Las Vegas Review‑Journal, a parole order dated Dec. 9 shows six commissioners voted to grant parole and one voted to deny it, and the family said they only learned of the decision after it became public.
The 1993 killings
Court records show the killings occurred on Oct. 22, 1993, when Domingues was 16. Prosecutors said he killed 24‑year‑old Arjin Pechpho and her 4‑year‑old son, Jonathan Smith, at their Sunrise Manor home. As detailed in the Nevada Supreme Court’s opinion in Domingues v. State on Justia, a jury convicted him in the 1990s and imposed capital punishment at that time.
Sentence shifts and a parole hearing
Domingues was originally sentenced to death in the 1990s but later faced resentencing as juvenile‑sentencing law evolved. He was resentenced in 2020 to a term of 30 years to life with credit for time served, a term that runs consecutively to an earlier 40‑year sentence for robbery and burglary. At a Nov. 17 parole hearing he told commissioners he wanted “a chance at life” and said he wished he could apologize to the victims’ family, according to the Las Vegas Review‑Journal. The family’s lawyers and advocates say the board’s move reopened a decades‑old wound for relatives who have spent years waiting for closure.
Legal context and victims’ rights
The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed juvenile executions in Roper v. Simmons, per the opinion published by the Legal Information Institute, and that ruling and related decisions reshaped sentencing reviews for offenders who were minors at the time of their crimes. The parole board also provides a Notification of Hearings form and guidance for victims who want to receive notices or testify before commissioners on the Nevada Board of Parole Commissioners website…