Marcia Dooley, who was convicted in the 1998 beating death of her stepson Randal Dooley, to seek full parole
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The evil stepmother who beat little Randy Dooley to death could soon be free.
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Marcia Dooley and her husband Tony were convicted in 2002 of second-degree murder for the killing of his seven-year-old son Randal and both were sentenced to life in prison – she could apply for parole after 18 years, he could apply after 13.
How quickly time flies for the guilty. Denied parole when she first applied in 2020, she was granted day parole to a halfway house two years later.
That freedom has been slowly increased in six-month increments – but the latest decision not only extends her release to five days in the community and only two in a halfway house, the panel has also ordered a full parole hearing that will take note of her “Black Social History” (BSH) factors.
“You report you feel police were racist and that you (were) disadvantaged because you were ‘black and poor,’” the panel wrote. “At this juncture, your risk to the public and any mitigation of risk is the focus of a release with the consideration of your BSH.”
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Now 54, Marcia Dooley’s plan is to live with a female ex-con friend she met while in prison – she’s believed to live in Barrie – and visit her elderly father who lives in Toronto.
She has so much of her life ahead while the child she murdered had his stolen away.
“This may be the worst case of child abuse in Canadian penal history,” Justice Eugene Ewaschuk had said.
Randy and his big brother Tego arrived here from Jamaica in November 1997 excited to be reunited with the father they barely knew and his new wife, and to start the bright future they’d been promised when they left their aunt Midgie’s home.
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Less than a year later, after months of neglect and vicious beatings – mostly at the hands of his stepmom – Randy was dead.
He stood just 3-foot-10 and weighed only 41 pounds, his emaciated body covered with “hundreds” of bruises, cuts and welts. Only his scalp, the palms of his hands and soles of his feet had been spared.
When he vomited from her beatings, his stepmom forced him to eat it.
A missing tooth was found in his stomach. His ribs and elbow had been broken, his liver lacerated, a vertebra fractured. That poor child suffered four separate injuries to his brain, the last of which ultimately killed him on Sept. 25, 1998.
His eight-year-old brother Tego testified Randy fell on his way up to the top bunk after another beating from their stepmom. Marcia dumped the unconscious boy in a bathtub of ice-cold water to revive him, but then left him alone on the advice of her husband.
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Tego pulled him out, dressed him in dry pyjamas and tucked him into his bed. He then lay down beside him and fell asleep.
In the morning, his little brother was dead.
In its latest decision following an in-office review, the board said it was impressed with Dooley’s progress on day parole – she’s found a full-time job and a supportive “pro-social” network. In her most recent correctional plan, she’s assessed as making substantial gains in all areas and high in “accountability, motivation and reintegration potential.”
Her most recent Psychological Risk Assessment (PRA) dated Aug. 19, 2022, indicates she’s at a low risk for general and violent recidivism.
Still, the conditions on her day parole continue to include that she is not allowed to be alone with any children under 16 and must report all relationships. She’s not to have any contact with her co-accused, who she’s since divorced, or any of Randy’s family, and she’s not to travel to Toronto without permission.
There’s no date yet for her upcoming hearing for full parole.
“Where’s my brother’s justice, my justice, my family?” Tego wrote on Facebook when Dooley first applied for release four years ago. “Surely the worst case of child abuse in Canadian history can’t end like that. This lady is going to walk the streets like nothing happened?”
It certainly sounds like that’s exactly what’s going to happen.
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