California grants parole to Satanic killers who ritually murdered 15-year-old ‘blonde, blue-eyed virgin’

Jacob Delashmutt, 15 at the time, as well as his classmates Royce Casey, then-16, and Joseph Fiorella, then-14, had a passion for death metal music, and had a band called "Hatred." Elyse Pahler, 15, sneaked out of her bedroom in 1995 to go smoke weed after a boy got her number and invited her to come along.

From left to right: Royce Casey, Jacob Delashmutt, Joseph Fiorella as teenagers.

Delashmutt, who is now aged 45, told authorities that after they all smoked weed, he, Casey and Fiorella attacked the young girl, who fit the description of "a blonde, blue-eyed virgin," per the LA Times. One of their favorite acts from the group Slayer was about worshipping Satan and sacrificing a girl who fit such a description. Delashmutt wrapped his belt around her neck as Fiorella stabbed her several times. They each took turns using a 12-inch knife to stab her in the neck, back, and shoulders.

In the gruesome murder, Casey said he stomped on the back of the girl's neck as she screamed out for her mother and Jesus Christ. The three criminals hid her body in the woods but had thought about violating her remains. The girl was found dead in the woods eight months later.

Casey and Delashmutt are now out on parole, while Fiorella remains behind bars. There have been claims that he had a learning disability and that his case was not handled properly. The release of Casey and Delashmutt comes as high-profile murder convicts from the 1990s are going through the parole process.

The murder also occurred when the Menendez brothers were on trial. The convicts in that case were recently denied parole for the 1989 murder of their parents. However, in the case of the Satanic ritual-murder, the two convicts are out of prison.

Father of Elyse, David Pahler, told the parole board in 2023 that Casey still lacked remorse for the killing, citing a journal entry from the murderer that Satan had "taken [his] soul and replaced it with a new one to carry out his work on earth."

"If you give up your soul to Satan, how do you get it back? How do you get it back? I — I don’t have an answer for that,” Pahler said in a hearing.

Both Casey and Delashmutt pleaded no contest to the charges of first-degree murder in 1997 and got 25 years to life in prison. Fiorella was charged as well, but with the addition of a deadly weapon, got a sentence of 26 years to life in prison.

Delashmutt himself has admitted that he was the "ringleader" of the group in the murder, and told his parole board, “I know that I am the most responsible for this crime. I had every opportunity to put a stop to it, and I didn’t. I was involved in the planning from the beginning and I made this crime happen. Elyse Pahler was safe in her home that night when she received a phone call from me."

“That music, especially Slayer, was all about suicide, murder, sacrifice. So, I started learning a specific way to express those things,” he added.

Fiorella, unlike the other two, has yet to participate in a parole hearing, but has long attempted to overturn his conviction and claims that a court-appointed defense attorney did not provide due diligence before he pleaded guilty.