Son pleads to keep his mother's killer behind bars

A son who whose mother was raped and killed in Westchester is pleading to keep her killers behind bars.

News 12 Staff

Aug 13, 2020, 12:25 AM

Updated 1,573 days ago

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A son who whose mother was raped and killed in Westchester is pleading to keep her killers behind bars.
Jason Minter says he is reeling from the news that Samuel Ayala, one of three men convicted for raping and killing his mother Bonnie Minter and her friend Sheila Watson in a South Salem home in 1977, will soon be released from prison. Minter was only 6 years old when it happened.
He says he, his little sister, and their friends were put in the very next room before they heard gunshots, laughter, as well as Ayala and one of the other men run out of the house.

"I, being the oldest, was the first one in the room and found the women with their clothes torn off in fetal positions, having been shot," he says.
He says Willie Profit, who was in the house with Ayala, died of cancer while in prison and James Walls, who waited outside in their getaway car, was released less than a year ago.
"I actually assisted with his release. I felt 43 years was enough time to serve based on the incredible, catastrophic mistake that he made," he says.
But Minter thinks Ayala, now 68 years old, is dangerous.
"The fact that he continually came up with an excuse for every single one of his hearings proves that he has never come to terms with what he has done or maybe he's incapable...likely incapable and is remorseless," he says.

Minter says he's also worried for his own family.
Ayala is scheduled to be released Sept. 3.