Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
UTAH STATE PRISON — A man who killed his father and put his body in a freezer where it went unnoticed for a day says he finally has a handle on his mental health issues.
But the family of Omar Carmona is split on whether he should be given a chance at parole from the Utah State Prison.
"I'm asking you to give him the opportunity because we all make mistakes, (and) he has paid for these," an emotional Rebeca Carmona, Omar Carmona's mother, told the Board of Pardons and Parole on Tuesday, speaking through a Spanish interpreter.
But Omar Carmona's younger sister, Monserrath Carmona, says her brother "deserves" a life sentence.
"Omar never took responsibility for his behavior. Omar has always been able to manipulate everyone around him, including the justice system and mental health system," she said in a recording of Tuesday's hearing.
On June 8, 2016, Omar Carmona strangled his father, 57-year-old Marco Carmona, and put his body inside a freezer next to a couch in their Provo home. The incident happened about two years after he had attacked his father with a razor blade in an incident driven by his mental health issues, court records show. Marco Carmona asked prosecutors to seek mental health treatment for his son as part of the 2014 criminal case.
Omar Carmona was charged in 2016 with murder, but spent about two years in the Utah State Hospital until he was found to be competent to stand trial. He was diagnosed after his arrest with having schizophrenia.
In 2019, as part of a plea deal, Carmona pleaded guilty and mentally ill to aggravated robbery and manslaughter. He was sentenced to a term of five years to life in prison on the aggravated robbery conviction and one to 15 years in prison on the manslaughter conviction. A judge ordered the sentences to run consecutively.
On Tuesday, Carmona, now 34, had his first parole hearing.
When asked what was happening in his life at the time he killed his father, Carmona told the board that he was supposed to be taking medication for his mental health, but he felt the meds he was prescribed were having an adverse effect. He says he was hearing voices and seeing "shadows" and believed people were going into his house and doing things to him while he slept.
On the day of the killing, he said the voices and hallucinations were "pretty severe." An arrest report says Carmona and his father had been arguing because his father "did not believe him when he told his father that someone could break into the home while he was taking a shower."
But according to Carmona, he bumped shoulders with his father while walking to the shower, and his father "threw the hot water at my face and hit me in the eyes with the hot water," he said Tuesday.
Carmona says he then grabbed onto his father and continued to hold on as they both went to the ground. He says he then grabbed a rag, put it around his father's head and yanked back.
"That's when I heard his neck break and saw how far back his neck had gone," he told the board. "That's when I stood up and looked at my dad and began freaking out because I knew he was dead."
Carmona says he put his father on the couch and watched him for about an hour before realizing there was a freezer next to the couch.
"So I picked up my dad out of fear and put him in the freezer," he said.
About an hour later, Carmona says he took his father's wallet and cellphone. When his siblings and mother arrived home, he claimed he didn't know where his father was.
"My state of mind is I was freaking out. I was just scared. I was also thinking about what my mom and brother would do when they found out my dad was in the freezer. I was also thinking about what I was going to do when I got to prison," he told the board. "I don't know how to explain it, but when you take someone's life you go into shock. I was going into shock and I was afraid. It was just fear, and also what my family members were going to say when they found out."
A day later, after Carmona's mother reported to police that her husband was missing, his body was discovered.
After Carmona's arrest, he still refused to take his medication because of the alleged side effects. In 2020, while at the Utah State Prison, he got into a fight with another inmate and four days later assaulted a corrections officer, an incident for which he was charged and convicted.
After the assault on the officer, Carmona says he was placed on "forced medication." Prison officials no longer gave him the option of taking pills, but rather started requiring he receive his medication in the form of injections.
According to Carmona, it helped "dramatically."
At Tuesday's hearing, the board noted that Carmona has not had any disciplinary write-ups in three years, his mental health has improved to the point that he was recently placed in general population housing, and his latest risk assessment shows he is now considered to be low risk for reoffending.
Carmona spoke coherently at Tuesday's hearing and was able to answer all of board Vice Chairwoman Melissa Striba's questions in English, despite having an interpreter translate everything she said into Spanish.
Carmona's mother was emotional as she first apologized to the board for not making sure her son took his medications in 2016. She said she wants him to become a good person. And as long as he continues to take his medication, she said she is willing to give her son another chance.
"It's very hard for me to have him locked up," Rebeca Carmona said through an interpreter. "I want the best for him. And if he can live outside, following the rules of society and taking his medications, that he gets an opportunity."
Monserrath Carmona, however, believes her brother "is a manipulative and dangerous person." She says she is still in fear of him. She also accused her brother of committing other crimes, including abuse that he was never arrested for, as well as planning her father's death.
"Omar was always successful at making excuses and getting out of trouble," she said. "Omar has always been a danger to the community and will continue to be if he's ever released.
"I never thought I could feel so much pain and still be alive," she continued. "I truly believe Omar thought he was going to get away with murder because he had been getting away with his past crimes for so many years. Omar is in prison because he got caught, not because he felt guilty."
When asked if he wanted to respond, Omar Carmona did not directly acknowledge committing crimes against his sister, but said, "I just wish for my victims to consider when I committed my crimes, it was when I was a kid, when I was 10 years old. It's been 24 years since then, and I don't know how to express myself, but I'm not the person that people think I am."
In his closing statements, Carmona apologized for what he had done, and promised to continue to work to improve himself if he is ever granted parole.
"My victims are not the only ones who have lost. I have lost, too," he said,
The full five-member board will now vote whether to grant a parole date.
