Bohovesky Family Again Fights to Keep Teen's Killers in Prison

Lois Bohovesky's daugther, Paula, was murdered more than 30 years ago in Pearl River. Some time in those years, she managed to start remembering the good things in Paula's life more than its end.

"I think about her all the time, but not always about her death," Lois Bohovesky said. "The only thing worse would have been not to know her at all."

Bohovesky is facing a grim reminder of her 16-year-old daughter's death over the next three months as the men convicted of Paula Bohovesky's murder, Richard LaBarbera and Robert McCain, come up for parole. Both were sentenced to 25-years-to-life for second-degree murder, so they started becoming eligible for parole every two years in 2005.

Once again, Lois Bohovesky and her son, Peter, will go before the state Parole Board. They will tell them about the life they lost and the details of the crime.

"It's very difficult, but none of us feel we really have a choice," Lois Bohovesky said. "We feel its absolutely necessary. The crime was so brutal. The thing that scares me,  I think the chances are good if they got out, they'd do it again. It’s not acceptable. Unfortunately, violent sexual crime is repeated often. My feeling is I want them to stay where they can’t do it again."

She is not alone.

The Bohoveskys have found plenty of support in the community. She thinks part of the reason is the understanding that it could have been anybody's daughter who was attacked. Paula Bohovesky was walking home from her part-time job at the Pearl River Public Library on Oct. 28, 1980, when she was attacked by LaBarbera and McCain just three blocks from home at around 7 p.m.

Paula Bohovesky was beaten, sexually assaulted and stabbed repeatedly.

"People tend to blame the victim a lot," Bohovesky said. "They couldn’t do that with Paula. She was one of the exemplary kids. If happened to her, it can happen to anyone."

Rockland County Legislature member John Murphy's daughter, Jennifer, was a classmate of Paula Bohovesky's, so the issue of keeping McCain and LaBarbera in prison has hit close to home for him from the beginning. LaBarbera will have his hearing in May while McCain's should be in June.

"It’s all about the parole hearings," Murphy said. "Every two years now, her killers come up for parole. It’s up to the community, every facet of the communty to tell the New York State Parole Board we don’t want them let loose. Every two years we have to do this, to build another outcry."

Lois Bohovesky said that Murphy, R-Pearl River, contacted her a few years ago with the idea of making sure others would continue to keep the word out there once they were no longer able to. That was the impetus behind Petition for Paula, a web site dedicated to gathering petitions to send to the Parole Board and keeping Paula Bohovesky's memory alive.

"With the passage of time, the memory of what was Rockland’s most heinous crime dims," Murphy said. "People grow old and die. People move away. We’re determined to keep her memory alive and to keep these guys in jail until they die."

Murphy is sponsoring legislation, along with Legislature Chairwoman Harriet Cornell, D-West Nyack, at tonight's meeting of the County Legislature in New City that would support the family and the cause of keeping LaBarbera and McCain in prison. Murphy did this before their previous parole hearings, too.

"We want them on record to send that to Albany to the Parole Board," Murphy said. "We want an official declaration from every entity and person in Rockland County telling the Parole Board this community’s feelings."

Murphy said the family's supporters are also hoping to raise money for a memorial for Paula Bohovesky. Her mother said that there is a tree in front of Pearl River High School that was planted in Paula's honor. There is also a Paula Bohovesky Memorial Scholarship that goes to one student selected by the art teachers each year.

"Once the online thing started, one of the reasons for this to happen at this time is that the students close to Paula in her grade or over and under were reaching an age that they had children who were 16 so they really started feeling it and they all got involved," Lois Bohovesky said. "A lot were friends or knew her, but some didn't know her at all. We had people sign up for the web site all over the world."

Lois Bohovesky said she is touched and encouraged by the continued support of the community. She used to keep track of stories about people who committed murder while they were out on parole, but she can no longer stand to read them.

Even now, talking about what happened is difficult for her, but she is also able to point to the positives about her daughter.

"She was very visible," Lois Bohovesky said. "She was involved in the traveling theater. She was in plays at school. She was an honor student. She was a person who would have made a difference in the world."

According to prison records, LaBarbera, 58, is an inmate at the maximum security Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock, NY. When Paula Bohovesky was killed, LaBarbera was out of prison on parole — he had been convicted of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, according to prison records.

McCain, 50, is being held in the medium security Mid-Orange Correctional Facility in Warwick, NY, according to prison records.