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Crime & Safety

Killer of Osheroff's Killer Pleads Guilty

Frank Souza plead guilty to first-degree murder of Edward Schaefer in 2010. Schaefer was serving time in San Quentin for hitting and killing 9-year-old Melody Osheroff with his motorcycle as she and her father were crossing a street in San Marin.

A San Quentin State Prison inmate pleaded guilty Thursday to fatally stabbing another inmate who was convicted of killing a Novato girl with his motorcycle in a crosswalk in 2009.

Frank Souza, 33, pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Edward John Schaefer in the Badger Section exercise yard of the prison on July 26, 2010, according to Marin County Deputy District Attorney A.J. Brady.

Souza also admitted the special circumstance of lying in wait, Brady said. Souza agreed to plead guilty to avoid the potential of the death penalty for murder while lying in wait. He will be sentenced to life without parole on April 4, Brady said.

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Souza stabbed Edward John Schaefer, 44, seven times with a homemade weapon.

He was indicted in November 2010 on the first-degree murder charge and on two special circumstances -- lying in wait and having a prior first-degree murder conviction -- that make him eligible for the death penalty.

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Schaefer was stabbed two weeks after he started serving 24 years to life for second-degree murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

His motorcycle struck and killed 9-year-old Melody Osheroff and maimed her father Aaron Osheroff, now 43, in a Novato crosswalk on May 27, 2009.

Souza was serving 60 years to life for the first-degree murder of a homeless man in Santa Clara County. He allegedly killed Schaefer to avenge Osheroff's death.

-Bay City News

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