Prosecutors to Fight Parole for Killer of Ex-Mayor's Son

A shot at parole for the murderer of former mayor Collene Campbell's son will be formally opposed by the Orange County district attorney, who said Monday that Lawrence Rayburn Cowell "should never be allowed to be free."

Cowell, 62, is behind bars at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe. In 1990, he was sentenced to two terms of 25 years to life after hiring an ex-convict to murder his lifelong friend Scott Campbell.

Cowell—who was out on bail on manslaughter charges in a separate case when  Campbell was slain—is scheduled for a parole hearing Tuesday. Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy will appear with Campbell's parents to argue that Cowell "will continue to present an unreasonable risk of harm to innocent people until the day he dies."

"Instead of accepting responsibility for what he did and showing remorse, Cowell has continued to lie, shift the blame to others, and assault innocent people each time he was briefly set free," District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in a statement. "He poses great danger to the community."

On April 17, 1982, Cowell, then 29 years old, and ex-con Donald P. DiMascio, then 32, conspired to murder Campbell for money. Cowell rented an airplane, hired DiMascio to kill Campbell and lured Campbell on board under the pretense of completing his in-flight training to become a pilot, according to a D.A. press release.

Cowell told his victim that DiMascio was his flight instructor. After takeoff, DiMascio assaulted and strangled Campbell while Cowell piloted the plane. Cowell and DiMascio smashed the victim's face before throwing him from the airplane near Catalina island, prosecutors said.

Later that day, Campbell was reported missing by his parents, Collene Campbell—who later became San Juan Capistrano's first female mayor—and Gary Campbell. Cowell was arrested in 1983, after police found him with Scott Campbell's Pantera sports car, which he was stripping to sell for parts.

"Cowell callously lured his trusting friend into a trap to gain a few bucks and brutally murdered him," said Rackauckas. "By throwing Scott Campbell out of an airplane and into the ocean, he denied the chance for Collene and Gary to properly bury their son and visit a grave."

Three years before the murder arrest, Cowell drove drunk and crashed his car, killing his passenger, Robert Leon Ferguson. In August 1982, he was sentenced to six months in prison for that crime. While out on bail in 1984 for the Campbell murder, Cowell assaulted his father, Eugene Cowell, and bit off a significant portion of his mother's finger when she tried to intervene.

DiMascio was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the Campbell murder.