1989

A man sent to prison in 1990 for stabbing to death in December 1989 a Vacaville computer business owner on Wooden Valley Road has been denied parole, according to the chief deputy district attorney.

On Dec. 13, 1989, Donald William Dacus killed Jack Chen Reiley by cutting his throat and stabbing him repeatedly, authorities said. 

Dacus wanted to take over Reiley’s business, said Michael O’Reilley, Napa County chief deputy district attorney. Dacus, now 43, remains incarcerated at California State Prison, Solano, in Vacaville.

“This was a very cold-blooded, vicious murder,” said O’Reilley, who argued at the Aug. 9 parole hearing against releasing Dacus on parole. 

Dacus pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on March 15, 1989 in Napa County Superior Court under a plea agreement with prosecutors. He was sentenced to 25 years to life on April 12, 1990, O’Reilley said. 

According to the Napa County Sheriff’s Office report, a teenager who witnessed the crime said that on Dec. 13, 1989, at about 7 p.m., Dacus and the victim were in Reiley’s rented Oldsmobile near the Napa-Solano county line when they began to argue after parking the car on the side of the road.

According to the witness, then a 17-year-old boy, Dacus pulled the victim’s glasses from his face, the report said. Dacus then cut Reiley’s throat with a 5- to 8-inch-long hunting knife, the witness said. Reiley fell to the ground and began to bleed heavily, the report said.

According to police, Dacus then stabbed the victim in the chest area and kicked him in the head. During a preliminary hearing, the teenager who witnessed the killing said that as the victim was lying on the ground, Dacus kicked Reiley, saying “Shut up, punk.”

Dacus and the teenager then left and drove to Cordelia, where Dacus tried to clean blood stains from his clothing and the knife in a bathroom of a gas station, police said.

A woman saw the body the next morning in the 3200 block of Wooden Valley Road as she drove her children to school in Solano County, according to the Napa County Sheriff’s report.

Dacus was arrested a day later in Vacaville, the report stated.

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