White supremacist behind 1999 Sacramento synagogue attacks to get parole hearing

Darrell Smith, The Sacramento Bee on Oct 14, 2026

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The white supremacist imprisoned for his role in the 1999 firebombings of three Sacramento-area synagogues — part of a wave of violence that included the torching of an abortion clinic and the killings of a gay couple in Shasta County — faces a November parole hearing at a state prison in Corcoran, corrections officials said.

Tyler James Williams, 56, is tentatively scheduled to appear before the state Board of Parole Hearings on Nov. 3. It will be his second parole hearing to determine whether he is suitable for release. Williams, serving a sentence of 50 years to life, was previously denied parole in January 2021.

Williams has been imprisoned since 2003 for the attacks on Congregation B’nai Israel, Congregation Beth Shalom in Carmichael and the Kenesset Israel Torah Center in Arden Arcade. He and his older brother, Benjamin Matthew Williams, pleaded guilty to the synagogue firebombings, the abortion clinic arson and the murders of Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder at their rural Shasta County home.

The brothers’ violent crime spree began with the synagogue firebombings in June 1999 and culminated in the July 1 killings of Matson and Mowder, who were shot to death as they slept.

Tyler Williams built the gun silencer used in the murders and drove to the couple’s home, while his older brother entered the house and shot the men, according to Sacramento Bee reporting from Williams’ March 2003 sentencing.

Defense attorneys maintained that Tyler Williams was coerced by his older brother, who was believed to be the driving force behind the attacks.

Benjamin Williams killed himself in the Shasta County Jail in 2002.

At his sentencing in March 2003, Tyler Williams faced grieving relatives of the two men, including Matson’s daughter, Clea, who was 19 when her father was killed.

“You are the only person to whom I have anything left to say,” she told Williams, who sat with his back to the packed courtroom. “I hope you will realize that nothing was purified by this. Evil was added to the world.

“No deity will be pleased with that,” she said, according to previous Bee reporting.

Williams, who previously said he believed the brothers’ actions were required by God, submitted a typed statement at sentencing suggesting he had reconsidered his beliefs.

“I have repented to the Lamb of God for attempting to take His place of leadership in dealing with the world’s evils and in not patiently waiting for His timing,” the statement reads.

Shasta County Superior Court Judge William D. Gallagher imposed a sentence of 29 years to life for the murders. Williams also faced a 19-year federal sentence for the synagogue firebombings, which he was required to serve first.

Gallagher said he wanted Williams to serve his state sentence last so parole officials could evaluate whether he posed a threat to the public before any release.

“I want someone who is responsible to decide whether Mr. Williams is safe to live in society at that moment,” Gallagher said.

Tyler Williams is eligible for the November hearing under California’s elderly parole program because he was not sentenced to death or life without the possibility of parole for the crimes.

Under the program, an incarcerated person becomes eligible for a parole hearing after serving at least 20 consecutive years in prison and reaching age 50, or after serving at least 25 consecutive years and reaching age 60, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The parole program has stirred controversy in recent months following the release of serial child rapist David Allen Funston, who was serving multiple life sentences for kidnapping and sexually assaulting Sacramento-area children during a 1995 crime spree. Funston was rearrested and arraigned in Placer County in connection with a 1996 case involving a child in Roseville. He remains in the Placer County Jail.

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