Kidnaper of Child Freed on Parole
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SAN DIEGO — Convicted kidnaper Robert Gene Edwards was released Wednesday from the state prison at Soledad and paroled to an undisclosed county.
State correction officials decided earlier that Edwards, convicted of kidnaping 3-year-old Maria Martin in Coronado in 1981, would not be paroled to San Diego or an adjoining county.
Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier (R-Encinitas), who represents Coronado, wrote to the Department of Corrections, as did 6,000 residents of the county, urging that Edwards not be allowed to return to San Diego upon his release. State law requires that ex-convicts be paroled in their county of residence unless compelling reasons can be given showing that their presence might endanger the community.
Prison officials made an exception in the case of Edwards, a former Coronado handyman, because of the public outcry.
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