Local Man Who Killed Former Girlfriend In 1988 Denied Parole
Sonora, CA — A man who shot and killed his ex-girlfriend in Tuolumne County in 1988 will remain behind bars.
Tuolumne County District Attorney Cassandra Jenecke recently argued against the state potentially paroling 52-year-old Cheyenne Knox. When he was 17 years old he killed 19-year-old Yvette Stagno because she did not want to get back into a romantic relationship with him. He used a .28 caliber shotgun to shoot her twice at short range on Green Springs Road.
He then used her car to transport the body to the Delta Mendota Canal in Alameda County, where it was left behind. Knox then drove Stagno’s vehicle back to Sonora and left it in the parking lot of the Sonora Community Hospital. He then went back to her home, removed a blanket off her bed, and took the garage door opener, to make it look like she had voluntarily left, and gone missing. He reached out to her family several times over the following weeks, volunteering to help look for her, and stating fake theories about where she may have gone.
Nine days after the murder, on July 26 of 1988, Knox flew to his father’s residence in Pennsylvania. On July 30, Stagno’s car was located in the hospital parking lot, and police officers found her blood on the trunk, and running down the rear tire. A few days later her body was located in the canal. Investigators traveled to Pennsylvania on August 16, 1988 to interview Knox. He initially denied any involvement, but later admitted to killing her. At one point during the legal process, he claimed that his dog instructed him about how to kill Stagg, He was eventually sentenced to first-degree murder and received a 25-year-to-life sentence. In later parole hearings, he admitted that the dog story was a lie, and concocted by him and his lawyer as a way of attempting to avoid being found guilty.
At a recent hearing, state commissioners found Knox not suitable for parole based on continued risk to society. He will next be eligible for another parole hearing in three years.
