UKIAH - On July 13, 2018 convicted killer Caleb Dain Silver, 28, a transient on the Mendocino coast, was sentenced to 33 years-to-life in prison in connection with the Christmas 2015 murder of Denis Lee Boardman.
Boardman’s body was discovered inside his Fort Bragg home by law enforcement officers conducting a welfare check. It appeared Boardman had been killed days earlier and his truck stolen.
The Court heard from the victim's daughter who presented a moving impact statement. Silver then personally addressed the Court, in part expressing his regret that Mr. Boardman's real killer was still on the loose.
The law enforcement agencies that diligently gathered and pieced together the necessary evidence in this case were the: Fort Bragg Police Department, Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force, California Highway Patrol, Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office, the California Department of Justice Forensic Crime Lab, and Mendocino County District Attorney investigators.
“California DOJ criminalists are an integral part of our public safety and criminal justice system,” said California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA) President Alan Barcelona. “This convicted killer can claim that he didn’t take another man’s life, but forensic evidence proved otherwise. The criminalists at DOJ are often everything when it comes to these types of cases.”
