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This weekend's 48 Hours follows a family's long fight to keep their daughter's killer behind bars. In 1979,
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18-year-old Katina Salerno was killed by her ex-boyfriend. His name's Steven Burns. After 45 years in prison, Burns
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was given his 13th parole hearing and Salerno's family feared he could walk free. They don't like that. 48 Hours
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correspondent Erin Moriarty spoke with people on both sides of this story. Katina Salerno fell for Steven Burns,
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the football star who lived across the street, but it ended in horror in 1979 when Katina tried to break up with him.
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18-year-old Steven shot her in the back of the head. It was her first day of college at the University of the
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Pacific. The flash of a gun, my whole world just got turned upside down. Katina's younger sister Nina was 14
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years old when Steven went on trial. He was sentenced to 17 years to life. But it was also a life sentence for the
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Salerno family. They have spent the last 35 years going to parole hearings, determined to keep Burns from getting
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out and they're about to go to number 13. Give this family the strength to continue to fight.
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Katina's mother Harriet and sisters Regina and Nina know they're in the fight of their lives this time. Keith
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Watley, founder of Uncommon Law, an organization that helps incarcerated people through the parole process, says
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Steven Burns, whom he has never met, has age on his side. He was only 18 when he
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committed the crime. So, California has passed laws to say that we have to consider someone's youth
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at the time of the crime. None of us are fully developed in the brain by before we age 25.
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And Burns' age now, 64, also works in his favor. Whatley says statistics show people simply age out of crime,
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especially violent crime. They say that people who come home from a life sentence
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are among the least likely to recidivate. That's just true. I'm afraid of him being released. I'm
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afraid that he'll come after us. He is a dangerous murderer that will kill or harm again. And that's just the
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bottom line. Erin Moriarty is with us. Listen, Erin, you know, if if you're on the outside
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looking in, you say, "45 years, that's a long time. He's 18." But if it's your family member, you're saying, "45 years
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is not enough time." Well, you know, I started that way. This story was eye-opening for me. You know,
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48 Hours usually ends at the trial and the conviction, and we don't go look at the family, what happens afterwards, and
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what they face when he comes up. And I went into it, I have to be honest, thinking, "This has to be a little bit
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of vengeance now. 45 years, he's got to be But I And he has done a lot of good things in prison. He helps hospice
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patients. He's gotten his college degree. But I sat through that parole hearing, and there were issues about his
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behavior now, which the family says means if he gets out even at age 64, he could do the same kind of things to
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another woman. It's eye-opening. It honestly is. All right. Did you get to talk to Steven Burns?
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No, but I talked to one of his friends from prison. No, I wanted to. He did not speak with us.
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going to stay tuned. Erin Moriarty, thank you so much. You can see Erin's full report, The Boy Across the Street,
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on 48 Hours tomorrow night at 10:00 9:00 Central here on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.