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05-10-2003, 09:07 AM
By S.K. BARDWELL
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
A man convicted of killing a Houston police officer in 1972 and attempting to kill the two Garland officers who tried to arrest him will soon be freed by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Again.
Marvin Joel Fentis served 14 years of two life sentences and a 38-year term before being paroled in 1987. He was put on annual report status, or "postcard parole," in 1991 and moved to Arkansas, where he had a family, a job and a home.
Fentis was returned to prison after it was learned he failed to report he had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor weapons charge in 1992. But rather than revoking his parole, the parole board returned Fentis to active supervision, and he will soon be released again.
Houston officer Jerry Spruill was 29 when he was shot and killed Oct. 26, 1972, outside a Montrose-area club where he was to begin an extra job. Two gunmen killed him.
Fentis, now 53, has refused to name the second gunman. When HPD homicide Lt. Nelson Zoch's failed to get the name in January, he brought Fentis' 1992 conviction to the attention of parole officials.
Marci Rockne, Spruill's widow, was 26 when he was killed and had two sons. Until Zoch contacted her late last year, she believed Fentis was still in prison.
Rockne contacted victims' rights groups, and dozens of letters demanding Fentis' parole be revoked began arriving at the parole board's Austin offices.
An analyst who reviewed the case recommended to a panel of three parole board members that Fentis' parole be revoked. The first to vote, Lafayette Collins, favored revocation.
But parole board chairman Gerald Garrett and panel member Rissi Owens voted to return Fentis to active supervision and that he be fitted with an electronic monitor. He will be released from the Coffield Unit when the paperwork is processed, officials said.
Rockne promised that she and her family will be watching Fentis when he is paroled to Dallas County. "If he does something, I'm going to make sure the public knows about it, and about how the parole board voted," she said.
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
A man convicted of killing a Houston police officer in 1972 and attempting to kill the two Garland officers who tried to arrest him will soon be freed by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Again.
Marvin Joel Fentis served 14 years of two life sentences and a 38-year term before being paroled in 1987. He was put on annual report status, or "postcard parole," in 1991 and moved to Arkansas, where he had a family, a job and a home.
Fentis was returned to prison after it was learned he failed to report he had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor weapons charge in 1992. But rather than revoking his parole, the parole board returned Fentis to active supervision, and he will soon be released again.
Houston officer Jerry Spruill was 29 when he was shot and killed Oct. 26, 1972, outside a Montrose-area club where he was to begin an extra job. Two gunmen killed him.
Fentis, now 53, has refused to name the second gunman. When HPD homicide Lt. Nelson Zoch's failed to get the name in January, he brought Fentis' 1992 conviction to the attention of parole officials.
Marci Rockne, Spruill's widow, was 26 when he was killed and had two sons. Until Zoch contacted her late last year, she believed Fentis was still in prison.
Rockne contacted victims' rights groups, and dozens of letters demanding Fentis' parole be revoked began arriving at the parole board's Austin offices.
An analyst who reviewed the case recommended to a panel of three parole board members that Fentis' parole be revoked. The first to vote, Lafayette Collins, favored revocation.
But parole board chairman Gerald Garrett and panel member Rissi Owens voted to return Fentis to active supervision and that he be fitted with an electronic monitor. He will be released from the Coffield Unit when the paperwork is processed, officials said.
Rockne promised that she and her family will be watching Fentis when he is paroled to Dallas County. "If he does something, I'm going to make sure the public knows about it, and about how the parole board voted," she said.