One of ‘Redmond 5’ teens convicted in 2001 Barbara Thomas killing out of prison; others may follow
(Update: Three other then-juvenile defendants are soon eligible to seek parole)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – One of five Redmond teens convicted in the brutal killing of Barbara Thomas at her home on the Old Bend-Redmond Highway 20 years ago has been quietly released from prison, the first of four who were deemed eligible to seek parole or early release under Gov. Kate Brown’s commutation plan.
Lucretia Karle was released on Sept. 30 to post-prison supervision in Yamhill County, Oregon Department of Corrections Communications Manager Betty Bernt confirmed to NewsChannel 21. Her release was "based on a commutation issued by Governor Brown," said Dylan Arthur, executive director of the Oregon Board of Parole & Post-Prison Supervision.
Karle, then 16, and Ashley Summers, then 15, each were sentenced to 25 years in prison in the killing.
Others convicted in one of the most notorious crimes in Central Oregon history included Seth Koch, who was then 15 and shot Thomas after she was beaten; Justin Link, they 17, who was outside the home but deemed the ringleader by prosecutors; and the victim’s son, Adam Thomas, then 18, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The juveniles trashed the 52-year-old woman's home while she was at work and considered various methods of killing her, such as injecting her with bleach or electrocuting her in the bathtub. They ended up beating her over the head with champagne bottles before Koch shot her in the head with a rifle. The five fled in the victim's car but were stopped and arrested at the Canadian border.
Link and Thomas remain at the Oregon State Penitentiary, Koch at the Oregon State Correctional Institution and Summers at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, the state's women's prison, Bernt said.
More than half of the state's most serious juvenile offenders will be eligible to seek parole or in some cases given conditional release under Brown's plan.
Karle, along with Koch, Link and Summers, were on a list of 34 juvenile offenders that the Oregon Board of Parole & Post-Prison Supervision said can seek parole after Dec. 4, Arthur told The Oregonian.
Arthur said the board will assess each person's "demonstrated rehabilitation and maturity" while in prison, as well as review psychological evaluations, letters of support and letters from victims in deciding on their release.
“Once that determination is made, if they are found to have been rehabilitated and matured, they will start formulating a release plan so they can release to the community hopefully to a stable and supportive environment,” he told the newspaper, adding that the parole board will inform victims about the process.
The governor commuted the sentences of people serving sesntences of 15 years or more for crimes committed when they were under 18. They become eligible to pursue parole once they have served 15 years.
A total of 73 people meet the criteria, and 34 have served at least 15 years. Twenty of those eligible to seek parole this year are serving sentences for murder.
In the past two years, the board has reviewed parole requests from 89 incarcerated people and granted parole in 47 of those cases, the newspaper said.
