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February 2, 2008

Parole requests rejected

By Cass Rains, Staff Writer

The majority of inmates seeking clemency from the state’s Pardon and Parole Board in Distinct Attorney Cathy Stocker’s district were denied last month.

Stocker protested all but two of the 18 inmates convicted in her district seeking clemency from the state board in January. Of those 18 on the docket, 13 were denied parole.

“All violent offenders from our district were either denied parole outright or denied at the second stage of consideration for violent offenders, except one, Phillip Drake,” Stocker said. “Drake was sentenced in 2006 in Canadian County to serve five years for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and was due to discharge that sentence in October of this year.

“Instead, the board recommended that he be paroled to the street, which has the effect of ensuring he is supervised upon release rather than simply being placed back into the community without supervision.”

Among those denied was a Kingfisher County man convicted of accessory to first-degree murder, William S. Altizer.

Altizer is serving a 25-year sentence for the role he played in the 1995 murder of John Oscar Boutwell.

On Feb. 13, 1995, then 15-year-old Boutwell was shot and killed outside a mobile home in Kingfisher County. Mark Smith, who received an 80-year sentence from a jury for the death of Boutwell, had been on a hunting trip with Boutwell and Altizer, and held a loaded rifle to the victim’s forehead before pulling the trigger.

Altizer, who had been a principle witness to the murder, refused to testify against Smith during trial. He had told law enforcement officers Smith knew and had been told the gun was loaded, a fact Smith’s jury was not told.

Altizer also told the sheriff he and others carried Boutwell’s body to a car and placed it in the trunk, then drove to a bridge in Loyal and saw Smith dump the body over the bridge into a creek.

He pleaded guilty to the charge of accessory after the fact to first-degree murder and received a 25-year sentence.

“Of the 18 offenders on the regular docket this month, 13 were denied parole,” Stocker said.

“The five recommended for parole were all, not surprisingly, drug offenders,” she said.

Those recommended include: Garfield County offenders Diedra Forman and Deina Ross, Canadian County offenders Eddie Moore and Anthony Prideaux and Grant County offender Jeffrey Reese.

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