Escaped killer had no credibility, parole board said

Despite the fact that the National Parole Board said imprisoned murderer Andrew Wood had no credibility, Corrections Canada put him in a minimum-security prison with no fences and no armed guards. On June 13, Wood, who was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder, escaped from Frontenac Institution, in Kingston, Ontario (details of the escape in a previous post). National Parole Board records (available after the jump) reveal that Wood was denied parole three times because he appeared to be lying to the board about the murder that put him behind bars.

Wood murdered his friend, Robert Ryan Glenn, two decades ago in the Toronto area. Glenn was 21 when Wood shot him to death. Wood was 22 at the time. Glenn's body was found at 8 a.m. in a roadside ditch February 20, 1989. Wood was sentence to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years. He was eligible to seek full parole on February 23, 2004, but he has been repeatedly turned down for day parole (release to a halfway house) because his accounts of the killing are self-serving and ever changing.

At his last parole hearing September 13, 2006, Wood told the board that he asked Glenn to meet him that morning because of concern Wood had about his girlfriend:

...you state that she had once been sexually assaulted by the victim, and that you had learned he was being released from jail, and in order to protect her, arranged this meeting with the victim. You then claim that your discussion with him led to an argument; that you both reached for the gun that was in the back seat, and that you shot him in the context of that struggle. The Board did not find your statements to any have credibility.

The parole board noted that Glenn was shot several times:

The Board was struck by your lack of emotion in describing the events of that day. Forensic information indicates that you initially wounded the victim by shooting him in the buttock, arm and then the side. This was a fatal wound as the bullet entered his heart. However, you continued to pursue him after he had tumbled into a ditch, and shot him twice more in the back of the skull.

Wood offered a remarkable explanation for his decision to meet Glenn with a loaded gun in the back seat. He claimed he was a gun collector and figured he and his friend would go target shooting after their meeting.

The parole board rejected that too.

For an explanation of what Corrections Canada says about its decision to send Wood to minimum security, here's my story in the Whig-Standard today. Corrections Canada makes its decisions about prison placement of convicts independently of the National Parole Board.

Below are four decisions by the National Parole Board on Wood's case, collected in one file in reverse chronological order (most recent first). The decisions were made September 13, 2006, March 10, 2006, September 9, 2005, and January 5, 2005. When you see "Page 2" in the upper right corner, you're at the start of a new decision.



Related:
» The number of escaped convicts on the books
» Ty Conn's great escape from Kingston Penitentiary

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