Despite tearful pleas by his children, Arnold Van Terry, Fairview, convicted of killing his estranged wife and attempting to kill her boyfriend, will not be paroled until 2002, the Utah Board of Pardons decided.
And it told Lawrence Mack Holt, who killed a woman 22 years ago when she tried to break off relations with him and assaulted another woman last April, that he will serve every day of his 5-to-15-year prison term. Holt will be released in 2003 at the age of 81.Sixteen of Terry's family members and friends filled the prison hearing room Wednesday. Following the board's decision to keep Terry imprisoned for 15 years, they appeared stunned and filed out quietly.
"He's the most important person in my life right now," sobbed 11-year-old Becky Terry during the hearing. "I need him to help me through life, to teach me, to show me the way."
Paul Terry, 17, told the parole board he fears that his father, 54, who suffers severe heart problems, will die in prison.
"I'd hate to have him live his last little while in prison . . . and us having no father to raise us," Paul Terry said.
Terry - married three times and father of nine children - was convicted of shooting to death of Geraldine Despain Terry, 40, and of attempting to kill her friend, Frank G. Morris, 46, Moroni, on June 28, 1987.
As for Holt, Board Chairwoman Victoria Palacios said, "If you're doing this at age 66, you probably won't stop. My inclination is to give you as much (prison) time as possible.
"I get the impression that when a woman says to you, `No, I don't want to be in a relationship,' you react violently."
Board member Gary Webster said Holt served 12 years for killing Bernice King, a 36-year-old waitress and mother of six.