Elroy Tillman has been behind bars since 1982 for murder. Only his death will set him free.
Tillman, 75, will spend the remainder of his natural life in prison, the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole announced Monday in a two-paragraph statement.
The board, which held Tillman's first parole hearing in February, tallied 10 aggravating factors and two mitigating factors in reaching its decision. Tillman's role in the May 1982 murder of Mark Schoenfeld, the "extreme cruelty and depravity of the crime" and Tillman's minimization of the crime were among the aggravating factors cited.
At his parole hearing, Tillman offered a new version of the events that led to Schoenfeld's slaying, but stopped short of admitting he killed the man who had been dating his ex-girlfriend.
"I set up everything," Tillman told the parole board during his first hearing since being taken off death row in 2005.
Tillman's death sentence was overturned because evidence had been misplaced by prosecutors. That evidence surfaced weeks before Tillman's scheduled execution in 2001. While the Utah Supreme Court tossed out Tillman's death sentence, it did not overturn his first-degree felony conviction for criminal homicide.
During his parole hearing, Tillman disputed the prosecution's theory that he had killed Schoenfeld, 28, in a jealous rage because Schoenfeld had been dating Tillman's former girlfriend. Instead, Tillman said he believed a pair of stereo speakers stuffed with kilos of cocaine somehow had wound up in Schoenfeld's house. Tillman said he had sent his brother and a friend into the home, while he acted as the lookout.
Parole-board member Keith Hamilton asked Tillman whether he had sent the men into Schoenfeld's home to kill him.
"I sent them in to get the merchandise. I didn't think there would be any killing," Tillman replied, later acknowledging that his brother had told him he had hit Schoenfeld.
But prosecutors said Tillman entered Schoenfeld's home, waited until Schoenfeld fell asleep, beat him to death with an ax and then set his bed on fire. Schoenfeld may have been alive when the fire was set, according to investigators.
Schoenfeld's former girlfriend, Laurie Groneman, told the parole board "none of what he said reflects the truth."
Groneman said she ran away from home at 17 and hooked up with Tillman, who she said stalked her for years and made her his "prey." She said the story about the drugs was made up.
"If he gets out, he isn't done," Groneman said. "If he is released, he is not done killing people!"
Groneman fled the room after she testified. Tillman was stone-faced, saying he never had laid a hand on the woman.
"She's putting on a good performance here today," he said.
A letter from the Schoenfeld family said "time has not healed this wound nor eased the pain that has not gone away."
"I feel bad for the Schoenfeld family," Tillman said in response. "But I also feel bad for my family and what they suffered, too."
Tillman's longtime attorney, Loni DeLand, who spent more than 20 years fighting to keep his client off death row, could not be reached for comment about Monday's decision.
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