From the Country Star

Molester, murderer up for parole

July 2 — A Haskell County man convicted of lewd molestation, a murderer who poisoned his victim and two violent sex offenders are among 29 area inmates coming up for parole this month.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board will meet from July 14 to 17 at Hillside Community Corrections Center in Oklahoma City.

Persons wishing to contact the board about a particular offender should send letters with the inmate’s name and Department of Corrections number, as well as the month and year and the type of docket, written on the back of the envelope and letter.

Violent offenders go through a two-stage parole process, with board members reviewing their records in the first stage. If they pass the first stage of parole, the offenders move on to the second stage.

Now 62, Fred Smith was convicted in March 1993 of six counts of lewd molestation. According to information filed in the case, Smith was alleged to have fondled a girl every night during 1988 and to have committed other acts that same year. He was convicted by a Haskell County jury, which set punishment at 20 years per count, to run concurrently. If he is paroled from his current sentence, the Davis Correctional Center inmate will still have four more to serve.

Danny R. Turner, 35, says it was a high school prank when he stole a 4-ounce bottle of potassium cyanide from a school chemistry lab and mixed it in another student’s drink in a parking lot. He was captured 30 minutes later.

A McIntosh County jury gave him a life sentence.

A co-defendant in the case, Quincy Scott, 34, was sentenced to 30 years.

Also serving a life sentence, Steve A. Cass, 44, was convicted by a Leflore County jury of forcible sodomy after previously being convicted of four other felonies. If paroled from his current sentence he will begin serving consecutive sentences for first-degree burglary, larceny of a vehicle, first-degree robbery, rape by instrumentation and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. According to a report from an Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board investigator, in 1988 Cass broke into a couple’s home, where he tied them with electrical cords, beat and terrorized them, sodomized the woman and stole jewelry, a truck and other items.

Also from LeFlore County, James Commander, 52, was sentenced to 147 years for first-degree rape, as well as a concurrent 143 years for kidnapping. According to an information sheet filed in the case, he confined a woman, then beat and raped her in 1982. He was charged with the offense several months later, while serving time on a separate case in Minnesota. He lost a jury trial.

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