Safety should be considered first when granting parole

Today the city of Kansas City, KS is mourning the loss of detective Brad Lancaster, Hearing a call for assistance he was one of the first on the scene regarding a possible car jacking and in responding was shot and killed by a man who had received early parole, serving less than a year of a sentence and released. To hear this made me sick inside, another criminal paroled only to commit murder shortly after wards. A friend of mine in 2004 was left butchered in her flower garden by a man who she had put in prison for domestic violence who had been paroled on good behavior and was seen as not being a threat to society. Both paroled by the State of Kansas early.

If records were looked at, these are probably not isolated incidents. Robin left children and grandchildren in this world, Detective Lancaster left a family, and two small children as well. Anyone who has known somebody who has been murdered does not forget. If anything is to come of these tragedies I would hope and pray that at some point, parole boards are required to take more than one review before releasing a violent criminal back into society who has been system smart enough to convince others during incarceration they are not a threat to others. Somewhere the ball has been dropped kicked into failing others put at risk by their actions.

Nothing will bring back Robin or Detective Lancaster, we can only pray the repetition will stop. Prayers tonight for Detective Lancaster's family and for the continued healing for Robin's as well.

Posted on Wed, Sep. 01, 2004

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/9548066.htm?1c

MIKE RANSDELL/The Kansas City Star
Gardner's first homicide in years took place this week. Ilena
Spalding, public information officer for Gardner Public Safety,
spoke Tuesday near the house where Robin Gomez's body was found
Monday. Gomez's boyfriend, who was arrested in Wichita and charged
with murder, could be returned to Johnson County today.

Suspected Gardner killer held in Wichita

Victim had been in volatile relationship

By NICK KOWALCZYK and TONY RIZZO

The Kansas City Star


The volatile and sometimes violent relationship between 49-year-old
Robin Gomez and 27-year-old Matthew Lee Newton was well-documented.

Their fights were the subject of repeated police calls to the
Gardner home they sometimes shared. Three times he was convicted of
battering her, court records show.

When police were called one more time to her two-story home at 151
W. Park St. Monday night they found her nude body in the fenced-in
backyard, which is decorated with flowers and birdbaths.

Police say Gomez died of multiple stab wounds.

Newton, driving Gomez's car and with some of her credit cards in his
possession, had been stopped a few hours earlier by police officers
in Wichita. It was their telephone call that led Gardner police to
the body.

On Tuesday, Johnson County prosecutors charged Newton with first-
degree murder and felony theft. His bond was set at $1 million. He
was being held in Wichita.

Gardner Chief of Public Safety Kenneth Francis said the Gomez
slaying was the first homicide in Gardner in many years.

Danna Thomas, a friend of Gomez's, said she had twice seen Gomez
bruised and beaten, once with her arm in a sling. Thomas said Gomez
once told her that Newton had inflicted her injuries. Yet Gomez kept
an on-again, off-again relationship with Newton for several
years. "They definitely had a lot of disputes," said Thomas, whose
ex-boyfriend played in a local band with Newton.

Francis said local police had gone to Gomez's house several times to
investigate reports of domestic violence between Newton and Gomez.

Johnson County District Court records show that Newton has been
convicted of battery against Gomez three times since 2001. He was
charged and convicted twice last year and currently was on probation.

Earlier this summer, he was released after completing a one-year
sentence on one of the battery charges, according to the court
records. He is currently on probation in another battery case, and
just three weeks ago prosecutors filed a motion seeking to revoke
Newton's probation.

Among the listed reasons for the revocation was his failure to
complete a court-ordered batterer's intervention program. He was
ordered to appear in court on that case Sept. 9.

The chain of events that led authorities to find Gomez began about
8:30 p.m. Monday when Wichita police were called to a business in
that city to "check the welfare" of a person, according to Janet
Johnson, public information officer for the Wichita Police
Department.

There the officers found Newton with the car and other property that
belonged to Gomez. Officers were suspicious of the explanation
Newton gave them, and they called Johnson County authorities to have
them check on Gomez.

Gardner officers went to the house but did not find Gomez.

Johnson said that the Wichita officers decided to hold Newton on
suspicion of credit card fraud. "They had an uneasy feeling about
his demeanor," she said, referring to officers who had talked with
him. "They had a gut feeling that something was amiss."

After learning additional information from relatives of Gomez,
Gardner officers went back to the house and discovered the body.
They relayed the discovery to Wichita authorities.

Gomez had worked for five years in the delicatessen of the Price
Chopper grocery in Gardner.

A resident of her neighborhood for about 20 years, Gomez was known
for her love of gardening and for walking the neighborhood with her
toddler-age granddaughter.

"She was really nice, and she would talk to my daughters," said
neighbor Maggie Melvin, who lives a few doors down from Gomez's
house.

Newton could be returned to Johnson County as early as today,
authorities said.