Prison chief’s suspected killer was released early

DENVER – Because of a paperwork error, the suspect in last month’s killing of Colorado’s corrections chief was freed from prison in January, four years earlier than authorities intended.

Judicial officials acknowledged Monday that Evan Spencer Ebel’s previous felony conviction had been inaccurately recorded and his release was a mistake.

In 2008, Ebel pleaded guilty in rural Fremont County to assaulting a prison officer. In the plea deal, Ebel was to be sentenced to up to four additional years in prison, to be served after he completed the eight-year sentence that put him behind bars in 2005, according to a statement from Colorado’s 11th Judicial District.

However, the judge did not say the sentence was meant to be “consecutive,” or in addition to, Ebel’s current one. So the court clerk recorded it as one to be served “concurrently,” or at the same time. That’s the information that went to the state prisons, the statement said.

So on Jan. 28, prisons officials saw that Ebel had finished his court-ordered sentence and released him. They said they had no way of knowing the plea deal was intended to keep Ebel behind bars for years longer.

Two months later, Ebel was dead after a shootout with authorities in Texas. The gun he used in the March 21 gunbattle was the same one used to shoot and kill prisons chief Tom Clements two days earlier. Police believe Ebel also was involved in the death of a Domino’s Pizza delivery man, Nathan Leon, in Denver.

“The court regrets this oversight and extends condolences to the families of Mr. Nathan Leon and Mr. Tom Clements,” said a statement signed by Charles Barton, chief judge of the 11th Judicial District, and court administrator Walter Blair.

Leon’s father-in-law told AP he had no immediate comment

“There should be more than just a two-sentence apology,” Leon’s sister-in-law Amber Lane told the Denver Post. “I thank somebody for taking accountability for the error; however, it doesn’t bring Nate back.”

The court officials vowed to review their procedures to ensure the error isn’t repeated.

“The Colorado Department of Corrections values its long-standing partnership with the 11th Judicial District and the district attorney’s office to maintain order at the prisons in Canon City. We commend both the 11th Judicial District and the DOC for reviewing their own internal processes and procedures,” Gov. John Hickenlooper’s spokeswoman, Megan Castle, said in a written statement.

The attack that led to the plea deal took place in 2006. According to prison and court records, Ebel slipped out of his handcuffs while being transferred from a cell and punched a prison officer in the face. He bloodied the officer’s nose and finger and threatened to kill the officer’s family.

“If Mr. Ebel was prosecuted for an assault on an officer, it had to be pretty severe, because in the course of day-to-day work, correctional officers are regularly assaulted or threatened,” said Pueblo County Commissioner Buffie McFadyen, who is executive director of the correctional officer group Corrections U.S.A.

“It sounds like a horrific oversight,” she said of the mistake that led to Ebel’s release this year. “It’s a tragic clerical error.”

Ebel spent much of his time behind bars in solitary confinement and had a long record of disciplinary violations. Records show he joined a white supremacist prison gang.