A Mansfield man who fatally stabbed his girlfriend 31 times in a fit of rage of Thanksgiving Day 1993 was granted parole Tuesday. The decision, a 5-4 vote, came during a lengthy full Ohio Parole Board hearing despite objections from the Richland County prosecutors and members of the victim's family pleading for the man to stay locked up.
The Ohio Parole Board voted 5-0 Feb. 26 to parole Lavonia Spann , 57, pending the decision of the full board hearing, which the News Journal viewed on The Ohio Channel live.
Darla Ward's murder was the first homicide in Richland County in 1993.
Ward bled to death from multiple stab wounds in a bedroom on West Dickson Avenue shortly after cooking Thanksgiving dinner for her boyfriend and his father. Spann maintained that he killed Ward because he caught her giving his father oral sex, the News Journal reported during the trial.
Spann was admitted to the Ohio prison system on March 25, 1994, convicted of a charge of murder was serving 15-years-to-life.
Prosecutor says killer won't conform to conditions of release
Richland County Prosecutor Jodie Schumacher, along with Ward's sister and two children, Spann's sister and a representative of the Kindway/Embark prison-focused ministry, addressed the Ohio parole board members during an emotional hearing that lasted more than two hours. The full board, returning almost an hour later from executive session, announced their ruling, that Spann will be paroled around Sept. 16.
Full parole board votes 5 to 4 to parole Lavonia Spann
Spann will be under numerous special conditions including five years of supervision at a very high level, placement to be approved by the board upon completion by the Adult Parole Authority; the parole board said.
His actual release is subject to the placement plan, sex offender screening and programming if indicated and substance abuse screening and programming if indicated and no change of residence without prior approval of the board.
The board said Spann has served a significant amount of time for his conviction and has had acceptable institutional conduct and has a supportive release plan.
During the hearing, Schumacher requested on behalf of the victim's family and Richland County residents the parole board to maintain its consistency with the five past parole boards and overturn its initial decision to release the killer and keep him in prison.
Schumacher said Spann admitted he had killed Ward.
In letters Spann sent to Ward after domestic violence incidents from jail, he elaborated on his faith at the time, saying it was a "woman's job to be subservient to the man."
Spann's past record includes a prior sexual battery conviction, Schumacher said.
"Each and every victim is a female," the prosecutor said.
Schumacher said there is substantial reason to believe that Spann will engage in further criminal conduct. He will not conform to the conditions of release, she added.
"Previous boards have specifically mentioned the defendant has an elevated risk to re-offend," Schumacher said.
His actions speak louder than words, she said. "As a result of him beating a 17-year-old (girl), he was offered probation, and he violated probation with substance abuse, curfew and possessing a dangerous ordnance."
"He was on probation at the time of this homicide and was ordered not to have contact with Darla Ward," she said.
Spann's sister Ms. Black (first name unknown) said her brother can live at her Mansfield home. She works at a thrift store and is familiar with programs he may need. She told the parole board her brother had experienced sexual abuse as a child.
Transition manager says Spann a role model in prison ministry program
Debo Onabanjo, Pickaway Correctional Institution's men's transition manager, told the board he has known Spann for 10 years. He said the convict has been a role model in the nonprofit, ministry program offered to inmates.
"He comes across as someone who is well-grounded in his convictions and continues to demonstrate a consistent desire to grow in his own personal transformation and as a disciple of Jesus Christ," Onabanio said.
Schumacher said while she is new to the case, she reviewed records and consulted with the family, and this is the first time hearing Spann was allegedly sexually abused as a child.
Victim's family members speak of harm done to them too
Ward's sister Karen Ward Prosell spoke to the board, saying her sister was 31 and was stabbed one time for every year of her life.
She said her sister weighed 97 pounds and Spann beat her because he was angry at her. He claimed he loved her, she said. "...Beat her for months before he killed her," she added.
Ward's son Levi Drye, asked the parole board not to let Spann out of prison until he is 85 years old and not a physical threat to anyone.
Drye said he remembers on Nov. 25 being put to sleep by his mother and awakened to screams. He was only 5.
He said he noticed blood on the kitchen floor as he and his sister were taken to their grandparent's house. He wrote a letter to his deceased mother as a child saying he loved and missed his her, his sister Grace Drye said.
She said Spann took more than their mother.
"He took my brother, too," she said, adding she has suffered and been diagnosed with anxiety and depression and PTSD with suicidal tendencies. She said since she was only 2 1/2 years old, she can't remember what happened Nov. 25, 1993 but she has the same repetitive nightmares about Spann that have consumed her life as she and her brother awakened, ran to their grandparent's bedroom to be rescued on many occasions.
"Spann is here and my mother is not," she said. "She got death without parole. I would like for him to have life without parole and fulfill his life sentence.
Family members collected over 1,000 signatures on a petition in favor of keeping Spann behind bars.
lwhitmir@gannett.com
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Ex-Mansfielder to be paroled after 30 years for fatal stabbing of girlfriend Darla Ward
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