Repeat offender granted parole for 3rd time

WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) — The Ohio State Parole Board voted unanimously Wednesday to grant parole to a man the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office says is a repeat violent offender.

Willard Palmer, 60, was granted parole for the third time and is set to be released from North Central Correctional Institution likely by the end of the year. The prosecutor’s office says he will first be placed in a halfway house and has later plans to live in Trumbull County.

Palmer was first convicted in 1994 on charges of felonious assault on a peace officer and aggravated robbery. He was originally sentenced to serve 18-50 years in prison after he was convicted of pulling a knife on a desk clerk and demanding she open a cash register at Pete’s Ceramic Studio on July 18, 1994.

He was released on parole in 2005 before serving the minimum of 18 years and in December 2005, he was convicted of having drug paraphernalia. In March 2006, he was charged with various felonies, including weapons charges, and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Palmer was released again in 2016, after which the prosecutor’s office reports he was booked into Trumbull County Jail three times between 2018 and 2019.

During the recent hearing, defenders pointed out Palmer’s good behavior during incarceration, while prosecutor Dennis Watkins argued that Palmer would re-offend once freed.

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