GREENVILLE Petition asks parole board to keep killer of student in prison

Michael Pratt was wearing his murdered brother's jacket during the petition drive.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- Some people offered a hug, some a handshake, and most offered words of encouragement when they met Michael Pratt in Central Park.
Pratt, of Warren, spent Monday afternoon in the park gathering signatures on a petition seeking to keep Michael Swiger, 34, of Tiltonsville, Ohio, behind bars for at least eight more years.
Swiger was one of three people convicted in Summit County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court in 1990 in the murder of Roger Pratt, Michael Pratt's brother.
Swiger, convicted of kidnapping with a gun specification and involuntary manslaughter, is serving a sentence of 21 to 53 years in prison, but will have a parole hearing sometime in September.
Michael Pratt and his mother, Rose Pratt of Munhall, are circulating petitions asking the Ohio Parole Board not to release Michael Swiger.
Swiger is in his 13th year in prison, said Pratt, who was wearing his brother's yellow and blue Thiel College baseball warm-up jacket with the name Butch, Roger's nickname, on the upper right front.
"I'd like him to serve at least his minimum sentence," Pratt said.
In agreement
Those who stopped by Monday to sign the petition seemed to feel the same way.
"I don't believe these people should get away with it," said Elenor Goss of Greenville, referring to three people imprisoned in the case.
She said she was glad to sign the petition.
"If it was my child, I'd want someone to take care of this," she said.
"I want to see these guys serve all their time," said James Banic, another Greenville resident who stopped by to sign the petition. "It's very horrible what they did."
In addition to Michael Swiger, who authorities said was in on the plot to kidnap Butch Pratt and was present when he was killed, Edward Swiger, 38, Michael's older brother, is serving 40 years to life in prison for aggravated murder with death specifications and kidnapping with a gun specification.
Testimony presented at his trial showed the elder Swiger beat Pratt to death in a remote area outside Akron, Ohio, on June 17, 1988, to keep him from telling authorities what he knew about the arson of a Greenville furniture store a month earlier as well as a couple of fraternity house burglaries at Thiel College where Edward Swiger and Butch Pratt were students, roommates and best friends.
Also convicted
A third person convicted in the case, Linda J. Karlen, 49, of Greenville and Sharon, is serving seven to 15 years on a charge of conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
She and Edward Swiger brought Pratt's body back to Pennsylvania and buried it on a farm in southern Crawford County.
Karlen and both Swigers have pleaded guilty to the furniture store arson and are facing five to 10 years in a Pennsylvania prison when they are released from Ohio.
This isn't the first time the Pratts have sought public support to keep Michael Swiger and Karlen in prison.
They presented the parole board with petitions carrying nearly 4,000 names opposed to an earlier clemency try by Swiger and two parole hearings for Karlen.
"I don't think they should be let out at all. I think they should be kept there the rest of their lives," said Jane Cooper of Adamsville, who is circulating petitions on behalf of the Pratt family. She has 20 out now and will put out 20 more.
"I'd like to see him in as long as they can keep him," said Mary Ellen Moreland of Jamestown. She, her husband, Andrew, and their son, Jim of Apache Junction, Ariz., stopped by the park to put their names to the petition.
"The punishment should fit the crime," said Dale Hasenplug of Transfer who stopped by the park with his wife, Maxine, to sign.
The Hasenplugs, like Cooper, said they have carried petitions for the Pratt family before.
gwin@vindy.com