Killer denied judicial release
Staff report
YOUNGSTOWN
A judge has denied a request for early release from a 68-year-old man, who has served more than nine years of a 13-year prison term for fatally shooting his girlfriend in the back.
Judge James C. Evans of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ruled recently, without explanation, that Edward C. Anderson will continue to serve his time for the July 15, 2004, fatal shooting of Mary M. Thompson, 37, after a domestic dispute in the East Philadelphia Avenue home Anderson and Thompson shared.
Anderson’s jury trial on the initial murder charge ended abruptly March 21, 2007, when he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.
Judge Evans sentenced Anderson to 10 years in prison on the manslaughter charge and three consecutive years for the firearm specification with credit for the 982 jail days Anderson already had served.
Anderson, who is at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus, will be released July 6, 2017, if he serves his sentence in full.
“His health problems, coupled with his age and lack of a prior [criminal] record, lead to the conclusion that, when released, Mr. Anderson is unlikely to reoffend,” wrote Atty. Edward A. Czopur in his request for Anderson’s release.