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Parole board to allow Weathersfield killers to go free in the spring
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Mark Badilo, 49, will go free from prison on or after April 1, and Jeff McClure, 48, will be released on or after May 1, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections confirmed Monday.
Both were paroled after a hearing Wednesday in which Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins asked that they remain in prison for killing Badilo’s brother, Tim Badilo, 23, in Weathersfield Township Feb. 24, 1988.
Short of that, Watkins asked the parole board to adopt a practice used in the federal court system for paroled sex offenders and in some other states – give a lie-detector test to them to verify that they have told the truth about their crimes.
The parole board rejected both of those requests.
“You don’t win every time,” Watkins said Monday. “You have to look at the future and hope it was the correct decision. I respect the decision even though I disagree.”
The Badilos and McClure lived near each other along the Howland-Weathersfield border at Deforest Road. Authorities say Tim Badilo was killed in McClure’s backyard on Boradway Street in Weathersfield.
His body was found in a burned car in Hubbard Township. Mark Badilo and McClure were 19 at the time.
Mark Badilo told authorities he and McClure killed Tim Badilo because Tim Badilo had squandered the money from the janitorial business they were running and Mark Badilo wanted his brother out of the way so he could take over the business. Watkins said he wanted the lie-detector test because he thinks Mark Badilo had another financial reason for killing his brother.
Watkins said McClure and Mark Badilo have served 27 years in prison and were eligible for parole the first time after serving 15 years.
McClure and Mark Badilo had a clean record at the time of the killing, both had a clean record in prison, and both took the required classes in prison, Watkins said.
Watkins added that this case is “rather unusual because even at the time of arrest, the family of the victim wanted probation” for Tim Badilo, and both of Tim Badilo’s parents still want him to be released.
“They have a good chance to succeed,” Watkins said of McClure and Badilo. “They have good families and they have support. They’ve been given a second chance. Take advantage of it.”