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It's inconceivable that convicted murderer Eugene Blake -- who killed three people over a 17-year span, two in West Virginia and one in Ohio -- could once again be set free.
That's now a possibility, though, as the Ohio Parole Board is set to consider the early release of Blake, a current resident of the Chillicothe, Ohio Correctional Institution, sometime this month.
Blake is serving 20 years to life in Ohio after being sentenced in 2010 for the 1982 murder of Lansing, Ohio resident Mark Withers. He should not have been eligible for parole until 2030; however, an error in the court entry noted his sentence was "20 years to life" instead of "20 full years to life." That's given Blake a loophole to seek release only 12 years into his sentence after Ohio lawmakers revised incarceration rules as a way to deal with jail overcrowding. Blake, 77, should remain in jail, and we would urge the parole board to consider that he has been imprisoned on three separate occasions for three different murders:
-- In 1969, he was sentenced to life without mercy -- meaning he should never have been eligible for parole -- for the murder of 18-year-old Donna Jean Ball in Wayne County, W.Va. Blake, while incarcerated at the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville, used his con-man abilities to talk local residents into urging then-Gov. Arch Moore to commute his sentence, which Moore did in 1976. Blake was paroled in 1979.
-- Just a few years later, Blake murdered Mark Withers at Gould Park in Bridgeport. That crime went unsolved for more than 25 years before technological advances allowed for a DNA match to Blake. He was convicted and sentenced in 2010 in Belmont County.
-- Prior to being extradited to Ohio for the Withers' murder, Blake had been housed at West Virginia's Mount Olive Correctional Complex after being convicted in Ohio County of the 1984 rape and murder of 13-year-old Maryann Hope Helmbright of Wheeling.
Now, Blake could see the outside of a prison cell for the first time in more than 25 years. That could happen as early as Aug. 12 if the Ohio Parole Board agrees to frees him. "The fact that he is even being considered for parole is astonishing to me," said Richard Withers, a cousin of Mark Withers. "This guy does not need to be out on the streets. History has proven what he is capable of."
The Belmont County prosecutor's office is working to submit information to the parole board to keep Blake in jail. "Blake is a monster," said Belmont County Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan. "He is the epitome of evil. We really do not envision him getting out. ... We're providing as much information as we can get in there. ... I think his release is highly, highly unlikely."
But the possibility exists that he could be released. And given the fact that he committed two heinous murders in the early 1980s, not long after being released from prison for his first murder, Blake must be considered a serious threat to the public. Blake is not someone who needs to be back among the general public. His actions over the past 50-plus years prove that he should remain in prison for the rest of his life. We would, again, urge the Ohio Parole Board to not grant him any leniency and instead keep him incarcerated at Chillicothe.