Mo. inmate whose life sentence was commuted to be freed in October

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A woman who was convicted in the Jefferson City murder of a potential witness in her boyfriend's burglary case will be paroled a year earlier than expected.

Betty Coleman is one of three domestic abuse victims whose life sentences then-Gov. Bob Holden commuted in late 2004, making them eligible for early parole. But none of the women was immediately freed, angering domestic violence advocates and sparking litigation.

Coleman, the last of the women still in prison, learned Wednesday that she will go free in October 2007, having served about 27 years in prison for her role in the killing of Kerry Brummett, of Jefferson City, a potential witness against her then-boyfriend in a burglary.

Coleman was convicted in 1981 and given a life sentence after prosecutors claimed she drove Brummett to a meeting with Coleman's boyfriend, Doyle Williams, that eventually led to Brummett's death. Coleman has said she was abused by Williams, though she denied that her role in Brummett's murder was related to the abuse.

"I trusted this man," Coleman told The Associated Press late Wednesday in a telephone interview from prison in Chillicothe.

After Holden commuted her sentence, the parole board initially set an October 2008 release date for Coleman.

The parole board made its latest decision during a meeting Tuesday in Jefferson City, said Angie Daly, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Corrections.

"They normally don't give an explanation or reasons why they make a decision in a parole case because parole records are confidential by state law," Daly said.

In a telephone interview from the state prison in Chillicothe on Wednesday night, Coleman said that while she was pleased with the decision, she was upset that the parole board did not release her earlier. She had thought she might be closer to getting out after the Missouri Supreme Court in April ordered the parole board to release fellow inmate Shirley Lute, whose murder conviction was also commuted by Holden. Lute had been imprisoned since 1981, convicted of aiding her son in the Monroe County murder of her husband.

"The principle is that the parole board continues to violate their own regulations and there's no one to make them behave. ... There's no one for inmates to go to," Coleman said.

In the same ruling, the Supreme Court also told the parole board to consider releasing another woman whose sentence Holden commuted, Lynda Branch, who had been in prison for nearly two decades following her conviction for shooting her husband in 1986 at the their Cole County home. The court said the parole board could not consider the circumstances of the crimes because Holden already had.

Branch and Lute were released in May.

Although Coleman wasn't included in the Supreme Court case, she said she assumed it would apply to her. "And I guess, to a degree, they have," she added.

The cases of Branch and Lute were among the original 11 clemency requests filed by the Missouri Battered Women's Clemency Coalition, created in 2000 by the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and professors and students at the state's four law schools. Coalition members supported Coleman's case in a separate filing to the governor.

"We are really pleased that the parole board reached this decision and we're excited for Betty," said Lisa Weingarth, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence in Jefferson City.

Coleman's boyfriend, Williams, was executed in 1996 for killing Brummett. Williams also was convicted of killing a physician, Albert Domann, of Auxvasse, who was scheduled to testify against Williams in the burglary case.

Coleman said she did not know Williams planned to kill Brummett when he asked her to arrange the meeting. She called the life sentence she received "excessive."

In a telephone interview earlier this month, Lute's attorney, Jane Aiken, said the circumstances of Coleman's crime should not be a factor in her release.

"The fact she got a clemency should take care of the decision by the public that the seriousness of the offense should keep her in prison," Aiken said.

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Associated Press writers Andale Gross and Amy Shafer contributed to this report.