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UTAH STATE PRISON — Stephen Ellenwood, 41, won't go before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole until 34 years from now, in 2048.
But instead of waiting until then, family members of the 92-year-old woman whom Ellenwood raped and brutally beat, resulting in her death a couple of days later, were allowed to explain to the board why they believe Ellenwood should never be allowed out of prison.
Last week, a victim impact hearing was held for Mae Odle. In 1993, Ellenwood, who was 21 at the time and living in Ogden, broke into a room at the Adams Place retirement home where he attacked and sexually assaulted Odle.
"Her arms were blue and purple and she had wraps around her legs to prevent blood clots. Great Grandma's face looked nothing like her. She was completely unrecognizable as a result of the brutal assault," Aubrey Odle said of her great-grandmother when she visited her in the hospital shortly after the attack.
After running out the door, Ellenwood raped a second woman a couple of hours later. Mae Odle died after six days due to blunt force injuries to her head and chest.
But Ellenwood was never captured, and the case went cold.
He actually went to prison several times between 1995 and 2000 for unrelated crimes, including an aggravated assault in 1994. But it wasn't until 2013, 20 years after the murder, when Ellenwood was living in Alaska, that he was linked to the killing through DNA evidence. He avoided a possible death sentence by pleading guilty earlier this year and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
The parole board set his first hearing for 2048. But rather than make family members wait three decades for their voices to be heard, a member of the board held a victim impact hearing last week. The purpose of the hearing was to allow family members to record their comments into the record, which will be kept in storage until 2048 and played for whoever is on the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole then.
Aubrey Odle read a prepared statement into the record. She was 13 and in eighth grade when her great-grandmother was attacked. She recounted breaking down in school when she heard the news and then seeing her grandmother in the hospital on Mother's Day, the day before she died.
"She held on long enough to say goodbye to her family," she said.
Each spring, she said she remembers those events as if they happened yesterday.
"That kind of pain never goes away," Odle said. "I knew Great Grandma had so much more to teach me. But she never go that chance. Her vibrant life was abruptly ended by a truly sadistic and evil animal."
Odle called Ellenwood a "monster" and a "sexually violent predator" who had "no chance of rehabilitation" and had shown no remorse. Odle said she spoke on behalf of both women attacked that day.
"Ellenwood showed no hint of humanity, no bit of mercy of May 3, 1993, and he deserves none now or ever," she said. "The life of Ellenwood is of no value compared to the beautiful, vibrant amazing life he took from my great-grandma."
After her comments, Parole Board Chairman Clark Harms, who conducted the hearing, gave Ellenwood the chance to enter his comments into the record at that time or wait 34 years.
"No, thank you," Ellenwood replied.
Harms noted he will not be around when Ellenwood has his first parole hearing. But it will be his recommendation to the future board that they vote at that time to expire his sentence, meaning he will die in prison with no future parole hearings.
"You're where you probably ought to be forever," Harms told Ellenwood. "I can't imagine why or how anybody could do this to anybody else." Email: preavy@deseretnews.com Twitter: DNewsCrimeTeam
