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UTAH STATE PRISON — A man who has maintained his innocence for 20 years is seeking to be released from the Utah State Prison.
Adrian Whitefield Gordon, 41, was convicted of murder and sentenced in 2002 to five years to life at the Utah State Prison. But Gordon says he did not commit the crime he was convicted for, and has taken his appeals all the way to the Utah Supreme Court, with backing from the Rocky Mountain Innocence Center. However, all of his appeals have been denied.
Now, Gordon might be released from prison, not because a court is considering his case again, but because he has served his time.
On Tuesday, Gordon went before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole for the first time.
The body of Lee Lundskog, 50, was found early the morning of Sept. 29, 2001, in a grass strip behind a 7-Eleven store at 1285 N. Redwood Road. Police determined Lundskog had been beaten to death. Store surveillance video confirmed Gordon had been at that 7-Eleven earlier. So when he heard that detectives were looking for him, he contacted them and agreed to be questioned because he says he didn't do anything.
"I thought I was going home when I went to the police station. I ain't never been out since," Gordon said in an interview with KSL in 2015.
At most parole hearings, the person conducting the hearing will have an inmate talk about the crime that resulted in the prison sentence. But during Tuesday's hearing, it was acknowledged by the board that Gordon maintains his innocence and that he and his attorney have submitted "thousands" of documents for the board to consider.
Board member Blake Hills, who conducted the hearing, made it clear from the beginning, however, that the board is not retrying his case.
"We are proceeding under that understanding," he told Gordon.
Instead of talking about the crime, Hills reviewed how Gordon has been doing since being incarcerated. He noted that during Gordon's first nine years in prison, he had nine major disciplinary violations. But over the next 10 years, he had none.
"At the time I was just coming in (to prison). I was young. I was wrongly convicted. And I was emotionally caught up in that. And sometimes, not thinking, I would deal with that," he said of his first several years in prison. "In the beginning, I absolutely was not a model prisoner."
Gordon attributes his write-ups during those early years in prison to being angry over his situation and being locked up for a crime he claims he didn't commit.
Gordon's case
Is convicted killer innocent? Group says DNA may prove it
The Rocky Mountain Innocence Center believes a man convicted of murder in 2001 did not commit the crime. They want the state to test DNA evidence from the crime scene that was never tested during the original trial.But as he got older and started taking life skills classes while incarcerated, he saw young inmates who had the same attitude he did when he was first arrested and his perspective began to change. Gordon says mentoring the younger inmates became a way for him to stay focused. And he says he followed the work ethic instilled in him by his father, who was at Tuesday's hearing.
"Work hard, cry later. If you want success, get out and take it," was his motto. "Anything you want, you're going to have to work for."
He says working with others has also helped him with the anti-social patterns he had when he was younger.
"Over the years, having a lot of classes that help you work on that — a lot of youngsters in here, doing a lot of mentorship-type classes has broken a lot of that down for me," he told the board. "I just didn't trust a lot of people outside of family and select friends (when I was younger)."
One way Gordon has kept himself out of trouble and attempted to help others is through exercise and working out consistently. The very muscular Gordon says he has never had a problem with drugs or alcohol in prison and has not been tempted to try it.
"Over 20 something years, I've never had a dirty (drug test)," he said. "No, I just need the weight room, sir."
Likewise, he called his mental health "excellent" and says he has learned to have more patience with himself through classes taught at the prison. And if the pressure of prison life becomes overwhelming, "For me, if it gets that overwhelming, go in the corner and do some push-ups or squats or something."
Despite maintaining his innocence, when asked what he would tell the victim's family if they were present Tuesday, Gordon — reading from prepared notes — said, he gives his deepest condolences.
Gordon concluded by telling the board he's not the same person who was sent to prison two decades ago.
"There's a whole lot of stuff that's not the same. I don't do the same things at 41-42 that I did at 19. You don't even think the same ... to me, that's two different people," he said. "I'm way more of a man today than when I was a young man.
"Right or wrong, I just walked 20-something years down. And I have to wear that backpack whether I like it or not. But it's not the backpack, it's how I deal with it," he continued. "Even though I got a backpack on that's full of just junk, I still have to act as a man, I have to show my family I'm a man, show my community I'm a man."
The full five-member board will now vote on whether to grant parole. A decision may be up to a month away.
