PORTLAND, Or. -- A killer who stabbed a 17-year-old girl to death in 1985 was unanimously denied parole Wednesday.
During his parole hearing Wednesday, convicted killer Omar Carroll said the murder was an experiment.
When asked in the parole hearing whether he had any empathy for his victim, then 13-year-old Tina Marie Jones, Carroll said "no." When asked why, he said, "because she was no more than an experiment."
Carroll has gone before the parole board every two years, but using a rarely used statute, the board ruled he would not be eligible again until March of 2021.
In late December of 1985, Carroll, who was 17 at the time, stabbed Jones to death in Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, in Southeast Portland. He claimed he was obsessed with a book he had read and felt compelled to live out one of the scenes in the novel. He told the parole board he first got his hands on the book in 1978.
"I went for the knife and killed her, attacked her," said Carroll at a previous parole hearing in September 2008. At that hearing, it took the parole board 15 minutes to unanimously decide Carroll would remain behind bars.
Jones' mother, Sue Cunningham planned to testify during Wednesday's hearing, but as of noon, she had not had her chance to speak.
"There's a little bit of anxiety," said Sue Cunningham. "I want to hope the parole board will see the obvious, how sick he is, and not let him out."
Cunningham told KGW she planned to testify that Carroll could not be trusted in the community. She believes he is capable of killing again.
"When he gets stressed, when he gets anxious, he flips out and he gets violent," said Cunningham. "He can't control himself."
Despite what happened nearly 25 years ago, Cunningham said she does not hate Carroll. She feels sorry for him, sorry that he wasted his life. But she said at least he has one.
"Tina Marie didn't get that chance," added Cunningham. "She was on the cutting edge of really enjoying her life and he snuffed her."
