Hollandsburg killer Smith up for parole

Sunday, July 24, 2016

None of the four perpetrators of one of the most heinous crimes in Hoosier history has ever been granted clemency or parole since their horrific Feb. 14, 1977 killings.

But that won't keep the youngest of the four Hollandsburg killers from seeking parole and possibly a new sentence during a scheduled Aug. 8 hearing with the Indiana State Parole Board.

David W. Smith, now 57, was 17 years old at the time he joined ring leader Roger Drollinger, Daniel Stonebraker and Michael W. Wright in slaying four members of the Keith and Betty Jane Spencer family in their Parke County home at Hollandsburg, a case People Magazine later included among its "20 Most Shocking Crimes in American History."

Smith, who was found guilty of four counts of murder by a Jasper County jury on Oct. 27, 1977, is serving four life sentences at the Pendleton Correctional Facility for the thrill killings of Ralph, 14, Reeve, 16, and Raymond Spencer, 17, and their stepbrother Gregory Brooks, 22, shot execution style on the floor of their modest modular home.

He will go before the five-member Indiana Parole Board in a video conference that begins at 8:30 a.m. with a list of possible parole candidates.

A Parole Board spokesman told the Banner Graphic, she was "not sure where he will fall in the order."

The video conference can be viewed at the Indiana State Parole Board office in Indianapolis, 402 W. Washington St. The Parole Board will be in its Indianapolis office, while Smith will be in the Pendleton Treatment Unit, a Parole Board spokesman advised.

Ringleader Drollinger died of apparent natural causes at age 60 in January 2014 at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility.

Drollinger, who was sentenced in Blackford County to four life sentences, never applied for clemency during his time in prison.

Stonebraker and Wright each pleaded guilty and testified against Drollinger and Smith in return for lesser sentences. Those included two life sentences for Stonebraker along with two terms of 15-25 years in prison. Wright, meanwhile, was given two terms of life in prison.

Drollinger was 23 at the time of the 1977 killings, while Wright was 21 and Stonebraker 20.

As the gang readied for the home invasion that February night, Drollinger ripped a bandanna from Stonebraker's face, telling him it wouldn't be necessary to cover up because there would be no survivors.

He was wrong, of course. Betty Jane Spencer survived, gave police sketch artists uncanny descriptions of her son's killers and saw them arrested and put away for life.

Drollinger, who had pointed a shotgun at each of his three accomplices to assure "everybody shoots or you get killed," ordered additional shotgun blasts even after the execution-style killings seemed over.

Stonebraker has admitted being the shooter who pointed his weapon at Mrs. Spencer, intentionally aiming high and hitting the couch behind her. Trailing buckshot, however, famously ripped the wig from her head, which in the darkness made the intruders think they'd blown her head off.

Wounded, Mrs. Spencer bravely struggled to her feet and stumbled to a neighbor's home to call police and set in motion the manhunt that brought the four killers to justice.

Over the years, Wright and Stonebraker have applied for clemency multiple times but the Parole Board has never granted their requests.

What makes the Smith case more interesting at this time is that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision (Miller v. Alabama) has effectively ruled Indiana's 1977 sentencing law unconstitutional. Under that law, only two sentencing choices existed -- life in prison or the death penalty. The Alabama case ruling said it was unconstitutional for a juvenile -- as Smith was -- to receive a life sentence. Thus Smith ostensibly should have been given a fixed-year term and a date for which he could have applied for parole.

The Indiana Attorney General's Office has argued that the Supreme Court ruling should not be retroactive in the Smith case, effectively rendering moot Smith's petition for post-conviction relief in the case.

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  • NO WAY. LET HIM ROT IN PRISON.

    -- Posted by Queen53 on Mon, Jul 25, 2016, at 8:38 AM
  • T0 HELL with the Supreme Court, these guys should rot in prison. They should have been executed anyway!!!!!!!!!

    -- Posted by becker on Tue, Jul 26, 2016, at 10:38 AM
  • "Thrill killings" should have no possibility of parole.

    -- Posted by Emmes on Tue, Jul 26, 2016, at 11:29 AM
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