Parole denied for David Smith
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Parole Board has denied an early release to one of the four men sentenced to four life sentences for a 1977 western Indiana home invasion that left three teenage brothers and their step-brother dead.
David Smith appeared before the parole board this week, nearly 39 years after he was convicted of the four counts of murder in the Hollandsburg shotgun slayings of four members of the Keith and Betty Jane Spencer family: Gregory Brooks, 22, and brothers Raymond, 17, Reeve, 16, and Ralph Spencer, 14.
Smith was 17 at the time. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled this year that mandatory life sentences with no parole should not apply to juveniles convicted of murder, allowing Smith a parole hearing.
Ringleader Roger Drollinger died of apparent natural causes at age 60 in January 2014 at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility.
Smith and the two remaining co-conspirators, Daniel Stonebraker and Michael W. Wright, all remain incarcerated in Pendleton Correctional Facility.
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.
Betty Jane Spencer was also home at the time of the invasion and murders. She was not killed when trailing buckshot instead ripped the wig from her head, making 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.