PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Sara Jones was 14 when her aunt, Barbara Thomas, was brutally beaten and murdered by her own son and 4 other teens in her central Oregon home in 2001. The group, known as the Redmond Five, made national headlines.
One of those teens was 16-year-old Lucretia Karle. In September 2021, Gov. Kate Brown ordered her release from prison 4 years early. Now in her mid-30s, Karle was released to Yamhill County.
“It reopens the wound every time we think that we’re just to that point where, OK, everything is going the way it should, and one of them files an appeal or one of them files for clemency,” Jones told KOIN 6 News.
Lucretia Karle’s petition
In her 128-page petition for commutation Karle wrote: “I have spent the past 18 years coming to terms with the pain I have caused others, striving each and every day to understand and improve myself,” including doing jobs and learning trades inside the prison walls.
Karle wrote about learning to train dogs and a hopeful future.
Her lawyer told Gov. Brown she was an unwilling participant in the murder. “Despite not being the person that killed Barbara Thomas nor the one that participated in the violence that preceded it, Lucretia was portrayed as being equally culpable as her 4 co-defendants.”
By the age of 13, her lawyer wrote, “Lucretia had suffered sexual assault,” was living with “her parents’ drug addiction” which “led to Lucretia’s rapid downfall. Longing for acceptance, seeking adventure and hoping for an escape from reality, Lucretia began acting out,” and eventually fell in with the wrong crowd.
“If all that happened, that is wrong,” Jones told KOIN 6 News. “But that’s not an excuse to be, like, ‘Hey, yeah, I’m going to help kill your mom.'”
Letters to the governor
The Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office told Gov. Brown, “At no time did inmate Karle do anything to stop the horrific events. … Rather, inmate Karle played an integral role in discussing, planning, and executing the robbery, beating and murder of Barbara Thomas.”
“If all that happened, that is wrong. But that’s not an excuse to be, like, ‘Hey, yeah, I’m going to help kill your mom.'”
— Sara Jones
Jones wrote her own letter to the governor.
“Anything less than the full 25 year sentence would be a blatant injustice to my aunt and a slap in the face to my family,” she wrote.
Her parents also wrote to Brown. “This young woman, who is so proud of her accomplishments while in prison, has never in the last 18 years tried to contact us to apologize for her actions or lack of action that day.”
Joyce Pequeno’s petition
In her 203-page petition for commutation Joyce Pequeno described “her childhood as a crazy world of violence”.
Her lawyer, Venetia Mayhew touted Pequeno’s own rehabilitation in prison as “a brave, warm, inspiring, and accomplished young woman who has great aspirations for a happy and healthy future.”
In 2008 Pequeno was 15 when she and her boyfriend, Juan Carlos Silva, killed Salvador Rovalledo-Vivare in Salem over money.
Mayhew wrote “she had not slept for several days due to binging on methamphetamine, was in no state to think coherently. She eventually pulled the trigger not fully comprehending what she was doing.”
Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson objected to her early release, telling the governor Pequeno and her lawyer were distorting the facts.
“The truth is that the murder of Salvador Rovalledo-Vivare was a planned execution,” wrote Clarkson. “The petition supplements this narrative with various misleading ‘facts’ that further paint the inaccurate picture of this tragic incident.”
“To be clear, this was not an accident. The defendant knew the gun was loaded, she cocked it and she intentionally pulled the trigger in anger.”
–Marion county da paige clarkson
“To be clear, this was not an accident. The defendant knew the gun was loaded, she cocked it and she intentionally pulled the trigger in anger,” said Clarkson.
Pequeno’s victim’s family also asked the governor to make Pequeno complete the entire 21-year sentence she agreed to serve in a plea bargain.
“…(T)heir family is still very traumatized by this murder,” wrote Clarkson on behalf of Rovalledo-Vivare’s sister. “She wanted you to consider the pain of their mother who was unable to give her son a proper blessing or kiss his face at the funeral because his face had been destroyed by the defendant.”
Frustration
Despite multiple requests from KOIN 6 News, Gov. Brown has not agreed to be interviewed about these cases. Her spokesperson said Lucretia Karle and Joyce Pequeno were released “in recognition of their extraordinary rehabilitation.”
“The Governor carefully reviewed the applications and sought, received, and reviewed input from the respective District Attorney’s office, as well as from victim family members,” wrote Press Secretary Liz Merah.
Joyce Pequeno and Lucretia Karle declined interview requests from KOIN 6 News, as did their lawyers.
But Sara Jones and her parents feel ignored after all these years since the brutal killing of their loved one, Barbara Thomas. She said it’s frustrating the governor’s office has not reached out to her or the family.
“Very much so, especially for them to be, ‘Yeah, we reached to them.’ Maybe they reached out to everybody else’s family, but not mine.”
Karle’s lawyer, Aliza Kaplan, is a professor at Lewis and Clark Law School and Director of their Criminal Justice Reform Clinic and arguably the leading clemency advocate in Oregon. In November 2021, she told KOIN 6 News she sees prisoners change often.
“I see people transform and change all the time and believe in the ability for youth, especially, to make those changes because I’ve seen it, you know, directly so many times.”
— Aliza kaplan
“I see people transform and change all the time and believe in the ability for youth, especially, to make those changes because I’ve seen it, you know, directly so many times,” Kaplan said then.
The Oregon Constitution gives the governor absolute power to cut prison sentences short. In these cases, the governor put in a stipulation she can revoke the commutation if the women break any laws.
Three other members of the Redmond Five have applied to the Parole Board for early release hearings under the Governor’s order: Ashley Summers, Seth Koch, and Justin Link. The Parole Board has scheduled Link’s hearing for June 15. So far, 28 inmates convicted as juveniles have applied for hearings, including 21 who are in prison for murder or manslaughter.