Parolee oversight an issue in death

In year, suspect often in trouble

By Adam Wallworth

Posted: August 9, 2009 at 7:31 a.m.

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FAYETTEVILLE — Ricky Ray Anderson's 13 months of freedom were marked by four arrests, two orders of protection and a marriage.

The convicted robber now is back in jail, this time in Washington County, facing a capital murder charge for the slaying of a former girlfriend. A conviction would mean life in prison or the death penalty.

Arkansas parole officers spent six months trying to get Anderson, 41, to live within the law before unsuccessfully asking Oklahoma officials to take him back, citing several reported parole violations.

"Everything is challenging for people who make poor choices in life," said Rhonda Sharp,spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Community Correction, which oversees parolees. "Our role is to help them make good choices in life."

After more than a decade in an Oklahoma prison, Anderson became one of 732 parolees allowed to enter Arkansas from other states as part of the Interstate Compact for the Supervision of Adult Parolees and Probationers, Sharp said. He has since joined more than 470 inmates of the Washington County jail, where he is being held on the capital murder charge and criminal mischief counts.

Jill Lynn Ulmer, 26, died June 26 from a combination of 25-30 stab wounds and a gunshot wound to the head. The bullet was fired at Anderson by Fayetteville police, who say he was stabbing Ulmer repeatedly at the time. An investigation revealed that the bullet ricocheted and struck her.

Anderson wasn't hit.

Judith Selle, executive director of the Fayetteville-based Peace at Home Family Shelter, believes the attack wouldn't have happened had Arkansas and Oklahoma parole officers acted differently.

"I don't understand why he was on the streets," she said. "That's what could have stopped this thing - if they would have stopped his parole."

Selle believes Anderson's parole should have been revoked after Ulmer reported he was using drugs or after he broke into her apartment. Anderson and Ulmer lived together for a while even after he got married last year to another woman in Oklahoma.

Selle said that authorities don't take crimes against domestic partners as seriously as crimes against a stranger.

"I believe if he would have broken into a stranger's house, his parole would have been revoked," she said.

CHARGES ADD UP

Parole officers can't revoke an offender's parole, but can recommend it following reports of criminal activity or other violations, said G. David Guntharp, director of the Arkansas Department of Community Correction.

The interstate compact is a legal agreement among states that includes regulations for the transfer of supervision of adult offenders. If there is a parole violation, parole officers must ask the state where the original crime occurred to revoke parole.

Arkansas parole officer Heather Allison asked Oklahoma to revoke Anderson's parole on June 11, when she sent a violation report to Oklahoma after Anderson was arrested on a charge of criminal mischief.

Anderson told police that he and Ulmer had just broken up and he had gone to their apartment to retrieve some of his belongings. While inside, he destroyed about $1,650 worth of Ulmer's property, according to a preliminary felony report. His name was on the lease and he had a key, court records show.

Allison's parole violation report states that Anderson had not entered or completed anger management and substance abuse treatment programs, as required by his parole. He also failed to regularly pay his monthly $20 supervision fee.

A police report detailing the criminal mischief charge was included with the violation report, but Washington County Prosecuting Attorney John Threet said he won't release the report because of the pending criminal mischief charge.

Eight days after Allison's request for revocation was denied, Ulmer was dead.

Milton Gilliam, administrator of parole and interstate service for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, said he wasn't given a full report of Anderson's possible violations - including drunken driving, threats and a report of drug use from Ulmer's first request for an order of protection - when he declined to revoke Anderson's parole.

"Basically, what I knew was he had pending criminal mischief charges," Gilliam said.

Ulmer first sought an order of protection on Feb. 5, saying she caught Anderson smoking crack cocaine in their apartment. Ulmer feared Anderson would kill her for telling his parole officer he was using drugs, court records show.

Anderson spent five days in jail, after which he and Ulmer reconciled and she dropped the order of protection.

Sharp said Oklahoma officials weren't informed of the February arrest because Arkansas officials thought the problem was resolved. She said Anderson wasn't living where he was supposed to be, but she wouldn't say that he was living with Ulmer rather than his wife, Cheryl Rae Barker, 51, a former prison nurse who had moved to Farmington from Oklahoma.

Ulmer stated in her first petition for an order of protection that she and Anderson had been living together since October. Anderson and Barker's marriage license was recorded on Oct. 17, 2008.

One of the conditions of the compact is that an offender lives with relatives or a spouse, but living elsewhere doesn't necessarily warrant revocation, Guntharp said. He said if a man is living with a girlfriend, that might be a violation of his supervision, but living with the spouse may not be an option.

Gilliam wouldn't speculate on whether he would have made a different decision about Anderson if he'd had more information.

"I acted on the best information I had at the time," he said.

PAROLE TRANSFER

It's not clear whether Anderson violated his parole by being in Arkansas before Dec. 31, when his parole was transferred.

Jerry Massie, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, said reports had been made that Anderson had been in Arkansas before that date.

Anderson was allowed to transfer his parole so he could move in with Barker in Farmington. He met with his Arkansas parole officer for the first time on Jan. 7, 2009.

Farmington Police Chief Brian Hubbard said he is confident his officer notified Oklahoma officials of a Sept. 13 drunken driving arrest in his town.

Hubbard said his officers were called to Anderson's house several times, but not because of him. He said Anderson's wife and her son were prone to fight and that Anderson just happened to be there.

Gilliam said technical violations, such as failing a drug test,usually do not result in revocation of parole, although a new felony conviction likely would be enough.

However, because Anderson had only been charged with crimes but not yet tried or convicted, it would be harder to return him to prison, Gilliamsaid.

Gilliam said the sending state - in Anderson's case, Oklahoma - usually asks the receiving state to continue to monitor an offender until trial.

KEEPING TRACK

As of June, Arkansas had accepted responsibility for 1,720 probationers and 732 parolees from other states, Sharp said. The state had sent 1,241 parolees and 1,419 probationers to other states.

Sharp said the average caseload of a parole officer is 109 people, who are required to report anywhere from daily to once a year. Ideally, each officer would be responsible for 75-80 people, she said. Sharp said that as of the end of June, the department was responsible for 53,472 cases - 20,564 parolees, 30,472 probationers and 1,852 drug court participants.

Anderson did not attend his last meeting with his parole officer, which was scheduled June 22, the Monday after he was arrested on a charge of violating the order of protection. Ulmer was dead four days later.

Guntharp said serious incidents, such as the Ulmer case, trigger an audit of case files to see if parole officers could have done anything different. He said the parole officer did everything correctly, including informing Oklahoma of the issues.

"It's very, very unfortunate those issues got worse," Guntharp said. "We're dealing in human beings. We can't predict everything." Information for this article was contributed by Evie Blad of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

To contact this reporter:

awallworth@arkansasonline.com

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 19, 23 on 08/09/2009

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