XENIA — A man convicted of beating his father to death in 2007 has been denied early prison release, according to Greene County Common Pleas Court documents filed last week. The denial comes after Sean Greene, 28, formerly of Beavercreek, petitioned for judicial release and a hearing was held regarding the potential early release Thursday.
“The Court finds the testimony of the witnesses to be credible and that Defendant has made commendable progress on his road to rehabilitation,” Judge Michael Buckwalter wrote in his ruling following the hearing. “However, the admitted facts in this case demonstrate that Defendant voluntarily killed another human being in a most gruesome and brutal manner.”
Buckwalter added that Greene’s “heinous conduct … significantly outweighs any steps he has taken towards rehabilitation,” and that granting judicial release “would demean the seriousness of the Defendant’s conduct and it’s impact on the victim….”
Greene’s legal counsel, Cynthia Lennon, said she was very disappointed in the ruling, but declined to comment further on the record.
Assistant Greene County Prosecutor Adolfo Tornichio on behalf of the prosecution said, “Given the facts that Mr. Greene has taken the life of another, the state of Ohio is pleased that he will serve the sentence he received.”
Greene pleaded guilty to first degree felony voluntary manslaughter in 2008 for killing his father, Dale Greene, and was sentenced to nine years in prison. Sean is currently an inmate at the London Correctional Institute and is set to be released at the end of his full nine-year sentence in June 2017.
Reports from the 2007 incident indicate that after Dale made a comment to his son, Sean responded by pushing the other man to the ground. The conflict eventually escalated to the point where Sean reportedly then threw a lawn chair at his father, hitting him in the head, before later taking a shovel and hitting Dale in the head and jabbing him in the face.
At the Thursday hearing Sean testified extensively regarding various programs and classes he had completed while in prison, as well as his desire to further his college education upon release.
“There’s not enough time that I can do, that I can give, in three lifetimes to make up for this,” he said Thursday. “I took a life, and there’s nothing I can do to change that as much as I want to. I will live with that now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now, until I’m old, until I’m gone, I will live with this. I will carry this with me.”
The court also heard from a London Correctional Institute employee who has worked with Sean during his time in prison. She testified about Sean’s good behavior and privileges at the facility and agreed that prison had nothing further to offer him.
The testimonies of both Sean and his mother, Karla Greene, during the hearing painted a picture of a difficult childhood for the boy because of his father, referencing repeated criticisms by Dale.
