After spending just over 35 years behind bars, Mark J. Wilson, who was found guilty of the infamous 1987 murder of a Terrebonne couple, was released from an Oregon prison Thursday morning.
The Oregon Justice Resource Center, which had advocated for Wilson before the state Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision, is likely to employ Wilson, 55, as a policy associate and legal assistant after he was released to supervision in Multnomah County.
In 2019, the board came to the conclusion that Wilson was probably going to get better.
At 8:28 a.m., he left Oregon State Correctional Institution.
Less than a year has passed since the Oregon Department of Corrections reached a deal in March that promised to pay Wilson $50,000, erase his disciplinary, and process his request for a reduction in his prison term, without necessarily recommending it.According to court documents, Wilson, who was defended by attorneys from the Oregon Justice Resource Center, sued the state in 2021, alleging that he was put in segregation by prisons officials as payback for his campaigning on behalf of inmates.
At the age of 18, Wilson used a.22-caliber rifle to shoot 53-year-old Rod Houser 20 times in the middle of the night on the front porch of Houser’s home. Randy Guzek, a co-defendant, discovered Lois Houser, 49, screaming at the top of a staircase in the couple’s house and used a.32-caliber pistol to shoot her in the head, heart, and stomach.
After that, Wilson and Guzek pillaged the residence. Before they ran away, they sliced Houser’s neck to make it appear like a cult murder and left the family Bible on his breast.
Shortly after, Wilson admitted to the crime and entered a guilty plea to felony murder and aggravated murder. In 1988, he received two consecutive life sentences with the prospect of release. He was detained for 35 years and 8 months.
The victim’s family attorney, Meg Garvin, had pleaded with the parole board to put Wilson behind bars for a minimum of 40 years. They contended that this was a provision of the plea deal: life in prison with the potential for parole following a minimum of 30 years of consecutive aggravated murder and a minimum of 10 years of felony murder.
She stated on Thursday that they are dissatisfied with a flawed system that makes the truth in punishment a movable target.
According to the Corrections Department, Guzek, who is 55 years old and was found guilty of aggravated murder, is still being held at the Oregon State Penitentiary with no anticipated date of release. He was first put on death row, but in December 2022, Governor Kate Brown abolished it. The California Court of Appeals is currently considering the state’s appeal of an order allowing Guzek what would be his fifth trial.
Wilson serves as a special adviser to the Oregon Justice Resource Center’s attorneys, offering advice on matters pertaining to prison reform and education.
We’re thrilled to have him join the team, the center’s executive director, Bobbin Singh, stated on Thursday.
After the jail put Wilson in solitary confinement for having access to a plastic toy phone—alleged contraband—Wilson filed a lawsuit against the state. Wilson was thrown in segregation for 120 days and lost his prison employment as a legal assistant, according to the Corrections Department, for possessing the toy phone and compromising the prison library coordinator at the medium-security prison in Salem.
In a sworn affidavit filed with the court, the prison library coordinator, who left while the case was still being investigated, said that she placed the toy phone on the desk where Wilson regularly worked as a joke because he was receiving a lot of calls from outside lawyers. Wilson left it in place.
As part of the settlement, the Corrections Department consented to process Wilson’s request for a positive recommendation for his prison term reduction, lift a restriction that prevented him from using the prison law library, and dismiss any disciplinary findings. The state denied any blame or liability.
— Maxine Bernstein writes about criminal justice and federal courts. You can contact her via [email protected], 503-221-8212, X@maxoregonian, or LinkedIn.
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Learn more about the case here:
Part 1 of Part 5: Randy Guzek Like the murderer, a terrible crime story never ends.
Randy Guzek (Part 2 of 5): A family is befallen by evil, plans are altered, and there is a knock on the door
Randy Guzek (Part 3 of 5): Killers are identified by abused girl’s telltale signs
Part 4 of 5: Randy Guzek: Another opportunity to escape death—for the murderer, not his victims
Randy Guzek (Part 5 of 5): Even hope has its limits when evil reigns.
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