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WARREN -- A Trumbull County man who was convicted of a 1976 fatal shooting at a tavern near Lake Milton is facing a parole hearing this month, and the county prosecutor is opposing the bid.
Gary A. Betz had three times previously received parole, including in 2007, after serving 30 years in prison for the murder of Newton Township tavern owner Ronald Goche. However, Betz violated the terms of his release in 2011 because of drunken driving offenses in Carroll and Columbiana counties, and he was returned to prison.
He gets another chance at freedom by interviewing with three members of the Ohio Adult Parole Authority later this month outside his cell at the Marion Correctional Institution. If Betz succeeds at parole, it would be a present for his 68th birthday that comes Tuesday.
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins late last month wrote a letter to the parole board, noting that his office has "relentlessly and unabashedly pursued justice" in this case. Betz had undergone two full board parole hearings -- including one on Jan. 16, 2020 -- and Watkins told board members nothing has changed since his last correspondence, writtten on Sept. 27, 2019.
"As the facts show what Betz did is one of the worst of the worst cold-blooded premeditated murder of a helpless person one could envision," Watkins wrote.
Watkins noted he had been released on parole twice before committing the murder of Goche. In Nov. 20, 1975, recrods show Betz was sentenced to the Ohio State Penitentiary on a breaking and entering conviction in Columbiana County. He was paroled about a month before Goche was murdered, Watkins said.
Testimony at the trial before a three-judge panel in 1977 indicated that Betz shot Goche in the face with a sawed-off shotgun at point-blank range. The man came into Goche's bar -- the Riviera Inn -- to rob it. A witness told the court he overheard the bar owner tell Betz to take the day's receipts of $138 and he wouldn't call authorities. Betz fatally shot Goche anyway, Watkins said.
"Only a sociopath could commit such a crime, and that is why he always will be a risk to the public," Watkins writes the parole board. "Please don't release him on parole for the fourth time. Just say no!"
According to past letters from Watkins, Betz told the parole board in 2007 he had an autoimmune deficiency that causes skin and joint problems and that 50 percent of victims die within five years, but Watkins said he was not allowed to examine medical evidence of the condition. Now some 15 years later, Watkins said, Betz is still very much alive and again asking for freedom.
Attempts were unsuccessful in contacting a lawyer with the Public Defender's Office to talk about Betz's case for parole.
gvogrin@tribtoday.com