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NILES -- A man serving a 30-years-to-life sentence for a 1982 shooting of a Niles police officer will have to wait another six years for a shot at parole.
According to a news release from the Trumbull County Prosecutor's Office, a coordinator of the county's victim witness division learned from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction this week that Fred Joseph Jr., 60, has been denied parole after a late July hearing.
Joseph, who is incarcerated at Toledo Correctional Institution, will have his next parole hearing in May 2032.
Niles Police Officer John Utlak, who was 26 at the time, was shot and killed Dec. 8, 1982, after he told his partner he was scheduled to meet informants Joseph, 17, and Randy Fellows, 18, in a Mineral Ridge parking lot.
The documentation states Joseph went to speak with Utlak, pulled a gun and shot the officer in the head as he approached him. He and Fellows robbed Utlak of $400, a watch, his service revolver, a two-way radio and a shotgun, leaving him to die in the snowy parking lot.
Joseph and Fellows were arrested in Wyoming, and a jury found Fellows guilty of aggravated murder that year.
A second jury found Joseph guilty of one count of aggravated murder, and both men were given a sentence of 30-years-to-life in prison.
Joseph had an attempt at parole that was denied in 2021 by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority, with this year being his next opportunity to obtain it since he was a juvenile offender.
Fellows, now 61, had an attempt denied in 2022, and his next opportunity will come in 2032.
In his letter opposing parole, Watkins stated Joseph does not qualify for parole because of the heinousness of his crime, his future dangerousness and his record of not learning from past mistakes, according to the release.
Watkins noted that this was evidenced by his poor in-prison behavioral record, which included "constant spewing of hateful epithets and violence to others no matter who you are."
The release states Joseph's prison infraction record includes a recent history of 27 incidents and 46 violations of breaking prison rules and verbally abusing correction officers.
The letter included a conversation between then-prison guard Doug Sollitto and Joseph in 1994 at the Trumbull Correctional Institution in Leavittsburg, where Joseph acknowledged personally shooting Utlak.
"We were having a conversation, and he admitted, because I said, 'Fellows and, who did it?' and he said, 'Fellows didn't have the balls to do that,'" said Sollitto, who recalled the conversation in June. "He said, 'I'm the one who took that b-- out,' referring to Utlak."
"And he says, 'They can't keep me in here forever; and when they do, I'm going to sit across the street from that police station and wait for them to walk out,' and he took his finger like, like I said in another interview -- like a gun -- ping, ping, ping, 'and then they can take me right back to where I left.'"
Watkins said he was pleased with the parole board's decision and happy for Utlak's surviving family, including his sister Joanne Robbins, and his partner Bob Ludt.
"This office views him (Joseph) as "a safety hazard," a man who has, can and will spew out hatred and violence without a moment's notice even while in prison," Watkins said. "Fred Joseph does not qualify to get in the return-to-society recycling bin of inmates; he needs imprisonment until he dies."
Watkins noted that Joseph missed a death penalty sentence "by days" because he was 17 when he killed Utlak.