AUDASE

Child killer's parole urged
Boston Globe
NATICK -- A Northeastern University criminologist endorsed releasing Rod Matthews from state prison yesterday, saying the former Canton man has a different brain today than he did in 1986, when he slaughtered a high school classmate with a baseball bat.
John R. Ellement
May 16, 2007
Child killer's parole urged
Criminologist sees a new Matthews
By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff May 16, 2007
NATICK -- A Northeastern University criminologist endorsed releasing Rod Matthews from state prison yesterday, saying the former Canton man has a different brain today than he did in 1986, when he slaughtered a high school classmate with a baseball bat.
James Alan Fox testified before the Massachusetts Parole Board that recent studies about teenage cognitive development have convinced him that the public need not fear the 34-year-old Matthews, who was 14 when he murdered Shaun Ouillette in Canton.
"I don't see it happening again," Fox said. "The Rod Matthews who was able to plan a cold- blooded murder . . . that's not him today."
Fox, whose testimony on behalf of Matthews was described by Ouillette's mother as betrayal, also said that Matthews has matured emotionally during his 20 years in prison and has been in prison longer than adults convicted of second-degree murder, as he was. He was tried as an adult, convicted of second-degree murder, and sentenced to a life term, but was eligible for parole after 15 years.
Speaking on his own behalf, Matthews said that after years of individual and group counseling, he now has a better understanding of why he plotted the death of Ouillette and then carried it out with ruthless precision after coaxing the victim into a wooded area under the guise of building a fort. After the killing, he said, he went home and did his homework.
He said he was angry at the breakup of his parents' marriage, but had no one in his family he could turn to for comfort. "I was angry, and I wanted to take it out on him," he said of Ouillette. "I did not know how to deal with it."
In addition to being a "troubled kid," Matthews said he recent ly remembered that he was sexually abused by a man who kidnapped him from a bowling alley where he had been with his mother when he was about 10. He said he escaped by kicking the man in the shin.
Parole Board chairwoman Maureen Walsh pressed Matthews. She pointed out that during his 1988 trial, he argued that he had been mentally ill and that later he blamed use of the drug Ritalin for treatment of attention deficit disorder. And in 2001, when he first appeared before the board, Walsh reminded him, he testified that he was not sure why he killed Ouillette and also said that he could not guarantee he would not harm anyone again.
Matthews, whose voice occasionally broke with emotion, said therapy has led him to abandon all prior explanations. He was not mentally ill nor driven to kill by Ritalin, he said.
"I truly believe that what I went through in my life, all those little things, added up," he said.
Fox has followed the case throughout, attended Matthews's trial and developed a friendship with Ouillette's family, especially the slain teenager's mother, Jeanne Quinn. He said that Matthews contacted him last year and that he met with him for a total of about 15 hours. It was from those meetings he formed his conclusions, Fox said.
Along with Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating, five of Ouillette's relatives urged the board to keep Matthews jailed. Ouillette's grandmother, Carol Oteri Puffin, pointed at Matthews and in a strong voice reminded the board that Matthews was once diagnosed as a psychopath.
"There is something wrong, mentally wrong with this boy," she said. "He is still a problem . . . Help us."
Quinn, Ouillette's mother, said she was not asking for Matthews's continued imprisonment to avenge the loss of her only son. "I am not here for vengeance," she said. "I am here to keep us all safe."
A decision by the board is not expected for at least a month.