By Bob Fowler
Knoxville News-Sentinel
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A member of the state Board of Probation and Parole voted Tuesday to deny parole to a Roane County man who choked a woman to death during what the defendant claimed was a “rough sex game.”
Instead, Lonnie Lee White, 49, should remain behind bars and not be eligible for parole again until December 2015, board member Lisa Jones ruled.
White pleaded guilty in December 2010 to voluntary manslaughter in the death of Misty Dawn Wilmeth and received a 10-year sentence.
Wilmeth died in White’s house in March 2009, a day before her 29th birthday.
Roane County Assistant District Attorney General Frank Harvey said White “totally shot himself in the foot” during the parole hearing, conducted by videoconference from the board’s Knoxville office. White remains in prison in West Tennessee.
White gave a version of the choking death that didn’t jibe with autopsy results, Harvey said.
The defendant also denied he had a drug and alcohol problem after claiming he was drunk, on pills and “out of it” when he killed Wilmeth, Harvey said.
Authorities had also intercepted two menacing letters White sent from prison in which he threatened “arson or other violence” against people in Roane County’s Lawnville community, Harvey said. White incorrectly believed residents there had circulated a petition against him, the prosecutor said.
Harvey said Wilmeth’s mother attended the hearing and spoke “quite eloquently” against parole.
With the hearing concluded, White’s file will go to the other six Parole Board members, who will review the case. Should three other members concur with the parole denial vote, White will remain in prison.
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