By Vanessa Miller
Daily Camera
COLORADO — A double-murderer is headed back to prison for 22 1/2 years after prosecutors said he repeatedly violated the conditions of his community-based sentence by contacting a woman, whom he met and fell in love with.
John Engel was convicted of using a hammer to brutally beat to death his adoptive mother and grandmother a decade ago at age 14. He was originally sentenced to seven years in a youth corrections facility, followed by 32 years in prison.
A judge on Tuesday sentenced him to 25 years in prison -- with credit for 2 1/2 years he’s served in prison, jail and community corrections since his 21st birthday -- for the killings and multiple probation violations.
Last year, based on recommendations from mental-health experts and probation officials, a Boulder County District Court judge allowed him to serve the duration of his sentence at a halfway house in Boulder.
Just three months after moving to the house, Engel was arrested in October for violating the conditions of his bond by sneaking out to meet a woman he met while at the halfway house, hiding a cell phone she gave him and using e-mail accounts to communicate with her.
Engel was booked into the Boulder County Jail on those violations but was told he would get another chance at the house. That was, prosecutors said Tuesday, until Engel violated at the jail again.
“He threw away an opportunity that is unheard of in light of the crimes he committed,” said prosecutor Bruce Langer.
Engel, after his arrest, was told he couldn’t contact the woman, but he exchanged 50-some letters with her and continued to talk with her on the phone, prosecutors and his defense attorney said.
Those conversations, Langer said, painted a picture of a man “who was desperate for love” and would do anything to get it. Langer on Tuesday read excerpts from some of Engel’s letters in court. The letters, he said, had unexpected tones of “anger” and “defiance.”
“There were clear warnings that Engel would do whatever he has to do to protect what he wants in this relationship,” Langer said.
For example, he said, Engel wrote in one letter, “I would do anything and everything I could to stay in your life.”
The next day, Langer said Engel wrote, “Apparently I haven’t learned my lesson. (Explitive) it. They can’t arrest me. I’m probably gonna die in prison any way. You’re worth it. Many would say I’m just being stupid. (Explitive) them..”
Judge Carol Glowinsky said she came to her decision to send Engel back to prison for 221/2 more years based on his disobedience and risk of flight.
Not, she said, because she believes he poses a risk of violence.
“I think this is not an indication of increased risk of criminal activity,” Glowinsky said. “I think it is something else. But that something else is enough for me to not trust him in a community-based sentence any more.”
Glowinsky said she still believes Engel committed the crimes in a psychotic state, and he’s since been properly medicated. She said she believes his incarceration as a teenager affected his ability to grow up.
But, she said, he didn’t talk to someone about his needs, and he dug himself “deeper and deeper.” She called his risk of flight a “major concern” because of his failure to consider the consequences of his actions.
After Engel was resentenced to prison Tuesday, he broke down in sobs and held a friend tight for several minutes.
“No case has filled me with this amount of sadness and ambivalence and probably never will,” Glowinsky said.
Engel spoke during the hearing, admitting to breaking the rules and falling short of expectations.
“It saddens me greatly to know that I wasn’t able to live up to my full potential,” he said. “I can understand why people would look at me and perceive much of my words as lies.”
Some day, Engel said, when he’s out of prison, he hopes to help people.
“I hope to some day return to society and live my life significantly better than I did the last time around,” he said.
His father, Tom Engel -- who Engel also tried to kill in 1999 -- urged the court on Tuesday to return his son to prison for the full 32 years.
“I am extremely disappointed, once again, in my son’s behavior,” Engel said. “The night before my son committed these crimes, I’m sure I would have said the same things the defense said. He never could commit those crimes.”
Engel’s recent pattern of determination in a relationship resembles circumstances that led to his killings, Tom Engel said. That is a concern, he said.
“I just ask you judge to consider the public’s safety, the lives of the two women who are not here and rule accordingly,” he said.
Tom Engel didn’t talk after the hearing, but John Engel’s sister, Grace, said, “We wanted more years.”
Copyright 2009 Daily Camera and Boulder Publishing, LLC