Worcester man in ’94 shooting of police chief seeks parole
A former Worcester man who has spent virtually half his life behind bars for his hand in the 1994 murder of Paxton police Chief Robert J. Mortell will make his first argument for freedom this week before the state Parole Board.
Jamie C. Richards, one of three men sentenced to life for killing Mortell, a 38-year-old father of three, has an initial hearing scheduled for Thursday.
Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. will attend in opposition, though it is unclear whether he will testify.
“He does strongly oppose his release,” Early spokeswoman Lindsay Corcoran said, adding further comment from their office will be reserved for the hearing.
Attempts to reach Mortell’s family have been unsuccessful.
Richards was 22 when he, Michael Souza, 25, and Kenneth Padgett, 22, all suspects in a series of housebreaks in Holden and an armed carjacking, were arrested for Mortell’s fatal shooting in woods off Route 31.
Mortell had been asked by Holden police to help track the men on foot through snow on Feb.
1, 1994.
Mortell “radioed his location and indicated that he had seen them (the suspects),” according to a parole board decision for Padgett in 2014. “He followed the three into the woods, leaving his car on the road.”
A second Paxton police officer following the four sets of footprints in the snow, “heard about thirteen gunshots and came upon the Chief seconds later, leaning against a tree. Chief Mortell had been shot, and succumbed to injuries soon after arriving at the hospital.”
Retired Holden police Detective Al Bourget, who had asked Mortell to help out, told the Herald in 2009 his friend’s murder “was an out-and-out cold-blooded killing.”
Mortell, he said, “loved people and he did the best by even the bad guys.”
Souza was convicted of shooting Mortell with a 9mm semi-automatic. He is serving life with no chance of parole.
Padgett was convicted of second-degree murder. He was most recently denied parole in 2014. Board members unanimously agreed he was not rehabilitated and needed to address his “racial and religious hatred” before they hear from him again in 2019.
In 1998, Richards was sentenced to four life terms for his guilty plea to the armed holdup of a bank in Auburn approximately one month before Mortell’s murder. Those sentences were imposed to run concurrent with his life sentence for the homicide.