Torturer’s bid for release rejected
Parole board orders continued detention
Being “too busy” to attend drug treatment in prison has earned a Calgary man who tortured a murder witness more time behind bars to attend counselling sessions.
Travis Erskine, 33, is serving a 10year sentence for several convictions, most of which stemmed from the prolonged torture and beating of a man who knew about the 2004 killing of Jennifer Renn.
The Parole Board of Canada took the relatively uncommon step last week of ordering the continued detention of Travis Erskine, despite the fact he has been eligible for legally-mandated statutory release since 2011.
The board noted Erskine made small gains in a violence prevention program, but criticized him for not taking drug treatment even though addiction greatly contributed to his criminal offences.
“You have shown signs of progress. However, it appears as though they have not been sustainable, even within the controlled and structured environment of a federal penitentiary,” the parole board wrote in a review of Erskine’s case.
To his credit, Erskine has been working as an advocate for inmates’ grievances, but the parole board noted he was using his role as an excuse to skip drug treatment.
“It is a concern whether you have focused your time on this activity rather than focusing on personal growth; one of the reasons you have provided for not attending substance abuse programming was that you were too busy,” the board wrote.
In February 2004, Erskine borrowed Darin Davies’ car to help dispose of the body of Jennifer Renn, who was strangled in front of several other people inside a room at the Savory Lodge in northwest Calgary.
Elizabeth Laverne Roberts attacked and killed Renn, 29, because she be- lieved the woman was an informant who told police about drug dealing happening in the motel room.
A few days later, Erskine and two accomplices abducted Davies and tortured him for hours because they believed he had spoken to police about the case.
Erskine carved the word “RAT” on Davies’ forehead and injected him with HIV-tainted blood.
“Part of the assault involved poking him with a needle contaminated with an accomplice’s purportedly infected blood,” the parole board said.
Federal legislation entitles offenders to serve the final one-third of their sentence in the community under supervision if they haven’t earned parole by then.
The only offenders not eligible for statutory release are inmates serving life sentences — or those deemed too dangerous to be released early, as the parole board decided in Erskine’s case.
Erskine is entitled to an annual review of the detention order keeping him in prison.
If he is not freed sooner, Erskine will be released when his sentence expires in July 2014,
Roberts, meanwhile, was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009 for killing Renn. A judge imposed a life sentence with no chance of parole for 14 years.