Flight risk keeps teenager’s killer in jail
Metal bars and fences aren’t the only things keeping convicted killer Roberto Guardado in prison after more than 12 years.
A looming deportation order has created a paradox that has left authorities unwilling to release him from prison: The Parole Board of Canada says Guardado must gradually adjust to life outside prison through temporary passes or by moving to minimum security, but he’s considered too much of a flight risk to be granted those privileges prior to being sent back to his native El Salvador.
Guardado, 32, is serving a life sentence for seconddegree murder for stabbing 17-year-old Clayton McGloan during a swarming attack at a Halloween party in northeast Calgary in 1998.
Following a hearing at Drumheller Institution last week, the parole board rejected Guardado’s bid to be released from prison — the third time he’s been turned down.
“While the board acknowledges the positive progress you have made more recently in the institution, you have not yet had the opportunity to use these skills, values and attitudes in a less structured environment where you can build credibility,” the parole board said in a written decision.
Roberto Guardado was 17 and his brother, Nelson, was 15 when they attacked McGloan as he confronted an unwelcome group at a house party in Coral Springs.
Prosecutors successfully elevated the case to adult court, where Roberto Guardado received a mandatory life sentence after being convicted of murder.
The conviction earned the brothers deportation orders, because no one in the family became Canadian citizens after fleeing El Salvador’s bloody civil war in 1984.
Nelson Guardado, 30, was deported to El Salvador in 2007 after serving a five-year sentence for manslaughter.
Roberto Guardado, who said he has become a devout Christian during his time in prison, said he has made arrangements with his brother and a missionary group to support him in El Salvador.
However, during a meeting with the parole board in August, Roberto Guardado admitted he hadn’t spoken to his brother in more than a year.
The parole board adjourned the hearing until last week to give Roberto Guardado more time to prepare his release plan.
The prison chaplain, who supports Guardado’s parole application, told the board he was able to contact Nelson Guardado in El Salvador and arrange for him to meet Roberto Guardado once he’s deported.
“Both the chaplain and your parole officer acknowledge that you would be considered a free man overseas and would not be monitored,” the parole board wrote.
That wasn’t considered adequate supervision in light of their assessment Guardado remains a risk to reoffend and a concern he hasn’t fully grasped the impact of his crime.
“You made no mention (of McGloan) or the impact on the victim’s family, your family or the community at large, suggesting little victim empathy,” wrote the board.
Under normal circumstances, offenders serving lengthy sentences work their way toward parole with temporary passes and by getting transferred to minimum security institutions. Drumheller and other medium-security prisons have minimum-security annexes where inmates live in a less-structured environment outside the prison’s secure perimeter.
However, because of concern Guardado would try to evade deportation, authorities are unwilling to let him leave Drumheller.
“The community corrections liaison officer has offered the comments that he considers your risk for flight high,” the parole board said.