Loner turned killer

Briner had spent the night of May 20, 1976, drinking and doing drugs with other students who were celebrating the semester’s end. About all he had in common with Walsh was their work shift. At West Aurora High School, Briner was known as an awkward kid. Although he was 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, people felt sorry for him.

He had been enrolled at 22 schools in his first 10 years of schooling. He had been a ward of the state since his mother kicked him out when he was 14. He rarely dated and had few friends..

Around 4 a.m. May 21, 1976, Walsh woke Briner up and told the intoxicated guard to check out. He started to leave, but fell asleep again in the Physical Properties Building. He woke up when Walsh was ending her shift around 5:30 a.m.

Briner tried to put his arm around Walsh, but she slapped him twice. When she tried a third time, he started swinging back. As Walsh kicked and hit Briner, he beat her with a tape dispenser. She fell several times. Each time she got up, he hit her again. He broke her ribs, her breast bone and punched her in the throat so hard she suffocated.

At some point, he raped her in a bathroom, where her body was found two hours later. Within hours, Briner had provided police with a written confession. Five months after he killed Walsh, Briner pleaded guilty to murder. He was sentenced to 30 to 90 years in prison, though he would be eligible for release in as little as eight years. (Two years later, the state went to specific sentences.)

But less than two weeks ago, after serving 36 years and two months, Briner was released. He is serving his parole in Indiana, and he has to check in with a parole officer every week.

Briner said after seven years of counseling, he is confident he has changed. The urges that once controlled him are gone, he said.

He said he was a troubled kid at the time of the murder. He had a sexual relationship with one of his teachers at 14, he said. His mother threw him out when her third husband didn’t like him.

“There was a whole lot going on that people didn’t know about,” he said. “But that still don’t explain it away. There’s nothing that can explain away what I did. There’s no excuses. I wish it had never happened.”

Briner said he thinks about the murder all the time.

“I wish it had never happened,” he said. “I’m sorry for what happened. I can’t change it. I just have to try to go on.”