Authorities on Friday arrested parole violator George Walker, a man who had eluded law enforcement since December after a third violation.
"George Walker was arrested today by law enforcement in Columbus on his parole violation and was taken into custody," said JoEllen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Walker, 66, was arrested two days after The Dispatch reported on Walker's history of parole violations after he was convicted and imprisoned for two armed robberies on Jan. 21, 1986, one at a service station at East 17th and Woodland avenues on the Northeast Side and another later at The Clarmont restaurant on South High Street in German Village.
Walker was sentenced to 133 years to 214 years for the robberies. But he ultimately was paroled twice, each time violating parole.
He was sent back to prison. In July 2018, the Ohio Parole Board denied his request for a third parole. But Walker became eligible for parole in 2021, and after a July 8 hearing, the parole board granted his release. Walker was out again on Sept. 8.
He violated his parole a third time, and the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction had listed him as a violator-at-large since Dec. 22.
Retired Columbus police Cmdr. Bob Meader, who filed an objection to Walker's release in 2018, said he was told Walker was arrested at a McGuffey Road address in South Linden. Meader said the U.S. Marshals Service found Walker at the address and then called Columbus police to help.
"My hope is that the parole board will stop giving him chances to be a recidivist," Meader said.
"In other words, keep him locked up," he said.
https://eu.dispatch.com/story/news/2022/04/15/man-who-skipped-parole-third-time-arrested-columbus-friday/9537502002/
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