Published: May 01, 2006 02:27 pm         

Wilson parole denied

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board dashed the hopes of some and issued relief to others last week as they voted to deny parole for convicted murderer Steven Wilson. Wilson went to prison in 1982 for the murder of his 11-year-old stepdaughter, Audra Matheny, who was a fifth grader at Tuttle Upper Elementary School.

According to Terry Jenks, director of parole board staff, Wilson’s parole was denied during the first stage, or jacket review, of the board’s consideration.

“Since he was denied at the first stage, he won’t go on to the second stage,” Jenks said.

At the first stage on Wednesday, April 19, the five member parole board looked over a report on Wilson created by the parole board’s in-house staff. Based on their findings, they chose to vote 5-0 against Wilson moving on to a second stage of parole consideration.

It was like time repeating itself for Wilson, who was denied moving to the second stage during his last time before the board.

“He did come up back in 2003, but didn’t get past the first stage either,” Jenks said. “He won’t come up again until April 2009. That will be his next parole consideration.”

Even 2009 will be too soon for Charles Matheny, Audra’s father, who lives in Bastrop, La.

Matheny and the rest of Audra’s paternal family hope to never see a day when Steven Wilson is released from prison. Matheny’s father, who is now deceased, asked the family before he died to never stop fighting to keep Wilson in prison.

“We promised him we’d do everything we could,” Matheny said.

This year, the family will be spared from making the trip to Oklahoma to face Wilson for the second stage of the parole hearing, although they have traveled the road many times over the past 24 years.

“I’m going to go back every year until he’s been there at least 40 years,” Matheny said.

Charles Matheny will never forget the little blonde haired girl who shared his life for the 11 short years she was alive. Neither will her friends at Tuttle Schools, or the many others who knew her.

“She was my little girl too,” said Charlotte Holder, Audra’s maternal aunt. “Audra didn’t just belong to Charles and Linda. She belonged to everybody. She was an absolute delight. She was just special.”

She was killed on May 11, 1982, at the age of 11 years, two months and two days. She was buried four days later, in a small church cemetery in Bastrop, La., not far from her father’s home.

Wilson was arrested on May 12, 1982, and convicted of murder later that year in a Grady County courtroom. He has been in prison for 24 years, and is currently held at James Crabtree Correctional Center, a medium security prison in the small farming community of Helena, in Alfalfa County, Okla.

Terry Jenks said that it is not unusual for a person convicted of murder to be denied parole. He recalled a few years ago when the board paroled a convict who had turned 80 years old and was dying of terminal cancer. That, Jenks said, was indicitive of the murderers who actually get paroled in the state of Oklahoma.