“Mass Killer” Was Actually AWOL from Mass Parole

The headline of a grim story on page B6 of today’s Boston Globe reads:

Mass. killer is charged in deaths

These deaths were the execution-style murders last Saturday of a newlywed couple in Washington State. But you have to read 2/3 of the way through the article to learn (by implication) that Daniel Thomas Tavares was actually on parole from Massachusetts:

Daniel Tavares, who was released from prison this summer, also is charged with one count of unlawful possession of a firearm. He was forbidden to have a gun as a condition of his parole. He served 16 years in Massachusetts for manslaughter in the 1991 stabbing death of his mother.

Tavares had skipped parole when released in Massachusetts this summer. The Herald story on the murder provides these details:

Tavares finished his sentence on June 14, but was immediately re-arrested on a warrant charging him with two counts of assaulting Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center prison guards during his troubled stint behind bars, Department of Correction officials said.

Worcester prosecutors requested $50,000 cash bail for each of those charges, an amount approved by Clinton District Court Judge Martha Brennan, according to court documents.

But Tavares appealed the bail and on July 16, Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman released him on personal recognizance. Tavares was freed and fled the state to marry and live in a Washington trailer with Jennifer Lynn Tavares, who met the convict at Walpole after answering an inmate personal ad. He defaulted on a July 23 court date, prosecutors said.

Personal recognizance is clearly not a concept Mr. Tavares respected. One week after his release he reneged.

So chalk up another two violent deaths for our permissive and inept criminal justice system, and one more story you’d never know about if you only read the Boston Globe.