Tom Clements murder suspect’s ankle bracelet stopped working days before killing

The parolee suspected in the slaying of Colorado’s prisons chief wrote in 2006 that fantasizing about torturing and killing prison staff kept him sane during his incarceration.

Evan Spencer Ebel wrote about his fantasies in a letter to someone outside prison. The letter was confiscated by guards in November 2006 and was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. A prosecutor referred to it in 2008 when Ebel was sentenced to four years in prison for punching a guard in the face.

Five days before Ebel is suspected of killing Tom Clements, his electronic monitoring bracelet stopped working.

But it wasn’t until hours before Clements was shot and killed on his doorstep that parole officers went to Ebel’s home and noticed he’d taken a large amount of clothing and apparently fled.

Ebel was not a suspect in Clements’ death immediately. A warrant was issued for his arrest on parole violations on March 20. The next day, Ebel got into a shootout with deputies in Texas and was killed.

That’s when he became a suspect in Clements’ killing.

Ebel had been a model parolee until his electronic monitoring bracelet stopped working March 14.

The new parole information was obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

A memorial service has been planned in Columbia for Clements, a long time resident of Mid-Missouri.

The service will be held Friday, April 5 at 4 p.m. at Woodcrest Chapel on West Nifong Blvd.

The Clements family attended the church when they lived in Columbia. They plan to be at the service.