State lawmaker offers support to Columbia business owner faced with return to prison
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.
A state law maker from Boone County is throwing her support to a local business owner facing a return to prison.
State Rep. Cheri Toalson-Reisch, R-Hallsville, said she hoped state authorities would decide to leave Dimetrious Woods on parole instead of taking him back to prison. She joined a dozen people in the Capitol building on Tuesday to deliver a letter to Gov. Mike Parson's office asking him to commute Woods' sentence.
The Missouri Supreme Court decided on Feb. 4 that Woods should not have been allowed a chance at parole in 2018. Woods wrote the case himself after the state legislature passed a law in 2014 repealing a provision that repeat drug offenders not be allowed parole. Woods was sentenced in 2007 under that law, getting 25 years in prison for drug trafficking. If revoked, Woods has more than 10 years left to serve on his prison sentence.
Reisch said it was a "travesty" the court put the future of about 120 people sentenced under the same law into limbo. A Cole County judge sided with Woods in 2017, which gave him a chance at parole. Reisch said the decision puts people like Woods, who has opened Woods Auto Spa in Columbia and helped mentor troubled youth in the area, into a bad position.
"They had an opportunity for parole, they're out, and now they may have to go back to prison," Reisch said. "So that just doesn't seem right."
Rep. Kip Kendrick, D-Columbia, said Woods appears to have done what anyone would hope someone granted parole would do. Kendrick said he was looking into potential legislative fixes to the situation, but that it would take time to do so.
"Until then, I will do what I can to ensure the Governor and his staff has the necessary information to be able to intervene on Mr. Woods behalf and commute the remainder of his sentence," Kendrick said.
Woods' attorneys, Kent Gipson and Taylor Rickard of Kansas City and Daniel Hunt of Jefferson City, have until Wednesday to ask the Supreme Court for a rehearing. If the court declines to do so, it leaves the parole decision in the hands of the Missouri Department of Corrections, which oversees probation and parole. Department spokeswoman Karen Pojmann has previously said the department would follow all court orders.
Parson could choose to commute Woods' sentence to allow for parole.
The attorneys wrote to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt last week asking him to drop the appeal of the Cole County decision. Doing so would not invalidate the Supreme Court decision, but would allow Woods to stay on parole.
Woods said he relied on his track record since his release to sway the thinking of state officials who hold his fate in their hands.
"I know that I owe it to the people for mercy, you have to show accountability, and I'm doing that everyday," Woods said. "Since my release, today, tomorrow, if I'm taking back in. I'll still have the same character."
ABC 17's Joe McLean contributed to this report.
