A Mountain Home woman, Christina Scoggin, convicted of manslaughter in 2015 in the death of Raul Turrieta, III, has had her parole denied for a second time.
Her second parole hearing request was held Thursday, with the decision released Monday.
A spokesperson for the Arkansas Parole Board says the decision was based on the nature and seriousness of the crime, the crime involving a death, and a weapon being used. These are the same reasons given for Scroggin’s parole request denial in 2016.
Scroggin was sentenced to eight years in prison for Turrieta’s death. Turrieta was shot to death in 2013 on a remote road in Marion County where the couple stopped on a trip back to Mountain Home from Little Rock.
Scroggin was convicted by a Marion County jury of manslaughter after the state had originally charged her with first-degree murder. An eight-woman, four-man jury rejected that charge and opted instead for the lesser included offense of manslaughter. In these instances juries have the option of finding a person guilty of a lesser included offense if they have reasonable doubt as to guilt in the more serious offense.
Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery told KTLO, Classic Hits 101.7 and The Boot news in January he and 14th Judicial District Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kerry Chism planned to testify again against Scroggin’s request.
Sheriff Montgomery, Chism and former Marion County Sheriff Joan Vickers were at the 2016 hearing and testified against her release.
Scroggin was moved from the McPherson Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction in Newport in June, 2017 and is now in the custody of the Tucker Re-Entry Center. These centers are set up to assist inmates in re-entering society.
She will have to wait two years before making a further request for parole.
According to online Arkansas Department of Correction records, Scroggin had completed programs in mental health, anger management, domestic violence and parenting since her incarceration.
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