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Child Killer Michael Woodmansee to Get Early Release But Victim's Father Vows to Kill Him - ABC News
Michael Woodmansee was convicted of murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison in 1983 for the killing of 5-year-old Jason Foreman.
Rhode Island police, who spent years searching for Foreman's body, eventually found the boy's shellacked skull and bones in Woodmansee's South Kingston home. Woodmansee later confessed to the murder.
To the fury of Foreman's father, Woodmansee, who is now 52, is set to be released from prison in August, 12 years before his prison sentence is complete. He is getting out early for good behavior.
The prospect of an early release has enraged John Foreman, Jason's father.
"I will kill him if he is released," John Foreman told a radio interviewer at ABC News radio affiliate WPRO in Providence this week. "The man is a monster."
Jason's mother, Joice, died in 2000.
The early release is "shocking," Superior Court Judge Susan E. McGuirl told the Providence Journal. McGuirl was a state prosecutor in 1983 and agreed to the plea deal that avoided a trial, which could have handed Woodmansee a life sentence.
"Certainly there would not have been any anticipation of him getting out in 28 years," McGuirl told the paper.
"All of those involved knew that the defendant would be released at some time," a statement from McGuirl read in part. "We discussed with the Foreman family the defendant's possible release on parole or good time. We did not anticipate due to the condition of the defendant that he would be able to earn the maximum good-time credit."
Foreman told WPRO, "He should have gotten a life sentence, but stupidly I allowed a plea bargain to go so I wouldn't have to put up with the agony of hearing all the evidence at the time."
The details of the Woodmansee case are gruesome.
According to police reports, in the spring of 1975 Woodmansee, then 16, lured Jason Foreman into his house where he stabbed him in the chest with a kitchen knife.
Woodmansee, who lived up the street from the Foreman home, placed the body in a plastic bag and took it into the basement, eventually wrapping the remains in a rug and burying them in a trunk.
Despite one of the largest search details in Rhode Island history, encompassing hundreds of volunteers from several states, years would pass before Foreman's body was found.
Father of Murdered Boy Threatens to Kill Michael Woodmansee If He Is Released
Police were eventually led to Woodmansee's ramshackle, two-storey home in 1982. Inside the house investigators found a journal detailing the crime and a box filled with human bones.
A state medical examiner eventually revealed that the remains -- a skull, a jaw, and rib bones -- were those of Jason Foreman. The medical examiner also revealed that the bones had all of its flesh removed.
"Over the years I have blocked out all memories of what happened to Jason," John Foreman told a reporter at the Providence Journal. "The tragic end to his life is too painful to think about."
"I have been able to visit Jason and his mother, Joice, at their gravesite with only love in my heart for them. But now I'm afraid to visit, now that the terrible memories are back to haunt me and my family. There is no forgiveness in me, only revenge."
While speaking to WPRO, Foreman thanked people who have supported him and said, "I'm going to return their thanks by getting rid of this beast."
Woodmansee is scheduled to be released in August. He's currently undergoing mental health evaluations, according to police.
"He has served 70 percent of his sentence," McGuirl's statement said. "It is my understanding that he will have a 10-year suspended sentence with 10 years of probation upon his release."
Good.
