Grand Junction – The father of an 18-year-old murder victim is furious that the man found guilty of killing her has a Web page where he asks women to correspond with him in prison.
“I cannot believe they have a man in prison for murder, and the state of Colorado is letting him troll for women,” Terry Vernon said in Monday’s editions of The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction.
His daughter, Coty Vernon, disappeared in February 1998 outside De Beque, about 170 miles west of Denver. An elk hunter found her remains nearly five years later. Authorities said she was killed with a sharp instrument, possibly stabbed to death.
Jason Garner, who had gone to a party with her that night, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. He had told police he awoke the next morning on a dirt road not knowing where he was, and that Coty Vernon was missing.
An appeals court later upheld his conviction and sentence.
Garner, now 30, is in a state penitentiary in Cañon City. He has a page on a website devoted to prisoners where he describes himself as a good person who is serving life in prison “as of now.” He acknowledges he was convicted of murder but does not mention Coty Vernon.
His page says he is seeking correspondence with “women only (men for legal assistance only please).” Alison Morgan, a spokeswoman for the state Corrections Department, said Monday that neither Garner nor other state prisoners have direct access to the Internet. She said they correspond by mail with prisoner websites, which then post their information online.
She said all prisoners have a First Amendment right to speak.
State Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, questioned whether someone convicted of murder should have access to a website.
“When you kill somebody, you do surrender some of your rights,” he said.
State Rep. Steve King, a former detective with the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department, wondered whether prisoner websites are monitored.
“How do we know they’re not soliciting children or any number of issues? Unbelievable,” said King, R-Grand Junction.
The website with Garner’s page says it is no longer accepting listings and will remain operational only until March 2008. An unsigned note cites the Web operator’s family obligations as the reason for discontinuing.
Steve Siegel, a Denver prosecutor and past president of the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance, said prohibiting prisoners from getting access to such a site could be difficult because of their First Amendment rights.
“There’s a very small sector that seems to be enthralled with offender behavior,” he said. “I don’t believe we can draw a bright line throughout all the twisted things that can occur” in a way that would withstand challenge, he said.
