After Melanie Bean was murdered, her two adult children had to postpone their college educations and take extra jobs before they could finish their educations.
So when Tara Luton heard that her sister’s killer was honored in a ceremony and reception for earning a college degree in prison, she was appalled.
She wrote the prison warden to decry the award to a killer and the lack of support for victims. Her angry letter eventually made its way through the Colorado Department of Corrections hierarchy and landed with the department’s victim services program supervisor, where it got results.
“It just didn’t seem fair,” said Katherine Sanguinetti of the DOC.
So on April 27, in collaboration with “Voices of Victims,” the DOC will unveil a college scholarship for crime victims or their survivors.
The scholarship will be partly funded by inmates.
The Victims of Violent Crime Scholarship Fund will initially provide up to $3,000 a year for four years to one applicant each year, Sanguinetti said. It could provide more scholarships as the fund grows.
Applicants between the ages of 18 and 23 must have a 2.5 high school GPA, must qualify for federal financial aide and be a victim of a violent crime committed in Colorado. Convicted felons won’t qualify.
Inmates will be asked to donate 50 cents annually to support the fund, Sanguinetti said. Other groups, including the Colorado Criminal Justice Association, have pledged to contribute, she said.
“I’m really shocked my letter had an impact. It’s a sad situation but maybe there is some justice for the victims,” Luton said.
It was June 2003 when Col. David Bean, 56, beat and strangled to death his wife and Luton’s sister, Melanie Bean, in Colorado Springs.
Bean was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. With money from his family, he enrolled in a college correspondence course and earned a bachelor’s degree, Sanguinetti said.
Luton said Melanie’s daughter and son from her first marriage, Ashleigh and Colby Rude, were both in college when their mother was killed.
Ashleigh had completed a degree at Colorado State University and was going to enroll in a post-graduate veterinary program. When her mother was killed she postponed those plans and went to work before getting a nursing degree, Luton said. Colby had to sit out of engineering classes at Virginia Tech for a semester and work, Luton said.
“They both struggled to have money to continue their educations,” she said.
When Luton received a letter from the prison that Bean earned a degree, she said it infuriated her.
“It was like he was being rewarded instead of punished. He doesn’t have to worry about rent or food.”
Her letter to Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility warden Michael Arellano made that point:
“Let me tell you of another ceremony . . . a heartbreaking funeral,” the Aug. 16 letter said. “(Melanie’s) children have had to take out loans to get a college degree and even sit out semesters to work to have enough money to live on and go to school. . . . They will not have a mother to attend their graduations.”
Contributions to the scholarship fund can be sent online to voicesof or mailed to Victims of Violent Crimes Scholarship Fund, care of Voices of Victims, 625 E. Evans Ave., Denver, CO 80210.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
