8/6/2014 Villain Elizabeth “Liz” Tolbert seeks clemency; makes startling revelation in her petition | Disclosure News Online

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Villain Elizabeth “Liz” Tolbert seeks clemency; makesstartling revelation in her petition

8/6/2014 Villain Elizabeth “Liz” Tolbert seeks clemency; makes startling revelation in her petition | Disclosure News Online

http://www.disclosurenewsonline.com/2013/03/11/villain-elizabeth-liz-tolbert-seeks-clemency-makes-startling-revelation-in-her-petition/#sthash.fnvU0mdJ.dpbs 2/9

Posted by Jack Howser on Monday, March 11th, 2013 @ 8:03 pm.

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Perhaps Hardin County’s most infamous villain Elizabeth (Liz) Tolbert, for at least the eighth time since her original conviction in 1996 forthe shooting-death of Wilson D. “Junior” Tolbert, is seeking an early release from prison, this time by asking Governor Pat Quinn to

commute her sentence to time already served.

She is currently serving a 60-year sentence, but based on then-existing Illinois law she will effectively serve just six months shy of 30years and is currently scheduled to be released in December 2025. For approximately the last nine years, Tolbert has been incarcerated

at the medium-security Lincoln Correctional Center, just south of Springfield.

In an emotionally-based 102-page clemency petition filed with the Illinois Prisoner Review Board on July 2, obtained by a Freedom ofInformation Act request, the convicted murderer is claiming she deserves clemency for, among other reasons, she should be released

immediately because she is no longer a threat to society, and that “life expectancy for an inmate is age 63. As of now I would be 64upon my release,” Tolbert wrote in her petition.

The now 52-year-old woman also claimed that her body “deteriorates” from lack of proper food and nutrients. Tolbert said “we don’t

get fresh fruit and fresh vegetables like we would out there or real meat.” In support of her claim that keeping her incarcerated is afinancial burden on the State, Tolbert added “It will continue to cost the (State) money to keep me here. A nurse told me that one of theshots I was on before my surgery (a hysterectomy) cost $3000.” In all, she listed five reasons Governor Quinn should allow her back

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8/6/2014 Villain Elizabeth “Liz” Tolbert seeks clemency; makes startling revelation in her petition | Disclosure News Online

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among the law-abiding citizens of Illinois.

Tolbert, then 34 at the time of Junior’s murder, was convicted, along with her brother, James Sanford, in the heinous and cold-bloodedexecution-style shooting of Junior at the entrance to his farm in Hardin County. A third-party, Chris Olvedia-Reed, pleaded guilty to

tampering with evidence and served several years in prison.

James Sanford accuses member of a prominent Hardin County family as Junior’s killer

Central to Tolbert’s Jan. 1998 conviction was the testimony of several witnesses, including Olvedia-Reed; who testified that Tolbert andSanford had a “hushed conversation” at the side of the road moments after Tolbert told Sanford that Junior had just named him as the

person who shot him earlier that day. At least according to Olvedia-Reed, Sanford and Tolbert drove back to the couples’ farm whereJunior lay paralyzed. It is at this point where the parties tell completely opposite versions of events that took place the afternoon of May24, 1995.

According to Tolbert, she followed Sanford and Olvedia-Reed back to the farm in her Blazer with her two sons in the back seat.

Olvedia-Reed claims she was the one following Tolbert and Sanford. While Sanford admitted at Tolbert’s trial to firing the fatal shot,after claiming numerous times he didn’t – Sanford has since changed his story to the author during a visit in early 2010 at the Menard

Correctional Center.

When asked if he actually fired the point-blank shot into Junior’s head, he looked down and in almost a hushed-tone said “I shot him thefirst time, I admit that, but I didn’t kill him.” After asking several times, the author said, “James – it’s important to finally get to the truth.

You are doing life and nothing will change that. Do you know who killed Junior? Was it your sister?” Looking down at the table andhesitating for a few moments he softly said, “No sis didn’t kill him – Chrissy did. We left; Chrissy took me to the place where she hid the

gun under the rock, we went back to her house, took a shower and burned our clothes.” When Sanford looked up one could see atleast some remorse in his somber-looking eyes.

Indeed, it is undisputed that Olvedia-Reed is the only one of the three potential killers that led authorities to the .25-caliber pistol used tokill Junior, which was hidden in a glove under a rock in a rural pond. Sanford led investigators to the site he buried the .22 caliber pistolhe used to shoot Junior in the back earlier that day – which left him paralyzed according to the autopsy and medical testimony during

Tolbert’s trial.

After 18 years, Tolbert shows no remorse over Junior’s death

Since her arrest in July, 1995 Tolbert has steadfastly maintained her innocence, saying she didn’t kill Junior and never conspired orplanned his death with anyone. In fact, Tolbert has gone a step further: During the over 60 meetings she had with the author at Lincoln,Tolbert never expressed any remorse over Junior’s death. She has said numerous times that she was absolutely sure she was going toprevail in her post-conviction claims and subsequent appeals, and that she is sorry she is in prison and shouldn’t be there.

8/6/2014 Villain Elizabeth “Liz” Tolbert seeks clemency; makes startling revelation in her petition | Disclosure News Online

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“I never believed I would have to be doing this clemency, I believed I would win from the courts; that dream is long gone,” Tolbert saysin her petition.

However, she never expressed any remorse for her involvement in Junior’s death. Just the opposite, she maintains she was not involvedat all. Several former inmates who were friends with Tolbert all say they never saw her show any remorse that Junior was dead or the

way he was killed. In fact, the former drug-dealer from California said in a Letter to the Editor to the Independent, days after Junior’smurder, that she had done nothing to feel guilty about.

In a jail-house letter written to Sanford shortly after their arrest, she urges Sanford to take responsibility for Junior’s death and promisedhim she would get him a lawyer and show “what a dick” Junior was.

The lack of remorse and taking responsibility for her actions on May 24, 1995 are clearly evident by Tolbert’s statements she madeboth at her sentencing and in her clemency petition. During her sentencing, Tolbert told the court she was guilty of only “negligence” intelling her brother that Junior had just told her he shot him.

The Prisoner Review Board gets new info

Tolbert told the Prisoner Review Board in her petition, “I do know my action of stopping and asking James if he killed my husband,

makes me responsible for his actions. The stupidest thing I’ve ever done!” WAIT!!…Tolbert has maintained for the past 18 years thatwhen she left Junior after finding him, he was shot, but alive - laying by the side of his truck. She has never wavered from her claim shetold James, that Junior said “James shot me.”

Now, in a shocking new revelation, Tolbert tells the Board that she stopped and asked James if he killed Junior! She doesn’t say sheasked James if he shot, wounded or even injured him; she asks if he “killed” him. Why would she ask her brother if he killed Junior,

when Junior was supposed to be alive when she left him? She also writes in her petition, “I am ashamed that my actions took myhusband’s life, but not ashamed to go out and tell anyone and everyone why I was locked up…”

This shocking admission – that she asked her brother if he “killed” Junior – is quite significant in light of her father’s testimony duringSanford’s trial. Ray Sanford told jurors that while the two were driving to Paducah, Ky., weeks before Junior’s murder that Tolbertsaid, “She told me that if Junior cut the money out from under her she would kill him.” When called to testify during Tolbert’s trial, hehad what can only be labeled as a “convenient memory lapse,” saying he did not remember his previous testimony.

In her petition, Tolbert gave a lengthy and somewhat rambling personal life history where she admits that she “did not care about how

my actions effected and hurt other people.” She adds that she was “cursed to be physically developed at such an early age,” and saysthat in 1995 “I know I was full of myself back then….” The convicted murderer also made similar ridiculous claims on severalsyndicated television shows such as Sally Jessy Raphael and to the author, that “every” woman in Hardin County was “jealous of mygood looks and the way I dressed.”

Tolbert’s gives the Board five reasons for granting her clemency

Tolbert told the Board that upon her release, she will live with a friend in the Chicago area that she met in prison. The woman, Dawn

DeGuide, who served several years for killing a person while driving drunk, has promised her a job helping with daily chores.

For her first reason, Tolbert told the Board, she “will never commit another crime or be put in a position to lie or cover for someoneelse.” She also claims that she will not abuse drugs, even over-the-counter drugs. She adds “…I will never come back to prison becauseI am not the same person that got locked up in 1995.”

She listed for her second reason that she “won’t be a threat or burden to society, it will save the state a lot of money to release thiselderly inmate.” She also said her health is not improving, but declining. But yet, maintains she is currently quite healthy. She adds that byher release, she will be able to “…help people not return to prison or ever come here.”

Claiming that the “recidivism rate among long-timers is 2 percent,” Tolbert said her third reason she claims she is deserving of clemency

are her accomplishments in prison. “There is no excuse why I came to prison, only that I made a horrible call in my life, and realize thatmy actions led to the reactions that took my husband’s life, and ruined everyone else’s around me including my brother’s,” she told theboard.

She then tells the Board that because of her prison-related church and volunteer activities, and also because her convicted-felon friend iswilling to give her a job, she should be released.

8/6/2014 Villain Elizabeth “Liz” Tolbert seeks clemency; makes startling revelation in her petition | Disclosure News Online

http://www.disclosurenewsonline.com/2013/03/11/villain-elizabeth-liz-tolbert-seeks-clemency-makes-startling-revelation-in-her-petition/#sthash.fnvU0mdJ.dpbs 5/9

Included in her fourth reason for seeking clemency, the devious woman claimed she was in effect given a life sentence because of her

claim that the life expectancy of a female inmate is 63 years. She also tells the Board that the penalty she received is too severe becauseshe will not be able to be a “useful citizen” and get a job if she were to serve her entire sentence. She continues by asking the Board tochoose places where she can “talk to the younger generation that would help open the door for me to get invited into schools and otherplaces.”

Tolbert for her fifth reason wrote, “I ask not only to be released for myself but for those I can be helping.” She promises the Board she

will not be a burden to society or to anyone else. She repeats her earlier grandiose promises to help practically everyone in the State notto make the same mistakes she did, from the young school-age children to those in nursing homes. She ends by telling the Board “Ifsomeone would only take a chance on me.” From reviewing her petition, it appears the villain has not been able to garner much, if anycredible support for her release in the past 18 years. Without exception, every letter she attaches to her petition are from convictedfelons – some convicted of murder. She also includes a signed petition that doesn’t include phone numbers. Suspiciously, all the signers

are from Ohio – a state Tolbert has never been to.

Tolbert told the Board that her long-time friend Dawn DeGuide and her husband John would provide testimony at her hearing lastOctober. When contacted and asked if he and his wife actually appeared at the hearing, DeGuide said “I don’t recall.” Tolbert told theauthor several times that upon her release, Dawn promised her $100,000. During an interview when asked about this claim her husbandJohn said “that’s news to me. I don’t know anything about that and neither does Dawn.”

No release is expected in the near future for convicted murderer

This is Tolbert’s first bid at seeking clemency. She had a hearing before the Board in October, which she was not permitted to attend.

They will make a confidential recommendation to the Governor to approve or deny her request. If denied, Tolbert is not allowed to fileanother petition for one year.

According to Board representative Chuck Eguez, Governor Quinn is reviewing requests filed in 2008. The earliest a decision should beexpected on her petition is mid-2017, according to Eguez. Therefore, a favorable decision on Tolbert’s petition, although unlikely, won’tbe coming for at least four years.

So for now, and most likely until 2025, the citizens of Hardin County and elsewhere can rest easy knowing that the “elderly inmate” willcontinue to eat a diet devoid of meat, fresh fruits and vegetables and, continue to “deteriorate” at Lincoln.

Stephen Pope is a Pittsburgh-based freelance journalist who has done extensive studies into Liz Tolbert’s claims of innocence.

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Posted by Jack Howser on Mar 11 2013. Filed under 11.01 - March/April 2013, Columns, e-edition, Egypt, Guest Columnist,Hardin, Members Only. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this

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