Parole board rejects Hodge plea for early release

Sep. 22—COLUMBUS — The Ohio Parole Board has unanimously rejected a bid for early release from a former University of Toledo police officer convicted in the brutal murder of a student nearly 30 years ago.

The board determined that factors against granting parole to Jeffrey A. Hodge, then a 22-year-old rookie UT officer, outweigh his attempts at rehabilitation and decided that his release could pose "undue risk to public safety." Hodge was convicted of killing Melissa Anne Herstrum, a 19-year-old sophomore studying nursing, in January, 1992.

VIEW OHIO PAROLE BOARD DECISION

"He violated the public trust by taking a defenseless and vulnerable victim from her own vehicle, placing her in his police cruiser, transporting her to a remote location and shooting her multiple times at close range," the board's 6-0 decision reads. "In doing so, he betrayed his duty to keep her safe and protect the university community. His acts were purposeful and planned."

Students walk past a memorial for Melissa Anne Herstrum on the University of Toledo campus on Thursday, September 16, 2021. The 19-year-old nursing student was shot and killed in January, 1992, by former UT police officer Jeffrey Hodge. THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT

Alexandra Mester

Law enforcement, others recall 1992 Herstrum murder ahead of parole hearing for Hodge

When confronted by investigators back in 1992, he admitted to the killing, saying he'd blacked out and could provide no motive.

That "lack of insight" continued to work against him when he appeared from the Marion Correctional Institution on Tuesday before the board during a virtual 90-minute parole hearing.

"Offender Hodge does not have insight into what triggers existed to cause him to make the decisions he made," the board states. "Therefore, substantial reason exists to believe that the unique factors of the offenses of conviction, marked by brutality, complete disregard for life, betrayal of public trust, and a lack of insight thereto, significantly outweigh offender Hodge's rehabilitative efforts."

Hodge was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, before the option of life without parole was created, for killing Ms. Herstrum. He drove her in his cruiser to UT's Scott Park campus, handcuffed her, forced her to lie down, and shot her 14 times in the had, back and legs. Her frozen body was found face down in the snow.

Hodge agreed to a plea deal in Lucas County Common Pleas Court a year later to aggravated murder with a firearm and kidnapping. That deal took the possibility of a death sentence off the table.

Now 52, Hodge has served nearly 30 years. This marked his first parole hearing, and he will have to wait another decade for his next.

The Herstrum family did not personally address the board during the virtual hearing on Tuesday but did speak to a single board member during a prior, hour-long victim impact conference.

Sorority sisters and friends of Melissa Anne Herstrum console one another outside the Rocky River United Methodist Church in February 1992.

Alexandra Mester

UT student killer eligible for parole early for good behavior; family fears his release

"Jeffrey Hodge is locked up tight in prison for another 10 years!" Ms. Herstrum's sister, Cindy Herstrum-Clark, said. "We will always be fighting to keep him incarcerated for the remainder of his life! My sister will always be remembered for her love for life, kindness to others, and her fun sense of humor. I miss her always and not a day goes by that I don't feel this emptiness that she is not with us for the joys and sorrows of life.

"My parents have suffered much more than any parent should, losing their beautiful daughter to senseless brutal murder," she said. " It's just not fair that there was not life without possibility for parole in the State of Ohio, but the system did work and Parole Board members felt his release into society would create undue risk to public safety and noted that Hodge's complete disregard to life and his lack of insight significantly outweigh his programming rehabilitative efforts."

The Lucas County Prosecutor's Office sent a letter opposing parole, county Prosecutor Julia Bates said.

When Hodge was formally fired in March, 1992, university authorities determined that he often made routine traffic stops without informing dispatchers, had called the home of a young woman several hours after he had arrested her for drunken driving, fabricated reports of a burglary and a man with a gun on campus, and broke departmental policies by waiting outside off-campus bars to follow patrons back to campus and pull them over for suspected drunken driving.

"I believe Jeff Hodge is a psychopath," Thomas Gulch, a former Toledo police captain who led the homicide unit at the time, previously told The Blade. "He demonstrated that in his escalating of criminal events. ... I believe he would have been a serial killer if he hadn't been caught. He would have struck again in some manner."

First Published September 22, 2021, 1:04pm