Viktor Novosel tapped his walking cane on the table and chuckled at the proposition.
“If you can come up with another plan, we’ll hear it,” the parole adjudicator had said.
Another plan. He had spent more than 40 years in state prison, and to Novosel, at age 80, there still seemed only one way: release to federal custody, then deportation back to Canada.
Then what? Freedom, presumably.
“I hear you,” Novosel said Tuesday, his speech still tinged from the Croatian of his youth. “But. . . .” He stopped. The decision had already been made.
Request denied.
Deportation had been the plan for Novosel from the start, even before he stormed into the home of his ex-wife’s parents in Concord on Christmas Eve in 1974; before he confronted them in their TV room and opened fire with a loaded pistol, killing his former mother-in-law and wounding her husband; before he fled on foot, sparking a 20-officer manhunt through the city’s South End.
At the time, Novosel should have been on his way back to Canada, where he became a citizen after emigrating from Yugoslavia. He had just finished eight months in state prison for felony convictions related to the kidnapping of his two children, and had been paroled on the understanding that he would be deported. Federal authorities gave him until two days before the murder to appeal the order. He never responded, according to news accounts at the time.
Novosel was convicted four years later of second-degree murder and sentenced to 40 years to life in prison. He has come before the parole board at least twice before – once in 1994, and again in 1998, before the start of truth in sentencing. Both times, the board said Tuesday, he was told to come back with a better release plan.
Federal authorities would potentially try to deport Novosel if and when he is released from prison, but the parole board and state prosecutors worry that he could go free during the removal process, if there is any delay by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We just don’t want to put him in ICE custody, they don’t meet their deadline, and out the door he goes,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeff Strelzin said Tuesday. He asked that the board demand assurance from the agency that Novosel will remain in custody at least until he is returned to Canada.
The board reached out to ICE weeks before the hearing and asked that a representative be present to answer questions, according to Chairwoman Donna Sytek. The agency has corresponded with the board, but did not actively participate Tuesday. Board member Jeffrey Brown, who led the proceedings, did not discuss what, if any, information it had learned.
A spokesman for the agency said in a statement only that it “has lodged a detainer related to Viktor Novosel and will continue to monitor the outcome of state actions.”
But as Brown noted, just because Novosel is handed over to federal authorities “doesn’t mean you’re going to be deported, does it?”
Novosel shrugged. “I wouldn’t know that,” he replied.
And besides, Brown said, the board has more than just the safety of American citizens to consider. He asked whether Novosel could be transferred to a Canadian detention facility and then transitioned into the community – a process that reduces an inmate’s likelihood of reoffending.
“I don’t know if that’s possible,” Strelzin said. “From what I understand, probably not.”
Novosel has had family in Canada, but it’s unclear whether he’s still in contact with them. An older brother and a niece had been sending letters until at least 2008, according to a federal court records. Novosel has not responded to a written interview request sent from the Monitor last month.
Relatives of the victim, Helen Morrison, listened to Tuesday’s proceedings by phone. They urged the board to ensure that any release be strictly supervised.
“Please do not give him the opportunity to harm anyone else,” they said in a statement read by an advocate. Novosel, they added, has “no plan that we know of, no family support in Canada, and nothing to lose.”
Morrison was in her late 50s at the time of the attack.
Despite his age and use of a cane, Novosel remains a physical threat, Strelzin said after the hearing.
“It doesn’t take much to pull the trigger,” he said.
Strelzin acknowledged that it can be challenging to gather enforcement information from other countries, let alone coordinate with them on a transitioned release. But he said Novosel has had years to do so, and doesn’t appear to have taken advantage of the time.
That’s as much for his benefit as for that of others, Strelzin added.
“You don’t want to shift the problem onto someone else,” he said. “You also want to help (Novosel) succeed.”
(Jeremy Blackman can be reached at 369-3319, jblackman@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JBlackmanCM.)