In 2012, Debra Scribner, 58, was convicted of first degree murder, conspiracy to commit first degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a murder in connection with the shooting death of her son-in-law Eric Wynn in Halifax County.

She was sentenced to 23 years in prison plus 6 months.

That was eight short years ago.

Scribner’s now 66, back at home on Virginia’s Southside and prosecutors say neighbors report seeing her relaxing in her yard.

This felon was freed earlier this month by Gov. Ralph Northam’s parole board which is breathlessly throwing open cell doors all over the commonwealth during this pandemic.

State officials want you to believe they are releasing only non-violent criminals and those with less than one year to serve on their sentences.

Debra Scribner is proof that this is not true.

In 2011 she helped mastermind a plot to kill her son-in-law. Her 15-year-old grandson was the trigger man, but Scribner helped him and her daughter hide the corpse and burn the evidence. According to news reports at the time, the women urged the teenager to do the killing because, as a juvenile, he’d be treated leniently.

So eager was the parole board to spring Scribner, that it neglected to give prosecutors the required 21-day written notice of its decision. It appears the board also failed to notify the victim’s family, another legal requirement.

On Monday, Halifax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tracy Q. Martin wrote to the chair of the parole board, objecting to Scribner’s release. She asked the board to reconsider its decision.

Martin says the letter she received from the parole board notifying her that Scribner was being paroled was dated April 6th. By then, Scribner was out of prison. Martin had no time to enlighten board members with facts that would have argued against the release.

When I spoke with Martin yesterday I asked what she would have told the parole board had she been given adequate notice. She emailed this response:

 I would want them to understand that Dylan Wynn was fourteen years old when he first heard his mother Connie Wynn and his grandmother Debra Scribner discuss killing his father Eric Wynn.  He heard them saying it was close to the time to do something.  He heard them say they would have to get someone else to do it.  He heard his mother say to Scribner, “I don’t believe this will work . . . I can’t come up with that kind of money.”  In the months prior to the murder…They discussed who might be hired for a hit. They discussed the expense of “professional services.”  Around the same time, Scribner delivered a snub nose .38—the murder weapon—to 15 year old Dylan and his mother. Dylan hid the gun in his room. On the night of the murder, Dylan’s mother told him she could take no more and that they might kill him that night.  Dylan went to bed that night with the gun under his pillow.  His mother shook him awake and whispered that his father was asleep.  She asked if he was sure he could do what they had planned.  He said he could.  Dylan approached his sleeping father and shot him in the head.  

I would want the Parole Board to know that the plan, which Scribner assisted in forming, was for Dylan’s mother to call Scribner after the murder.  She told Scribner on that call, “It’s done, you need to come up here.”  Scribner said she was on her way.  When Scribner arrived, the three moved Eric’s body from the blood-soaked sofa where he had been shot to a rug; covered him with a blanket; and dragged him out of the house and into a van.  Dylan and his mother drove the van across the yard to a well.  The three then slid Eric’s body out of the van and into the well.  Eric’s body got stuck at the top of the well.  While Scribner and his mother shined a light down into the well, Dylan climbed inside to move his father’s body so it would fall to the bottom.  The three then cleaned up the living room and removed the sofa, and ultimately burned it in the yard.  A few days after the murder, they had a barbeque at the same house…

I would want the Board to understand that Scribner has never taken accountability for what she did to Eric Wynn, Eric's family and to Dylan.  She has always claimed that she helped clean up the crime but denied having planned it.  The Board feeds this lie when they justify her release based on the fact she was not present for the crime.  She helped plan the murder and was convicted as a principal to the crime.  Her absence for the moment of his death does not make her less guilty of premeditated murder.

The Board should know that Scribner has returned to the community where the Wynn family lives, where Dylan and his three brothers live.  They should know that Scribner has devasted these boys' lives, and her return to their community is kick in the gut.  They should know that my community is afraid.  They are afraid of who they will let out next. The Board should know that others may be appropriate for geriatric parole, but not a murderer who has spent less than 10 years in prison and not Debra Scribner.

A grandmother planning for her grandson to kill his own father and supplying him with the murder weapon? Monstrous.

Parole was abolished in 1995 as a part of then-Gov. George Allen’s Truth in Sentencing initiative. The law requires that a felon serve at least 85 percent of his or her sentence before being considered for parole. 

Loopholes include geriatric releases for inmates who are 65 or older and have served five years of their sentences or who are 60 years old, having served 10.

Scribner’s case was labeled “geriatric.” How convenient. Since she committed her crimes at the advanced age of 58, Scribner found herself eligible for parole a mere seven years later.

When I talked to him yesterday former Gov. George Allen said the Scribner case and several others are an alarming sign that Virginia is returning to “the bad old days of a dishonest, lenient parole system.”

Allen noted that while geriatric release is available, it is not mandatory. Especially not for someone who hasn’t served even half of her sentence.

“This to me is an abuse of the geriatric class,” the former governor said.

“They’re not even following Virginia law,” Allen added, referring to the 21-day notice to prosecutors and the heads up that is supposed to be given to victims’ families.

The parole board may have been too busy freeing felons to follow the letter of the law. According to The Virginian-Pilot, in March of 2019 only seven prisoners were granted parole. Last month there were 96 releases, a 1,271% increase. 

The freeing frenzy included some of the commonwealth’s most violent criminals, including several convicted of capital murder.

The most notorious criminal to be approved for parole was cop killer Vincent Martin, who ambushed Richmond Patrolman Michael Connors, 23, during a routine traffic stop in 1979.

When law enforcement protested Martin’s parole approval last week, the parole board indignantly replied that their decision was irreversible and had nothing to do with the Covid-19 virus. The board claimed that Martin was sprung because he’d been sentenced prior to the 1995 no-parole legislation.

Cop killers shouldn’t be returned to society. Neither should sociopaths.

Pandemic or not.