Stafford is serving consecutive life terms for her role in two 1978 attacks that left nine people dead, including six employees at a south Oklahoma City Sirloin Stockade.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton is urging the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board to deny parole to Verna Stafford, 73, whose involvement in two notorious 1978 murder cases shocked Oklahoma and led to some of the state’s most closely watched criminal trials.
The board voted in June to advance Stafford’s application from an initial review to a Stage II parole hearing. Her request is expected to be considered when the board meets Monday and Tuesday in Oklahoma City.
Paxton, R-Tuttle, made his opposition public Friday through a letter co-signed by Sen. Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain, chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee.
“I have disagreed with decisions of the Pardon and Parole Board in the past and have often chosen to express those concerns privately,” Paxton wrote. “I cannot remain silent on this case.”
“Even considering parole for Verna Stafford is an injustice to the victims and their families,” he added.
Two attacks left nine dead
The case involved two separate attacks about three weeks apart.
On June 22, 1978, Verna Stafford, her then-husband, Roger Dale Stafford, and his brother, Harold Stafford, stopped along Interstate 35 near Purcell and pretended to have car trouble. Court records show that Verna Stafford attempted to flag down passing motorists while the two men waited nearby.
Melvin Lorenz stopped to help while traveling with his wife, Linda, and their son, Richard. Roger Stafford shot all three members of the family. The court record says Verna Stafford knocked Linda Lorenz to the ground before Roger Stafford shot her.
On July 16, 1978, the three drove to the Sirloin Stockade in south Oklahoma City and waited until the customers had left. Roger and Harold Stafford entered with guns and forced the manager to open the cash register and office safe.
Verna Stafford held the employees at gunpoint while the robbery was carried out, according to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. The six employees were then forced into a walk-in freezer and shot. Court records say Roger Stafford later placed his gun in Verna Stafford’s hand and helped her pull the trigger.
The employees killed were Louis Zacarias, Isaac Freeman, David Lindsay, David Salsman, Terri Horst and Anthony Tew. Four were teenagers.
Paxton listed all nine victims in his letter and asked board members to consider the lives they never had the opportunity to live.
“These are not just names on a case file,” he wrote. “They were fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, friends and neighbors. They are the people whose lives were stolen. Their families continue to bear the weight of that loss every day.”
Guilty pleas followed the trials
The murders and trials received widespread publicity throughout Oklahoma. Roger Stafford was convicted of nine counts of first-degree murder in separate trials for the Lorenz and Sirloin Stockade killings. He received nine death sentences and was executed in 1995.
Verna Stafford testified against her husband and pleaded guilty in March 1980 to two counts of second-degree murder. One count was tied to Linda Lorenz’s death and the other to the death of Terri Horst at the Sirloin Stockade.
She originally received concurrent sentences of 10 years to life. After Stafford successfully challenged those sentences as legally invalid, an Oklahoma County judge resentenced her in 1989 to two consecutive life terms. The Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the new sentences in 1990.
Parole would require governor’s approval
Stafford’s advancement in June did not amount to a recommendation that she be released. It moved her application to the next stage of the board’s review.
Under the state’s parole process, at least three of the five board members must support parole for a favorable recommendation. Because Stafford was convicted of violent crimes, any recommendation would be forwarded to the governor for the final decision.
The board’s August meeting begins at 9 a.m. Monday at the Oklahoma Health Care Authority in Oklahoma City and continues Tuesday.
“Do not force these families to relive their unimaginable loss once again,” Paxton wrote. “Do not compound their grief by suggesting these crimes have been sufficiently answered by the passage of time.
“Justice requires more than remembering the victims. It requires standing with them. I urge you to vote no.”
