The three-member Nebraska Board of Pardons on Tuesday commuted the sentence of a former Rulo cult participant, who has been on parole since 2009.
The commutation means that Timothy Haverkamp could be completely free of parole by sometime this summer. Â
It took Haverkamp longer than any other man involved in the Rulo survivalist camp, with the exception of death row inmate Michael Ryan, to get paroled. Others convicted in the cult crimes -- Jim Haverkamp, a cousin; David Andreas; and Dennis Ryan, son of Michael Ryan -- served 11 to 12 years of their sentences.
Haverkamp served 24 years in prison for his second-degree murder conviction for involvement in the torture death of 26-year-old James Thimm, a fellow member of the cult led by Michael Ryan.
He was put on lifetime parole in June 2009. Last year, he asked that his sentence be commuted from 10 years to life to a specific number of years so he could have some hope of getting off parole.
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"It's been almost 30 years since the incident," Haverkamp told the Pardons Board. "I've been out on parole for almost five years. I've been living a productive, law-abiding life, and I've done everything the Department of Corrections and parole officer and parole board have asked of me."
He has great support from his family and friends, he said, and has been active in his church.
But he frequently works six days a week on second shift, and that doesn't leave a lot of time for social activities, he said in answer to a question by Secretary of State John Gale. If he has time, he goes fishing to relax.
The Pardons Board voted unanimously to commute Haverkamp's sentence to 10 to 58 years. With that, he will probably have one more meeting with his parole officer, said Attorney General Jon Bruning, and be released from parole by late summer. The date at this time is uncertain.
Parole Board chairman Esther Casmer testified at the hearing that her board voted unanimously to recommend commutation, but left the number of years to the Pardons Board.
Haverkamp served his sentence without incident, and served at the Governor's Mansion eight years prior to being paroled. He has been an exemplary parolee, she said.
"He has progressed with his parole officer to report every six months," she said. "And that is something that he earned, as far as his employment, his stability. No hitches during his period of parole."
Earning infrequent check-ins is not the norm, she said.
"Considering the amount of time he has spent in prison, the amount of time he has been out on parole, he hasn't had a traffic ticket, nothing," she said. "Parole is not easy, at all. A lot of people will assume that it is. But you have a parole officer. You have two sheets of conditions that you have to adhere to. He has done this."
Gov. Dave Heineman asked Haverkamp if he was fully prepared to re-enter society on his own, every single day, without checking in with a parole officer.
"I feel like I've already re-entered society," he said.
Haverkamp is already a free man, except for checking in with his parole officer, Bruning said. But he also has to give notice if he wants to leave the state to visit family or take a vacation.
"In my opinion, Mr. Haverkamp is successfully rehabilitated, and having you continue to check in with parole is an unnecessary expense for the taxpayers," Bruning said.
Haverkamp said he doesn't plan to leave the state any time soon, but would like the freedom to come and go as he needs to without having to submit paperwork and wait for approval.
"Eventually, I'd want to move to a different state, move somewhere where I have family, or closer to home," he said.
No one else testified for or against commutation, even though Heineman asked several times if anyone wanted to comment.
Gale told him he had come through rehabilitation to a successful and positive life.
"You've really kind of come from the depths of hell in a cult relationship with a lot of real horror and violence to a life of great stability and great peace, it seems," Gale said.
At the time of his trial, at least two attorneys, one a prosecutor, had said they believed manslaughter would have been a more appropriate charge for Haverkamp.
His attorney at the time, Daniel Wherry, said in 2008 that he thought Haverkamp was the least culpable among Jim Haverkamp, Dennis Ryan and David Andreas. But he pleaded guilty rather than sit shoulder to shoulder with Michael and Dennis Ryan during their trial.