‘There’s no excuse for what I did’; Redmond 5 murderer seeks release from prison

Published 5:30 am Friday, April 21, 2023

Seth Koch was 15 when he beat a woman with empty wine bottles before fatally shooting her with a hunting rifle. For his role as one of the infamous Redmond 5 killers, Koch was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

But on Thursday, two decades after he was sentenced for killing Barbara Thomas, Koch appeared before the state parole board seeking his release.

“There’s no excuse for what I did,” Koch, now 38, told the board during a four-hour hearing. “But that’s not who I am, and will never be who I am again.”

During the hearing, board members listened to Koch describe his rehabilitation. Koch acknowledged the harm and trauma his actions had reaped on Thomas’ family and the community. Board members pressed Koch on what he had learned during his decades incarcerated and how he had come to understand why he committed such a gruesome, “torturous” murder.

“You, as one of the individuals who took part in the crime, had plenty of time to assess what was going on and could have made the decision that this is not for me,” said parole board member James Taylor. “My question to you is, Why didn’t you simply speak up and say something or simply depart and not take part in the crime?”

Koch said he felt trapped by a group of peers — there were four other teens — who expected him to carry out the plan, that he didn’t want to let down his friends.

“I felt at the time that that was all I could do,” said Koch, who was intoxicated at the time but said that did not excuse his actions.

“I didn’t stop at that time to think about what the consequences of my actions would be to anybody,” he said. “I felt trapped in the situation, that I had no escape.”

Read more: The story behind the Redmond 5 murder of Barbara Thomas

Sara Jones, Thomas’ niece, read a statement to the board, and asked that Koch remain locked up. In the 22 years since the crime occurred, she said Koch had not reached out to apologize for his actions.

“I do not feel that Seth should get a chance for freedom when my family has been in a prison of sadness and despair since the murder took place,” said Jones, who said before speaking that she was nervous and had just gotten off a graveyard shift.

The crime has had lasting effects on the Thomas family and their lives in Central Oregon, Jones said.

“In a small town, which Redmond is and was, the looks, the whispers, the silence of groups as we would walk in, it changed me and my family forever,” said Jones. “My brother, who had epilepsy and cerebral palsy, would have stress induced seizures when he would hear our parents talk about the murder. Both my father and I would self-medicate with alcohol when we would try and make sense of it all, even years later.”

Koch became eligible for parole after former Gov. Kate Brown’s mass commutation order in 2021, which allowed more than half of Oregon’s most serious juvenile offenders to seek parole or early release. Her move came after a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made a life sentence without the possibility of parole for juveniles convicted of aggravated murder unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. That amendment forbids cruel and unusual punishment.

In March, Justin Link, another member of the Redmond 5, was granted release by the state parole board after the board said he had “demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation” since the murder. His release date is April 28.

Link remained outside the home, speaking with those inside by phone, as Thomas was murdered. Prosecutors said he first raised the idea of murdering Thomas and urged accomplices — notably Koch — to finish the job.

Koch said during the hearing that, on the night of the killing, he didn’t want to let Link down. However, he added: “It’s not Justin’s fault that it happened. It’s my fault.”

During the hearing, Koch and his supporters painted a picture of a man who has changed since the crime occurred.

He took University of Oregon courses. He learned more about the damages of addiction and mental health struggles. He sought to retain a healthy relationship with his family and sobered up. He taught programs and had no disciplinary record in prison, having made a conscious effort at staying away from violent inmates.

“That is an accomplishment I have hardly ever seen,” said John Bailey, the board’s vice-chair person.

But the board continued to prod Koch for answers about why a teen, with no previous record of violent crime and an otherwise “idyllic childhood,” would take a person’s life.

“You went from stealing candy bars out of stores to committing murder at 15,” Taylor said.

Koch’s explanation remained that he was a youth needing a supportive group of peers. In essence, he described the killing as the product of groupthink, with the five teens, having hatched a plan to move to Canada and get into the marijuana business, finding themselves in a situation where murder appeared to be their only way to get out, he said.

“Now, looking back, you know to me it’s very obvious: At any time I could have stopped,” Koch said.

Bailey noted that a psychological evaluation of Koch showed that his risk of future violence and recidivism was low.

If released, Koch said: “I have no desire to make more victims. I will never be able to understand the full impact of what I’ve done without having lived through it … It’s horrible what I’ve caused in the world, and I have no interest in doing that on any level.”