Marty Gordon
NRVsports@mainstreetnewspapers.com
The Virginia Parole Board has denied parole to three prominent convictions in Montgomery County.
Jonathan T. Utin was a retired Blacksburg teacher charged with molesting a child and confessed to inappropriate relationships with other children over a 30-year period. He was initially given 40 years in prison when convicted in 2007 and included another 15-year sentence in Ohio for raping another young girl.
Utin, who is now 84 years old, was denied parole this past week as the board said his release at this time would diminish the seriousness of his crime and considered him to be a risk to the community.
Utin, who was 64 years old when arrested, was accused of molesting a girl in Blacksburg and Middletown Ohio.
Utin, was a teacher at Blacksburg Middle School and was involved in numerous community and church activities, and told police he had a fixation with girls ages three to nine. He admitted to having “several inappropriate relationships with minors spanning a 30-year period,” the warrant said.
A native of Oxfordshire, England, Utin was a kicker on the Virginia Tech football team from 1965-67. His holder was Frank Beamer, retired Hokies’ head coach.
He taught science and math to Montgomery County middle-schoolers from 1968 to 2003, when he retired.
The charges in Montgomery County dated back to 1970. According to court documents, Utin was in his second year as a teacher, and the victim was only 11-years old at the time for the first sexual contact.
The prosecutor said the abuse continued about once a week, for at least three more years.
The second parole denied was for David W. Mills, who is from Blacksburg, had been convicted on forgery charges in Montgomery County and the shooting death of a sheriff’s deputy in Lee County.
According to court documents, the deputy was shot during a traffic stop. Mills was arrested in Illinois, where he and his parents had moved. Mills was also found guilty of plotting to rob a Lee County health clinic.
Mills is serving a life sentence plus 10 years. The parole board said Mills needs to serve more of his sentence before being released.
59-year-old James W. Devore was denied parole in connection with as many as 39 breaking and entering charges from 1988 and 1989 in six Virginia localities including Montgomery County. He had been given a total of 34 years in prison.
The parole board denied his request for discretionary parole, saying he had not served enough of his sentence.