By Susan Morse
The Hampton Union, Tuesday, April 5, 2005
[The following article is courtesy of the Hampton Union and Seacoast Online.]
SEABROOK — Raymond Fowler, 34, who was paroled two years ago as an accessory in the Pamela Smart murder case, was scheduled to be back before the Parole Board today on a guilty plea of witness tampering.
Fowler’s parole was revoked last June on an alleged disturbing-the-peace allegation in Salisbury, Mass. From that violation came a felony charge of witness tampering.
Fowler, of 14 Washington St., Seabrook, entered a guilty plea to the felony on March 4, was sentenced to one to three years in prison, and credited with 263 days served.
The Parole Board was expected to determine how much additional time, if any, Fowler will spend behind bars for the parole violation.
The hearing is scheduled for 12:55 p.m. in Concord.
Public defender Joseph Welsh said Fowler pleaded guilty to witness tampering to “resolve the matter and put it behind him.”
Fowler must serve one year and then he will be eligible for parole, Welsh said.
Fowler’s family is hoping the board will credit him with time served, and have him home by the end of the summer, said his mother, Paula Fowler.
Fowler served 12 years on conspiracy to murder and burglary convictions in connection to the murder of Gregory Smart in 1990.
Fowler was to have gone to trial on the witness tampering charge on March 14. Instead, he pleaded guilty at his pretrial hearing on March 4, to a charge he attempted to cause a former girlfriend, Trina Small, to withhold testimony about a June 8 incident in Salisbury.
During the night of June 8, Fowler and a brother, William Fowler, went to Salisbury, searching for Small and pounded on a door and window where she was staying. Both men were charged with disturbing the peace.