Former Winnacunnet High student who followed adult lover's orders set free
By Kyle Stucker
Hampton Union, July 15, 2014
[The following article is courtesy of the Hampton Union and Seacoast Online.]
HAMPTON — A former Winnacunnet High School student convicted of shooting and killing his adult lover's husband in 1990 has been let out of prison on a work release.
William "Billy" Flynn, a Seabrook native who at age 15 killed Greg Smart at the behest of Smart's wife, Pamela, has been moved to a minimum security facility in Warren, Maine, allowing him to participate in a work release program.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeff Strelzin said the state didn't object to the motion requesting that transfer when it was filed last week in Rockingham Superior Court. A jury previously found Flynn and three of his friends guilty of carrying out a murder plot orchestrated by Pamela Smart, now 46, who was sentenced to life without parole for the murder.
Smart is still incarcerated.
Flynn is the last of Smart's co-conspirators to be released from prison. He was convicted of second-degree murder, a reduction from first-degree murder, in exchange for his cooperation with the prosecution of Smart, who was a media coordinator at WHS at the time of the murder.
Co-defendants Patrick "Pete" Randall, Vance "J.R." Lattime Jr., and Raymond Fowler have all previously been released. Randall restrained Greg Smart in his Derry condo on May 1, 1990, while Flynn pulled the trigger. Lattime provided the getaway car and handgun used during the murder, and Fowler drove the getaway car.
Smart has unsuccessfully sought commutation of her life-without-parole sentence, and she still denies her involvement in the murder plot.
Eleanor Pam, a self-described "strong advocate" for Smart, said in an e-mailed statement Friday that it isn't just for Smart to remain in prison while the man who confessed to the murder gets to walk free.
"William Flynn confessed to murdering Greg Smart," Pam wrote. "He pulled the trigger that took Greg's life. Then, together with his accomplices, he saved his own life and theirs by perjuring himself in a court of law and placing the blame for his actions on Pamela Smart. She was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Flynn was rewarded by the promise of freedom he is about to receive.
"William Flynn bears responsibility for the destruction of two people that day, not one. The lives of both Greg and Pamela Smart were effectively ended the moment he pulled the trigger and shot a helpless man in the head."