BARBERTON, Ohio — A Summit County family is fighting to keep a convicted killer from walking out of an Ohio prison for a second time.
Mark Headley was convicted in the vicious beating death of Sandy Burger, whose body was found in March of 1982 in an upstairs bedroom of Headley's home on Harvard Avenue in Barberton.
"She was so badly, brutally beaten that they wouldn't even allow us to see her," Burger's younger sister Teresa White said.
White said Burger had recently ended her rocky relationship with Headley. When Barberton police called White, she immediately sensed something tragic had happened.
"I said, 'He killed her, didn't he?' Because he had said, 'If you ever leave me, I'm gonna kill you," White said.
Headley was sentenced to 15 years to life. He was granted parole in 2008 after serving more than 25 years behind bars.
But in 2012, Headley got in trouble again. He was drunk and driving on the wrong side of a divided highway when he crashed into a sheriff's cruiser in Manatee County, Florida, injuring a deputy and a man who was being transported.
Headley served time in a Florida prison for that crime and after his release was returned to an Ohio prison in 2017 since he had violated the terms of his parole.
Headley is now up for parole again. A hearing is scheduled on March 11, according to White.
"How many chances does he get? How many times do we have to allow our society to be threatened by this monster? And that's what I think he is, a true monster," White said.
White, along with family members and friends, have written letters urging the parole board to keep Headley locked up.
"He has proven that his is incapable of being a law-abiding citizen. The goal is to protect all communities," White wrote. "My concerns are with this inmate not breaking his old bad habits. You need to consider the long-term risk."
Barberton Police Chief Vince Morber and the Summit County Prosecutor's Office are also objecting to Headley's release.
