Richard Ozment was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2014, but was released on parole after 10 years.
CHINA SPRINGS, Texas — A China Springs man charged with first-degree murder after reportedly attacking a 38-year-old mother with a machete and concrete blocks also broke into a home in 2013.
Richard Tanner Ozment, 36, was arrested in connection with the reported attack on Michaela Brooker on September 21st. McLennan County Sheriff Pernell McNamara called the attack “one of the most horrifying, horrifying, brutal and senseless attacks we’ve seen in a long time.” . ”
Ozment was also in jail for breaking into Clint Lewis’ mother’s home, just down the street from where the attack reportedly occurred.
“My mother lived in the house that I now own,” Lewis said. “She lived there by herself and was out in town or something.”
Lewis said when her mother returned home, two people were inside, including Ozment. He fled shortly after.
“She was an older woman who lived alone and knew a man who lived down the street,” Lewis said. “So she was frightened for the rest of her life. It was scary for her.”
Police then caught and arrested Ozment. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison for robbery, but was released on parole after 10 years.
“How, how did he get out of prison in the first place? Why, what, somebody granted him parole and put him back on the street with all the crimes, all the heinous things he’s done? ‘I don’t understand that,’ Lewis said.
“He never should have left, but he did,” McNamara said at a news conference Monday. He said of Brooker’s death: “Whenever you see someone get paroled this early and commit these types of crimes, it’s senseless. It didn’t need to happen.”
After reportedly attacking Brooker, Ozment fled and hid from authorities for 10 hours before being found by police hiding in a storage tank just 100 meters away. He was then arrested and taken to jail with a $1 million bail.
