Blake: Freed To Kill Again

Parole board originally labeled him as dangerous

By FRED CONNORS
Editor’s note: This is the final installment in a three-part series that details the freedom Eugene Blake was afforded while a convicted murderer in the West

Virginia Penitentiary at Moundsville, how he used that freedom to gain his release from prison and how, once released, he killed again.

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On Dec. 12, 1978, the West Virginia Board of Probation and Parole determined Eugene Blake’s release from prison was “not in the best interests of society.”

The board changed its tune just two months later, however, paroling Blake on Feb. 21, 1979, with no explanation. He was released from prison on March 7, 1979.

This decision came despite several psychological evaluations of Blake, one of which was performed at the former Weston State Hospital. That evaluation indicated Blake “is to be considered extremely dangerous.”

Three years after Blake’s 1979 release, on March 19, 1982, Mark Withers was murdered at Gould Park in Bridgeport. Belmont County authorities indicted Blake last week for that killing.

Blake also murdered Maryann Hope Helmbright of Wheeling on Oct. 24, 1984. He currently is serving a life with mercy sentence for that crime.

Parole board members who freed Blake from prison in 1979 were James R. Farrett, Linda Meckfessel and Janet M. Rader.

Blake’s parole stipulated he could not live in Ohio, Marshall or Wetzel counties. However, his parole officer signed off on his return to Wheeling on March 3, 1982, just 16 days before Withers’ death.

The move came after letters between Wheeling and Morgantown parole officers concluded Blake was commuting from Morgantown to Wheeling to work at the former Wheeling College as assistant manager of food services for the Marriott Food Corp.

Blake, a Huntington native, chose Wheeling as his home after spending nearly 10 years of his life in the West Virginia Penitentiary at Moundsville for the 1967 murder of Donna Jean Ball in Wayne County, W.Va.

While incarcerated, he met former prison business office clerk Donna Marazita and eventually married her.

Former Gov. Arch Moore commuted Blake’s life without mercy sentence for the Ball murder to life with mercy on Dec. 23, 1976, making him eligible for parole.

Like any other soon-to-be-paroled prisoner, Blake was transferred to step-down facilities leading to eventual freedom.

Just as he had gained trusty status at the maximum security prison in Moundsville, Blake carried his “model prisoner” persona to Huttonsville, W.Va., when he was transferred in September 1978 to that medium security facility and, then, to the Grafton Work Release Center on Oct. 23, 1978. From Grafton, he would be paroled and become a Morgantown resident on March 7, 1979.

In an Oct. 20, 1978, letter to former U.S. Rep. Robert H. Mollohan, West Virginia Department of Corrections Commissioner W. Joseph McCoy wrote, “I am replying to your recent letter concerning one of your constituents, Eugene Blake, who has been a resident at the West Virginia Penitentiary and, more recently, at the Huttonsville Correctional Center. It is my pleasure to report to you that Mr. Blake’s good conduct and participation in our various programs at both institutions have warranted him being allowed to participate in our Work Release Program at Grafton, W.Va.”

On Feb. 7, 1979, Grafton Work Release Center unit supervisor Ron Prince said in a letter to West Virginia Department of Corrections Management Director William E. McProuty, “Eugene has adapted well to the Work Release environment and is well thought of by our staff and residents. While a resident, he has accumulated $1,044.34 in savings. If granted parole, Eugene plans to accept employment as chef and supervisor at the Morgantown Holiday Inn at a salary of $13,000 to start. Eugene has received maximum benefit from the Work Release Program and parole is recommended at this time.”

While in Morgantown, Blake worked as kitchen supervisor at the Holiday Inn and Morgan Manor, a nursing home.

DOC documents show he resigned his Holiday Inn position on Feb. 8, 1980, “because of having to work too many hours and a conflict of personalities with the new Innkeeper.”

He acquired a job with the city of Morgantown Sanitation Department on Feb. 8, 1980, but a report said “he is not very happy with it and anticipates a better job in the near future.”

Blake’s kitchen and sanitation department duties were not in harmony with a Dec. 12, 1976, Board of Probation and Parole “Attitude Interview Sheet” that suggested he was most likely to succeed as a social worker when he left prison.

Parole officers also granted Blake permission to leave Morgantown from Nov. 24, 1979, to Nov. 29, 1979, so he could honeymoon with his wife, Donna, at the downtown Holiday Inn in Huntington.

He came to Wheeling from Morgantown to accept the kitchen management job at Wheeling College. He would take on a second job as manager of the former Silver Fox Bar on Market Street.

A local woman, who asked not to be identified, said Blake hired her to work for him at the college.

“I remember him well,” she said. “On one hand he was polite and courteous, but he had a dark side. He always seemed to be lurking nearby. I always thought there was something sinister about him. At times, he looked evil.”

The woman said she remembers clearly when Helmbright disappeared and Blake was charged with the crime.

“He got arrested for stealing a television out of the Student Union Building at Wheeling College,” she said. “The police found the TV in the Silver Fox. It wasn’t long after the TV charge before he was arrested for killing Hopey.”

Blake was arrested by the Wheeling Police Department on July 13, 1984. He was charged with receiving stolen property.

West Virginia state troopers arrested Blake for the Helmbright murder on June 28, 1985. He was found guilty on Oct. 18, 1985.

Prosecutors proved Blake had taken Helmbright from the Silver Fox Bar to Wheeling Island, where he shot her in the head and then transported her body to the Morgantown area. A hunter found it 75 feet off Chapline Hill Road.

Blake was again sentenced to life without mercy and, under West Virginia’s three strikes law, he received yet another life without mercy sentence to be served consecutively after the first one.

Those sentenced were later vacated by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals because of trial errors and Blake was returned to Ohio County for a new trial.

Rather than face another jury, Blake pleaded guilty to the charge and, as part of the agreement, the life without mercy sentence was taken off the table and he was sentenced to 15 years to life.

As a result of that plea agreement, he is eligible for parole again in 2011.

Arthur McKenzie, who was warden of the state prison in Moundsville while Blake was there, was Ohio County sheriff when Blake was arrested for the Helmbright death.

“I put him in charge of the kitchen at the county jail after he got into trouble with the Helmbright case,” McKenzie said. “He was a good cook.”

Belmont County Prosecutor Christopher Berhalter said Blake is charged with three counts of aggravated murder in connection with the Withers case and, if convicted, faces the death penalty.

Berhalter said the three murder charges arise out of different specifications associated with the killing.