Student Who Planned Attack At RSU To Remain Behind Bars

By Lori Fullbright, The News On 6 

TULSA, OK -- A judge has decided not to let a former Rogers State University student out of prison early.  Instead, Tywone Parks has been moved from a medium security prison to a maximum one, where he'll be on around-the-clock lockdown.

A warden and counselor convinced a judge Parks is a serious danger to society.

Tywone Parks got a 10-year sentence last year for threatening a mass shooting at the RSU campus in Claremore.  He was also accused of putting a severed dog's head on his neighbor's front step, and police say he had written all over his apartment walls about decapitating a woman and torturing a child.

6/11/2009 Related Story: Man Draws 10 Years For Planning Attack

All of that seems mild compared to what he's up to now.

When Tywone Parks was first sent to prison, his initial assessment said he was at low risk to re-offend, so he was assigned to the medium security Joseph Harp Correctional Center and ordered to go through all kinds of counseling.

He got there last August, but two months ago was moved to restrictive housing because he and another prisoner had a list of staff members they wanted to kill, mostly women.

He was moved to the mental health unit three weeks ago because he threatened to hurt the women staff members.

Records show Parks recently admitted he was fantasizing about raping and killing the secretary who worked in his unit.  He said "she reminded him of his former girlfriend who had broken up with him" and that he "tried not to think about killing her" but all his "scenarios involved him coming back and killing her after he got out in June."

When asked how he would do it, Parks said, "I would slit her throat and put her like a crucifix."

Parks believed he might get out in June, because his case was up for a one-year review by a Rogers County judge on Thursday. The letter from the counselor to the judge also said Parks said he "periodically had strong urges to kill" and that he was afraid he was "genetically programmed to be a serial killer."

The counselor and warden both urged the judge not to let Parks out early, saying he's a serious threat to society. The judge agreed.

Parks has been transferred to the State Penitentiary in McAlester.  He'll be eligible for parole next May, two years into his 10-year sentence.