A man originally sentenced to life in prison for strangling his wife in 1993 will be considered for community release in September, after a state body decided not to deny him parole on Tuesday.
Official correspondence shows the Vermont Parole Board has scheduled a Sept. 19 hearing for Gregory Fitzgerald, who was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 30-year-old Amy Fitzgerald.
Her body was found in a condo in Shelburne, where she had been living while pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Vermont. She also was a captain in the U.S. Army. Her family believes her husband killed her to get a $100,000 life insurance policy.
To evade getting caught, police said Gregory Fitzgerald had accomplices and an elaborate scheme to travel from Texas, where his wife believed he was enrolled in college. Instead, he’d been dismissed from the University of Texas and had a secret girlfriend.
The Vermont Superior Court sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole in 1994. Then in January last year, the court resentenced him to 35 years to life as part of his deal with prosecutors in a civil suit.
With credit for good behavior and presentence jail time, Fitzgerald retroactively qualified for parole in 2019. He declined his first opportunity at a parole hearing last spring. This week, his paperwork came up for an annual parole board review.
The three-person board chose not to deny him parole, but the body is required to conduct a face-to-face hearing before it can potentially grant parole, said Vermont Parole Board Director Mary Jane Ainsworth.
“There is a possibility of him being granted parole,” Ainsworth said in an interview. “There wasn’t enough evidence to support a denial in just the paper review.”
According to Fitzgerald’s parole summary prepared by the Vermont Department of Corrections, which the board reviewed, an assessment in June showed he had a low risk of reoffending. It also states he had a low level of substance abuse and mental health issues, had a high level of family and social support, and hadn’t been the subject of a major disciplinary report since 1993.
The corrections department, however, did not recommend that Fitzgerald be granted parole at this point, after considering his housing needs.
The three-page document, obtained by VTDigger, said Fitzgerald should be released only if he can move into transitional housing for offenders, given the length of time he’d been locked up and his need for a broad range of support services. It said he has not yet found housing approved by the corrections department.
When asked how much weight the parole board puts on the department’s recommendation, Ainsworth said it would just be one of the factors the body considers. She said the board looks at all aspects of the case, including input from victims and their families.
Amy Fitzgerald’s survivors include her older brothers Alan and Dave Zeltserman. The men vigorously oppose Gregory Fitzgerald’s release and disagree with the state’s decision to settle his civil suit.
In an interview last year, the brothers said they believe he is incapable of change and will victimize others, if released. The men said they intend to speak at his parole board hearings. They couldn’t be reached for comment up to Thursday afternoon.
Ainsworth said the parole board also listens to statements from members of the community, such as a retired Shelburne police detective who opposes Fitzgerald’s release.
“It’s looking at the whole picture is how they make the determination,” she said.
Meanwhile, the corrections department is separately considering Fitzgerald’s release on furlough, which allows incarcerated people deemed low risk to serve the rest of their sentences in the community while under strict supervision.
Fitzgerald has not been released on furlough because he has not yet found appropriate transitional housing, said department spokesperson Haley Sommers. But once that occurs, he would be eligible for furlough, she said.
Ainsworth said that, if Fitzgerald is released on furlough and, afterward, granted parole, his parole status would determine his conditions and supervision.