Just before the state’s Parole Board considers whether to free his killer, Trooper George Hanna is being remembered for the way he lived before his life was cut short while on duty.
Hanna was murdered in 1983 during a traffic stop in Auburn. Jose Colon, one of three men convicted for Hanna’s death, fired the six shots in close range that ended the trooper’s life.
Colon, who was 20 years old when he committed the crime, was sentenced to life without parole. But decades after his sentencing, Colon has a shot of getting out.
On Thursday, Colon will get the chance to argue for his release because of a recent Supreme Judicial Court decision that ruled “emerging adults” — those 18 to 20 year old — cannot be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Dennis Galvin, a retired State Police major who worked with Hanna, called Colon’s potential release “unconscionable.”
The ruling that made the parole hearing possible “devalues the life of the victim,” he told the Herald.
Galvin was in the trooper class just after Hanna and was just a few years younger than the trooper he said he looked up to.
During their five years on the force together, “I got to know George pretty well,” Galvin said, describing Hanna as an incredible trooper.
Hanna “treated everybody with respect,” Galvin said. “Even if you got a ticket from George, it was hard to get mad at him.”
In addition to his police work, Galvin remembered Hanna as a great father who was extremely dedicated to his family.
Hanna loved baseball, and Galvin said that he’d built a small replica of Fenway Park, “Green monster and everything,” in his backyard where he played wiffle ball with his two daughters and the neighbor kids.
“I was devastated by it,” Galvin said of Hanna’s death. “It was an ugly, ugly incident, too.”
Galvin called the crime cold-blooded and horrendous.
The retired major said he knows the crime happened a long time ago and a lot of people might sympathize with the decades Colon has already spent behind bars.
“Here’s the thing they forget,” he told the Herald over the phone, “The Hanna family has lived with that death.” Everyday since, it has shaped their lives, he said.
Although he said he believes that some people truly don’t have the cognitive ability to understand their crimes, he doesn’t agree that merely being an “emerging adult” removes their criminal liability.
“If you are going to hurt someone [at that age],” Galvin said, “you know it.”
Since the SJC decision, 39 out of the 51 people who had their parole reviewed because of the ruling have been released. There are still 159 more cases from the group that need to be evaluated.
Galvin said the ruling “threatens our assessment of what guilt is about.”
He isn’t the only person against Colon’s release. Gov. Maura Healey wrote a letter to the parole board ahead of the hearing, urging them to keep Colon behind bars.
“Given the extraordinary significance this case holds for our state, I believe it is necessary to voice my clear and unequivocal opposition to Jose Colon’s release,” Healey wrote.
Members of Hanna’s family are expected to attend the hearing, which is set for 10 a.m. at 12 Mercer Road in Natick.
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