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NU student Dunagan released
■ Parole is granted for
the 1997 killing of his
abusive father.
LINCOLN (AP) — A
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
student who killed his father
after enduring years of abuse
wqp granted parole Wednesday
after spending more than a year
in prison.
Matthew Dunagan, 20,
smiled but showed little other
emotion when the State Parole
Board ended a 10-minute hear
ing by voting 5-0 in favor of his
oarole.
His mother and older brother
patted him on the back as they
left the hearing room at the
Community Corrections Center.
Dunagan started serving a three
year sentence at the prison in
May 1999.
"We’re extremely pleased,”
said his mother, Kay Dunagan.
Michael Dunagan told the
parole board that he was excited
for his younger brother to start
his new life.
Matthew Dunagan did not
comment as he walked out of the
prison.
During the hearing, he told
the board that he plans on finish
ing his undergraduate education
at UNL, then attend graduate
school studying genetics. Board
members congratulated him on
his 4.0 grade point average.
"I think you have a good
head on your shoulders,” Parole
Board Chairwoman Linda Krutz
said.
No one, including the county
attorney who prosecuted the
case, opposed Dunagan’s parole.
His mother and brother were
the only people who spoke on his
behalf.
"There was no way I could
show you how much I love Matt
and how much pride I have in
him,” his mother told the board.
Matthew Dunagan was 17
and a senior honors student at
Lincoln’s Pius X High School
when he shot his father twice in
the chest with a 12-gauge shot
gun as he lay on a couch die night
of Sept. 30, 1997.
Lancaster County Attorney
Gary Lacey said John Dunagan,
56, physically abused his wife
and degraded his two sons both
publicly and privately for years.
The night he was killed, John
Dunagan had argued with his
wife.
wncn maimcw uunagan
suggested that his parents
divorce, his father responded by
saying he might "kill the bitch,”
according to court records.
Matthew Dunagan then went
to his room, got the shotgun,
came back downstairs and shot
his father.
Dunagan said at the hearing
that he used to pretend every
thing was all right even when it
wasn’t. He said counseling has
helped him better express him
self.
Continuing counseling was a
condition of his parole, which
will last until November.
Dunagan was allowed to
leave prison to attend classes at
UNL on the four-year Regents
Scholarship he was awarded
after high school.
\
UNL officials said he has
been enrolled full-time at the
university over the past year and
is enrolled for classes this sum
mer and next fall.
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