A man released from prison onto home-arrest in 2015 after serving nearly 50 years for the brutal murders of two Sierra Vista girls has lost his latest effort to be released again after he was taken back into custody in 2018 for having a young girl in his apartment.
William L. Huff petitioned the Arizona Court of Appeals earlier this year to review a decision by the Arizona Board of Executive Clemency that the girl’s presence in his apartment in 2018 violated a condition of his home-arrest release even though her parents were there too. However, on Oct. 2 the appellate court issued a 3-0 decision denying Huff’s request for review.
Huff was a 16-year-old Buena High School student when Cindy Clelland, 7, disappeared in April 1967. Her undressed body was found several days later; she had been strangled, beaten with a rock, stabbed, and disemboweled.
Weeks later Jenelle Haines, 6, disappeared on Fort Huachuca. She was also found undressed and brutally attacked. The community panic increased when someone using the moniker “The Phantom” wrote a letter to Sierra Vista police threatening to kill another girl.
Huff, now 69, was indicted in October 1967 for Clelland’s death and prosecuted in the Cochise County Superior Court. He entered into a plea deal which resulted in a sentence of 40 years up to life in prison. He was also given a 25-year sentence by a federal judge for Haines’ death.
In late 2015, the state clemency board approved Huff’s application for home-arrest release. He was subject to electronic monitoring and daily supervision by a parole officer even though he was technically still a prisoner, not a parolee.
One condition of home-arrest required Huff to seek preapproval from a parole officer before having contact with children. But Huff was temporarily returned to prison in late 2018 after an eight-year-old girl was found in his apartment along with her parents.
In January 2019 the clemency board unanimously revoked Huff’s home-arrest and made his return to prison permanent. His only option now is to reapply once a year for release.
Such an application was denied by the clemency board after a hearing in September 2019. Huff then filed a petition for post-conviction relief with Judge James Conlogue, the presiding judge in Cochise County.
The petition claimed Huff’s original sentence was illegal and that his case deserved review due to “a significant change in the law.” Conlogue dismissed the petition earlier this year, ruling any claims about Huff’s old conviction or sentence were precluded because the time had long passed to raise such arguments.
Huff then petitioned for review from the Arizona Court of Appeals. He argued that the clemency board erred in revoking his home-arrest release.
The appellate court’s Oct. 2 denial of Huff’s review request notes his complaints about the clemency board were not first put forth to the Cochise County court.
“This court will not address claims not first raised in the trial court and properly presented to this court for review,” the decision states. “Accordingly, our summary denial of review is justified.”
The Arizona Department of Corrections shows Huff is housed at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Eyman in Florence.