T-R FILE PHOTO Jayson Speaks is shown at a hearing in a Marshall County courtroom.

Jayson Speaks, a convicted murderer of Rebecca Hauser, began work release on Wednesday.

Speaks was transferred from the North Central Correctional Facility in Rockwell City – where he was held for 26 years and proven to be eligible for minimum security – to the Nelson Center in Cedar Rapids. During his first two weeks at the Nelson Center, he will be quarantined due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, Speaks will begin searching for a job. His parole officer was not available for comment.

Speaks and twin brothers Burt and Derek Smith were all 15 years old when they shot and stabbed Hauser to death on a county road one mile east of Liscomb on Oct. 4, 1994.

Originally from Missouri, the teenagers, along with accomplice Blake Privitt, were running away to Canada and intended to rob Hauser as a way of funding their trip.

Hauser, 32, was heading back home when she was pulled over by flashing emergency lights. Speaks, the brothers and Privitt had emergency lights affixed on top of their Chevrolet Blazer.

Burt Smith shot Hauser. She was also stabbed and beaten. Speaks and the Smith brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and Privitt was sentenced to 75 years. However, in August 2013, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that life sentences for juveniles were illegal.

That ruling opened the door for Speaks and the Smiths’ to be re-sentenced and gain the possibility of parole, which they were granted.

Marshall County Sheriff Steve Hoffman found out about the work release on Tuesday and is appalled it was granted to Speaks. Hoffman was involved with the murder investigation and was first on the crime scene. He spent hours with Speaks.

“I saw first-hand the violence committed on Mrs. Hauser,” the sheriff said. “If my recollection is correct, it was Speaks’ suggestion and command they kill her. I am not confident he has been rehabilitated.”

Hoffman has a lot of concern about the effect this will have on Hauser’s family. When Speaks was eligible for parole in October 2019, he said they live with the loss every single day and the process was akin to ripping a Band-Aid off.

“The process loses sight of the people who really matter — the survivors,” he said.

Contact Lana Bradstream at lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.