Paperwork error stalls Silas Parks' appeal

MOSCOW - A paperwork flub has put convicted killer Silas B. Parks' appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court on hold.

Parks, 32, of Moscow, filed an appeal of his petition for post-conviction relief last month after a 2nd District judge denied his request to withdraw his guilty pleas or at least be resentenced for the 2009 deaths of his wife and their unborn child. According to a Supreme Court order filed Wednesday in Latah County, Parks technically can't appeal the decision because two documents involved are worded such that they "are not final District Court judgments which may be appealed."

Proceedings in the appeal have been suspended until the matter is resolved.

Parks was initially charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson after his wife, Sarah, and their unborn daughter, Lilly Ann, were found dead and charred in their Vandal Drive home. He pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter and one count of arson as part of a plea agreement that reduced the charges. Parks was sentenced in 2010 to two 15-year prison terms for the manslaughter charges and at least five years in prison for arson, to run consecutively.

Parks alleged in his 2011 petition for post-conviction relief that his trial counsel, attorneys D. Ray Barker and Charles E. Kovis, pressured him into the plea deal and failed to hire a forensic pathologist to challenge the state's autopsy report. But Brudie ruled in April Barker and Kovis were not ineffective after choosing not to hire a forensic pathologist, and their advice to enter the plea agreement was "appropriate."

Thomas Whitney, Parks' latest attorney, argues in the appeal the court erred in that decision. The Supreme Court order "conditionally dismissed" the appeal, pending the correction of the language of two court documents.

The documents, filed April 29 and May 5, are "not in compliance" with a section of Idaho Rules of Civil Procedure, according to the Supreme Court. Both documents contain orders from the 2nd District Court, but neither have required sections that must be titled "Judgment" and begin with the words "Judgment is entered as follows."

Proceedings in the appeal will be suspended until the District Court enters a final judgment, according to the Supreme Court's order. Whitney must then file an amended notice of appeal with Latah County 2nd District Court.

If the District Court does not enter a final judgment, Whitney must file a response in the Idaho Supreme Court by July 25.

Parks remains incarcerated at the Idaho Correctional Institution in Orofino.

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Embree may be contacted at cembree@lmtribune.com or (208) 669-1298. Follow her on Twitter @chelseaembree.