DRAPER -- The state Board of Pardons has made it official: Jacob Ethridge will never leave the Utah State Prison.
The full board has ratified a recommendation from Ethridge's Jan. 3 parole hearing that he serve a term of natural life. That decision came Jan. 12, according to board of pardons' records.
Currently about 60 people among the state prison system's 6,000-plus inmates are serving natural life, a term the board can impose, based on its authority to set inmates' release dates. Approximately 30 other inmates are serving life without parole, a sentence handed down by judges.
On Dec. 13, 2010, Ethridge, 34, was sentenced by 2nd District Judge W. Brent West to two consecutive 20-years-to-life prison terms for a 2008 double homicide.
Ethridge fatally shot two women and told police he fantasized about becoming a serial killer.
Killed by single shots to the head after interacting with Ethridge were Teresa Rene Tingey, 43, and Rosanna Marie Cruz, 25, both prostitutes working Adams Avenue in the area of 26th and 24th streets.
Ethridge apparently hasn't updated his status on inmate-correspondent web sites, such as friendsbeyondthewall.com and goodprisoner.com, according to a relative.
On prisonpenpals.com, Ethridge on Thursday still listed a possible release date as the year 2025.
"Everybody craves & desires attention," his profile reads. "I'd like to be the one receiving yours & giving you all of mine ... I have what I need except for a loyal, trusting friend/companion."
In his confession hours after the July 13, 2008, slayings, Ethridge told police he had been pondering a killing spree for more than a year.
But the thrill he sought wasn't there, he told police in his confession. He drove to his parents' house in Roy immediately after the slayings, changed clothes and told his parents what he had done.
His father had him put the blood-spattered clothes back on and drove him to the Ogden Police Department.
Ethridge entered into a plea bargain in October 2010 to avoid the death penalty.
A six-hour sentencing hearing two months later detailed Ethridge's psychological problems, which led to his discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps and the Utah Police Academy.
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