Killer set free after serving less than half of 75 year sentence

HUNTSVILLE, TX (KTRK) -- On June 6, 1984, a young postal carrier named Debra Sue Schatz was delivering mail on an unfamiliar route, working for a co-worker who called in sick. More than a day later, her body was found near Buffalo Bayou off the beltway. She'd been shot and her uniform unbuttoned.

David Port, then 17, was arrested for her murder and convicted. Today, on June 5, one day shy of the anniversary of her death, David Port is 47 years old and free.

Albert Schatz, Jr., said, "My sister is lying in the ground, can't do anything. She doesn't have a second chance. He has a second chance."

Port is 47 now. He was to have served 75 years in prison. Each time he came up for parole, Debra Schatz's family petitioned the parole board to deny it and prevailed.

HPD Victims' Advocate Andy Kahan explained, "So if the board says you're not fit to re-enter society, what makes you think he's going to comply with any rules and conditions."

Despite that, Port was freed under the mandatory release policy. Implemented during prison overcrowding, it means for inmates convicted from 1977 to 1987, they can be released after serving a third of their sentence. Port met the conditions. He's assigned to a halfway house in Austin. He'll be under mandatory supervision.

"Basically the eyes of Texas will be looking on David Port to be sure he complies with his rules and conditions," Kahan said.

Last year, Debra Schatz's mother, who always had a candle lit for her daughter, died from a stroke. She was dreading the day, her son says, when David Port would be released. What the family says they never got, was an apology.

"He showed no remorse at all for what he did," Albert Schatz said. "He might snap again, because he never shows remorse for anything he did."

Schatz's family successfully fought Port's parole for years. This time, there was no hearing.