Montgomery, Al. – The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles denied parole Wednesday for 17 violent offenders and one other inmate. The board granted parole to one inmate.
The Alabama attorney general’s office expressed opposition to parole in all 19 cases Wednesday.
(All sentencing information from the Alabama Department of Corrections public website except where noted.)
- PAROLE DENIED: Kendell Cottrell Means is a convicted killer and rapist. Means was sentenced in 2001 to three years in prison for manslaughter in Jefferson County. A representative for the attorney general’s office said Means was convicted of shooting and killing a pregnant woman. He was sent back to prison for life in 2005 for first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy and first-degree burglary in Jefferson County, and for 16 years for the original manslaughter case. Officials said he raped the victim in front of her two young children. He has served just 15 years, six months of the life prison sentence.
- PAROLE DENIED: Clarence Lawrence Martin Jr. is a convicted murderer and parole violator. He is serving a 50-year prison sentence for murder in Lee County. He has served 30 years of the 50-year sentence. Martin is currently in federal custody on other charges.
- PAROLE DENIED: Nathaniel Cale Davis was convicted in 2009 of sexually abusing a three-year-old girl in Calhoun County, according to Alabama Law Enforcement Agency records. In 2011 he was sentenced to five years in prison for that 2009 first-degree sexual abuse case and four years for violating the sex offender registration law. On May 22, 2018 Davis was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a separate child abuse case in Calhoun County from 2016. He has served just two years, eight months of that 10-year sentence. The attorney general’s office said Davis had two disciplinary infractions in prison as recently as June.
- PAROLE DENIED: Larry Eugene Hearld was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse of a six-year-old girl in Tuscaloosa, according to testimony at Wednesday’s hearing. The girl’s adoptive mother said the victim “lives in fear of him,” and referring to the possibility of parole for Hearld, the mother said “there’s no getting out of prison” for the victim. The attorney general’s representative testified about the “devastating impact of what this inmate did to the victim.” Hearld has served nine years, three months of a 10-year sentence.
- PAROLE DENIED: Robert McClain is a three-time sex offender. He was sentenced in 1981 to 10 years in prison for first-degree rape and two years for third-degree burglary in Montgomery County. After he was released from prison early, McClain raped another victim in Montgomery and was sentenced in 1984 to life in prison. In 1992, he was sentenced to another 15 years in prison for first-degree sexual abuse in Elmore County.
- PAROLE DENIED: Kelvin Bernard Phillips was sentenced on May 31, 2018 to 15 years in prison for manslaughter in Clarke County. He has served just four years and four months of his 15-year prison sentence. A newspaper report in the South Alabamian on July 9, 2015 said Phillips was arrested in the case of a woman in Thomasville who died from gunshot wounds to the head and neck.
- PAROLE DENIED: Edward Fitzgerald Harris was sentenced in 2000 to 40 years in prison for three counts of first-degree rape and 10 years for two counts of first-degree sexual abuse of an 11-year-old girl in Etowah County. He has served 20 years, 11 months of the 40-year prison term.
- PAROLE DENIED: Roger Keith Thompson was sentenced in 2011 to 20 years in prison for second-degree assault in Lauderdale County. He has served only nine years, three months of the 20-year sentence. The Lauderdale County District Attorney attended Wednesday’s parole hearing to oppose the parole of Thompson, saying Thompson “almost beat (the victim) to death. (The victim) is scared to death that (Thompson) is going to get out of prison.” WAAY TV reported the victim said Thompson “beat me for six hours with a metal pipe. He cut my clothes off, wrapped me in a rug and threw me in a junk pile and left me for dead.” Thompson previously had been sentenced to 15 years for another second-degree assault, this one in 2008, and a drug possession case in Lauderdale County. Thompson was first sent to prison in 1997 for second-degree forgery. A representative of Victims of Crime and Leniency (VOCAL) said at Wednesday’s hearing that Thompson is “a violent man with a violent past.”
- PAROLE DENIED: Martinez Dewayne Houston was sentenced in 2007 to 30 years in prison for first-degree sodomy and in 2008 to 10 years for first-degree sexual abuse, both in Jefferson County. He has served just 13 years of the 30-year prison sentence. Houston’s victim, who was seven years old when he sodomized her, delivered tearful and emotional testimony at Wednesday’s hearing, saying “It’s nothing you can ever get rid of.” The victim’s cousin said Houston “scarred my cousin for life.” The attorney general’s office noted Houston has committed six prison disciplinary infractions, the most recent of which was an assault with a weapon on another inmate.
- PAROLE DENIED: Lorenzo Banks has been convicted twice of robbery. He was sentenced in 2005 to 25 years in prison for first-degree robbery in Jefferson County. He has served 14 years, four months of that 25-year sentence. Banks had already been sentenced in 2002 to 15 years for second-degree robbery in Bessemer. Banks subsequently escaped custody and was sentenced in January 2019 to eight months confinement for third-degree escape and second-degree receiving stolen property. The attorney general’s office reported Banks has committed 23 disciplinary infractions in prison. The Jefferson County District Attorney also opposed Banks’ parole.
- PAROLE DENIED: Jeffrey Lee Lahmann Jr. was admitted to the prison system in 2011 after a conviction for first-degree robbery in Baldwin County. Al.com reported July 19, 2010 that Lahmann and an accomplice “burst into a drug party at a house in Lake Forest early on June 8, rounded up the victims, robbed them at gunpoint and took several items from the home.” Lahmann was resentenced in 2015 to 20 years in prison for that first-degree robbery. He has served less than seven years, four months of his 20-year prison term. The attorney general’s office testified Lahmann has committed 20 disciplinary infractions in prison, including 12 in the past three years.
- PAROLE DENIED: Christopher Gerard McCree was sentenced in 2008 to 20 years in prison for a 2005 first-degree robbery and 15 years for a 2005 first-degree assault, both in Houston County. WTVY Television in Dothan reported March 14, 2005 that McCree and an accomplice were accused of robbing Linden Grocery Store in Dothan. A store clerk was struck in the head during the robbery. McCree has served less than 12 years, 10 months of the 20-year prison sentence. In 2009 McCree was sentenced to 15 years for two counts of drug possession. He was subsequently paroled but violated parole in 2016. The attorney general’s office reported McCree has committed 15 disciplinary infractions in prison.
- PAROLE GRANTED: Tamara Leigh Ramos was sentenced on Sept. 26, 2018 to seven years in prison for a 2015 second-degree robbery in Lee County.
- PAROLE DENIED: Brian Dean Rigsby was sentenced in 2007 to life in prison for a 2004 first-degree robbery in Walker County. He has served 15 years, eight months of the life sentence. In 1996 he was sentenced to 10 years for three first-degree burglaries in Cullman County and four years for criminal possession of a forged instrument in Walker County. He was out of prison on parole when he committed the 2004 robbery. Testimony at Wednesday’s hearing showed Rigsby was paroled again in 2017 but parole was revoked when he re-offended.
- PAROLE DENIED: Raymond Andrew Bivins’ criminal career has spanned nearly 30 years and four Alabama counties. He has been convicted eight times of third-degree burglary. He is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence, handed down in 2016, for two burglaries, possession of burglar’s tools, and criminal mischief, all in Tuscaloosa County. He has served just two years, six months of the 12-year prison sentence. Bivins was re-sentenced in 2017 to 10 years, two months for burglary and possession of burglar’s tools for two 2010 cases in Houston County. Bivins was convicted of another burglary in Tuscaloosa County in 2012 and sentenced to two years, seven months. In 2005, Bivins was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he went on a crime spree in Coffee County, committing five third-degree burglaries, along with criminal mischief, receiving stolen property, unlawful breaking and entering of a vehicle, and two counts of theft of property. He was sentenced in 1998 to 10 years for receiving stolen property, and in 1999 to one year, six months for possession of burglar’s tools, both in Coffee County. He was sentenced in 1990 to 10 years for theft of property in Monroe County, but was paroled in 1994. In 1988 he was sentenced to two years in prison for Violation of the Uniform Controlled Substances Act and one year for theft of property, both in Coffee County. The attorney general’s office said Bivins committed three prison disciplinary infractions in 2018.
- PAROLE DENIED: Michael Jerome Butler was sent to prison in 2010 for two years, seven months for third-degree burglary in Butler County. Butler was paroled in 2011 but in 2017 was sent back to prison for 15 years for receiving stolen property, unlawful breaking and entering of a vehicle, and theft of property. He has served less than six years of the 15-year prison sentence. The attorney general’s office reported Butler has committed nine disciplinary infractions in prison.
- PAROLE DENIED: Emmanuel Lakeem Ervin was sentenced in 2015 to three years, six months in prison for third-degree burglary and five counts of unlawful breaking and entering vehicles in Talladega County. He was subsequently paroled but in September 2018 was sent back to prison for seven years, six months for again illegally breaking into and entering a vehicle. He has served less than two years of that seven-and-a-half-year prison term. The attorney general’s office reported Ervin committed two prison disciplinary infractions in 2019, including one just two months ago.
- PAROLE DENIED: Timothy Shan Parrish was out of prison on parole when he was sentenced in 2010 to 20 years for third-degree burglary in Cullman County. He has served less than half of that 20-year prison term. Parrish had been sent to prison for four years in 2003 for drug possession, receiving stolen property and criminal possession of a forged instrument. He was convicted again in 2005 for theft of property in Cullman County and sentenced to 15 years, but was paroled from that sentence in 2007. He went on to commit burglary again less than three years after he was released from his prison sentence early. The attorney general’s office reported Parrish has committed 17 prison disciplinary infractions, including 12 in the past four years. The Cullman County District Attorney also opposed parole.
The board also denied parole Wednesday to Albert Hunnicutt, who is serving time for theft, criminal mischief and receiving stolen property. The attorney general’s office testified Hunnicutt has committed 19 prison disciplinary infractions in the past five years, including assaulting a Department of Corrections employee.