Montgomery, Al. – The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles will hold parole hearings for 20 violent offenders this week, among them one murderer, three sex offenders, and eight who were convicted of robbery.
Parole hearings scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 17:
(All sentencing information from the Alabama Department of Corrections public website.)
- Deashton Luvoris Hayes is a two-time convicted robber. He was sentenced in 2010 to two years in prison for third-degree robbery and first-degree theft of property in Madison County. Just one year later, Hayes committed another robbery. In 2011, Al.com reported he robbed a man of a remote-controlled car by force. He was sentenced in 2012 to 15 years for that second-degree robbery, along with 10-year sentences for the original robbery and theft of property convictions. He continued his criminal activity in 2018 and was sentenced to five-years for distribution of controlled substances in Madison County. Hayes has served just one year, three months of that five-year prison sentence.
- Deandre Quintero Love is a recaptured parole violator who has been sent to prison four separate times for crimes committed in Madison County. Love was sentenced to 10 years for a 2009 second-degree assault and 15 years for discharging a gun into an occupied building or car. Love committed a robbery two years later and was sentenced in 2012 to 15 years for second-degree robbery. Love in 2017 was sentenced to six more years in prison for two counts of possession and receiving controlled substances. He was paroled but then violated parole in 2018. In April 2019 Love was back in prison again, this time for five years, after another drug conviction. He has served just one year, three months of that prison sentence.
- Ervin Cornelius Smith was sentenced in 1987 to two years in prison for two second-degree robberies in Mobile County. In January 2019 he was sent back to prison on an eight-year sentence for possession and receiving controlled substances in Mobile County. He has served just one year, four months of that eight-year term.
- Diangelo Tarez Dudley was sentenced in 2003 to three years in prison for first-degree burglary in Tuscaloosa County. His sentence for the burglary was extended in 2006 to 10 years after he was also convicted of two counts of drug possession and sentenced to three years. He was convicted again in 2011 of drug possession, and then he was sent back to prison again in November 2018 for five years for drug distribution in Tuscaloosa County. He has served only one year, one month of that five-year prison term.
- Toney Jeffery Hughes was sentenced on Oct. 17, 2018 to three years, 10 months for third-degree burglary and drug possession, and to seven years, six months on two counts of drug possession, all in Madison County. He has served just one year, two months of the seven-year prison sentence.
- Bryant Lamar Sparks is serving a 20-year sentence, handed down in 2013, for first-degree escape in Montgomery County. He has served less than half that 20-year sentence. Sparks also is serving varying sentences for theft of property, fraudulent use of a credit card and receiving stolen property, for crimes committed in Montgomery County. He also is serving an eight-year sentence from 2014 for theft of property in Lee County. Sparks began his criminal career in Lee County in 2006 when he was convicted of theft of property. Two years later he was sentenced to three years for receiving stolen property and fraudulent use of a credit card.
Parole hearings scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 18:
- Colony Nicole Wilson was sentenced in 2005 to 20 years in prison for child abuse in Jefferson County. The Gadsden Times reported her infant had “13 broken bones in the first four years of her life” due to abuse by Wilson. According to the newspaper, the child sustained broken bones in her collarbone, skull, legs, arms, ribs and shoulders over a two-month period. Wilson has served 14 years, three months of her 20-year prison sentence.
- Keeondray Rashone Sterling is a convicted murderer who also shot a nine-year-old boy in a separate incident. He was sentenced in 2016 to 15 years in prison for first-degree assault in Tuscaloosa County. The Tuscaloosa News reported police said Sterling shot a nine-year-old boy and shot at a 17-year-old. Sterling has served just five years, five months of the 15-year prison sentence for shooting a child. He was convicted of murder in Tuscaloosa County in 2010 and sentenced to four years, six months. The Tuscaloosa News reported police said Sterling shot a man to death at a Tuscaloosa apartment and fled.
- John Hardy Jordan Jr. was sentenced in 2004 to life in prison for first-degree sexual abuse in Lee County. He has served 16 years of the life sentence.
- Jimmy Wayne Karr is a sex offender who has been convicted of crimes seven times and has been sent to prison twice for burglary. He was first sentenced in 1983 to one year for third-degree burglary in Clay County. He was paroled from that sentence in 1984. Karr was sent back to prison in 2003 for two years for a 1999 conviction for drug possession in Chambers County. He was back in prison again in 2008 for another drug conviction in Chambers County, and then was sentenced in 2011 to 25 years for his second burglary conviction and 15 years for theft of property in Clay County. Records from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama show Karr also was convicted of second-degree sexual abuse after he attacked a victim who was sleeping. Karr has served just eight years, 10 months of his 25-year prison sentence. Karr was released from prison again but in 2016 was incarcerated again for eight years for another theft of property conviction in Chambers County.
- Christopher Michael Poe was sentenced in 2002 in Shelby County to 25 years in prison for first-degree sodomy. He has served 17 years of the 25-year sentence. Poe also was sentenced in 2003 to 10 years for felony DUI.
- Derek Gregory Clay is a four-time robber. He is serving life in prison for three first-degree robbery convictions in 2007 in Madison County and 18 months for a March 2019 conviction for illegal possession and fraudulent use of a credit card in Shelby County. He has served less than 13 years of the three life sentences. Clay was sentenced in 2002 to 10 years for the first of his robberies in Madison County, but he was released from prison early and went on to commit the three additional robberies.
- Damon Lamar Calhoun is a parole violator who has been convicted of crimes in Mobile County 10 times. He was sentenced in 2015 to 18 years for third-degree burglary. He has served just five years, six months of the 18-year prison sentence. Calhoun was sentenced in 2016 to 15 years for third-degree robbery and breaking-and-entering a vehicle. He violated parole and was sent back to confinement in 2018. In 2011 he was sentenced to 10 years for four convictions for receiving stolen property and two convictions for third-degree burglary, and to five years for breaking-and-entering a vehicle.
- Jimmy Claude Harmon Jr. is a parole violator who has twice been convicted of assault in a criminal career that spans three Alabama counties. He was sentenced in 2001 to two years for second-degree assault in Madison County. He was sentenced again in 2004 to 15 years for that same 2001 assault conviction. Harmon was granted parole in 2006 but violated parole and in 2009 was sent back to prison for second-degree assault in Cleburne County. He was resentenced in 2017 to 14 years and five months for the 2009 assault. Harmon has served less than five years of the 14-year, five-month sentence. Harmon’s criminal career started in 1997 with convictions for third-degree burglary and breaking and entering a vehicle in Calhoun County.
- Christopher Dewayne Stewart was sentenced in 2015 to 20 years in prison for a 2007 first-degree robbery, and for 2015 convictions for third-degree burglary, three counts of theft of property, and two counts of unlawful breaking and entering a vehicle, all in Etowah County. The Gadsden Times reported Feb. 24, 2007 that Stewart was charged with robbing a Grub Mart. The report said a man with a gun went into the convenience store before 4 a.m., pointed the gun at the clerk and demanded money. The clerk locked the door, which prevented the suspect from leaving, and the suspect fired a shot into the ceiling prompting the clerk to open the door, the newspaper reported. Stewart has served only 10 years, seven months of the 20-year sentence. Public records show he was granted probation at one point but then probation was revoked, and he was rearrested on April 18, 2013.
- Carlos Braxton was sentenced on Oct. 29, 2018 to eight years in prison for third-degree robbery, first-degree theft of property, unlawful breaking and entering of a vehicle and two counts of offenses against a person (Class B Felony) in Jefferson County. He has served just two years of the eight-year sentence.
- Lauren Ashley Finney was sentenced in 2017 to six months for second-degree assault and a drug conviction in Mobile County but was resentenced in those cases in January 2019 to five years. She has served just one year of that five-year prison sentence.
- Cori Noelle Lawrence was sentenced in October 2018 to five years in prison for second-degree assault and six years for second-degree arson, along with three years for possession and receipt of a controlled substance, all in Covington County. She has served only one year, three months of the six-year prison sentence. The Andalusia Star-News reported April 19, 2017 that Lawrence set fire to a trailer in Opp. The newspaper reported firefighters “found that there were two different spots that looked like someone had tried to set fire to the home.” Lawrence was arrested by state fire marshals.
- William Ferrell Travis was sentenced in 2016 to 15 years for obstruction of justice and criminal possession of a forged instrument in Madison County. He has served just three years, two months of that 15-year prison sentence. Travis was sentenced in 2015 to three months for third-degree burglary in Madison County, but that sentence was extended in 2016 to 10 years. Travis began his criminal career in 1998 when he was sentenced to 15 years for second-degree robbery in Madison County. He was convicted of promoting prison contraband in 2001 in Elmore County and sentenced to five years.
- Michael W. Vincent was sentenced in 2008 to 20 years in prison for third-degree robbery in Autauga County. He has served less than 12 years of the 20-year prison sentence.