Montgomery, Al. – The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles denied parole for 17 violent offenders and one other inmate Wednesday, among them a murderer, two sex offenders, armed robbers and an inmate who ran over a police officer with her car.
(All sentencing information from the Alabama Department of Corrections public website.)
- PAROLE DENIED: 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. The Attorney General’s office testified Wednesday that the child was 18 weeks old when the abuse occurred. The Jefferson County District Attorney joined the AG’s office in opposing the parole. Wilson has served 14 years, three months of her 20-year prison sentence.
- PAROLE DENIED: 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.
- PAROLE DENIED: John Hardy Jordan Jr. was sentenced in 2004 to life in prison for first-degree sexual abuse in Lee County. The Alabama Attorney General’s office testified that his victim was a seven-year-old girl and said the inmate “is a sexual predator.” He has served 16 years of the life sentence.
- PAROLE DENIED: 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.
- PAROLE DENIED: Christopher Michael Poe was sentenced in 2002 in Shelby County to 25 years in prison for sodomizing a three-year-old family member, according to testimony at the hearing. He has served 17 years of the 25-year sentence. Poe also was sentenced in 2003 to 10 years for felony DUI.
- PAROLE DENIED: Derek Gregory Clay is a four-time robber and a parole violator. 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. The Attorney General’s office said Clay has committed 12 disciplinary infractions in prison.
- PAROLE DENIED: 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.
- PAROLE DENIED: 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. The Attorney General’s office testified the victim was injured with a weapon. 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.
- PAROLE DENIED: 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. The Etowah County Sheriff sent a letter opposing parole Wednesday.
- PAROLE DENIED: 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. The Attorney General’s office testified Braxton was convicted of domestic violence-strangulation. He has served just two years of the eight-year sentence. While in prison he has committed six disciplinary infractions, testimony showed.
- PAROLE DENIED: 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. The Attorney General’s office testified she hit a police officer with her car and injured the officer. She has served just one year of that five-year prison sentence.
- PAROLE DENIED: 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. The Attorney General’s office testified that while in prison, Lawrence has committed multiple disciplinary infractions, including some that are “violent in nature.”
- PAROLE DENIED: 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.
- PAROLE DENIED: 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.
- PAROLE DENIED: Joshua Dylan Belyeu was convicted of 10 crimes in Etowah County on Oct. 23, 2018 and sentenced to five years in prison. He was convicted of third-degree burglary while armed with a handgun, testimony Wednesday showed, theft of stolen property, receiving stolen property and seven drug crimes, including distribution of a controlled substance. He has served just one year, four months of his five-year sentence.
- PAROLE DENIED: Elijah Noel Browning was convicted on March 13, 2019 of second and third-degree burglaries in Talladega County and sentenced to five years. A victim testified Wednesday that Browning stole his walker from his home, forcing him to crawl through his home for help. He said the thief also stole his pain medication and all his cash. “If he was so repentant, he would be trying to pay the damage he has done,” the victim said of Browning. The Victims of Crime and Leniency victims’ rights organization also opposed parole. Counting his time in confinement before his conviction, he has served one year, seven months of the five-year sentence.
- PAROLE DENIED: Michael Eugene Goble was on probation for 2015 convictions for third-degree burglary and theft of property in Madison County when his probation was revoked, and he was sent back to prison in 2016 for five years for committing another third-degree burglary. He got out of prison but then in Jan. 2019 he was convicted for a third time of third-degree burglary and sent back to prison for four-and-a-half years. He has served just one year, two months of that sentence.
The board also denied parole to Kellie Kay Thompson, who was sentenced in December 2018 to five years in prison for two Class C felony convictions in 2016 for offenses against a person in Henry County. The Attorney General’s office testified that Thompson committed the offense of chemical endangerment of a child (a drug charge.)
The Attorney General’s office opposed parole in all cases Wednesday except the Belyeu, Goble and Travis cases.
Parole hearings will resume on Jan. 7, 2020.