An Oklahoma man who kidnapped and murdered a police officer in Kansas is set to be a free man.
Jimmie K. Nelms, who, along with another man, murdered state trooper Conroy O'Brien in 1978, was granted parole on Friday, the Associated Press reported.
"The Kansas Prisoner Review Board believes that Mr. Nelms is able and willing to fulfill the obligations of a law-abiding citizen and is of the opinion that there is reasonable probability that Mr. Nelms can be released without detriment to the community or to himself," department of corrections spokesman David Thompson said in a statement.
Kansas Legislature's top leaders, Republican Senate President Ty Masterson and Republican House Speaker Dan Hawkins, responded to the decision with fury, calling the parole decision "unconscionable" Friday, according to the AP.
The opposition also reached across the aisle. Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, a Democrat, also wants the board to reconsider the decision. The governor's spokesperson, Grace Hoge wrote in an email to the AP stating that the faces of the case are clear.
"The facts of this case demonstrate a brutal and intentional killing of a law enforcement officer," Hoge wrote. "There is no justification for this decision."
Nelms' co-defendant died in 2009. Nelms had previously sought parole in 2011 and 2021. In March Nelms had another parole hearing and this time the board granted it, although no date has been set yet for his release, the AP reported.
The Kansas State Troopers Association condemned the decision by the parole board, calling it "disgraceful and disgusting."
In 1978 O'Brien was patroling the Kansas Turnpike when he pulled over a vehicle that had three occupants, the association stated in a post on social media. O'Brien did not know that the men in the car were wanted for several armed robberies across multiple states. The men overpowered O'Brien, fractured his skull, took his service weapon, and then Nelms shot him twice in the head as he begged for his life.
"Unfathomably, the Kansas Prisoner Review Board just betrayed Conroy's family and friends, his community, and anyone who ever has or ever will wear the badge of a Kansas State Trooper," stated Sage Hill, president of the Kansas State Troopers Association.
"Jimmie Nelms, despite torturing and executing a respected trooper who also happened to be an expectant father, and despite attempting to kill another trooper during his arrest, will be released from prison," Hill wrote, adding "it does not go unnoticed when life sentences in Kansas aren't worth the paper they're written on."
