The Kansas Prisoner Review Board has rescinded its previous decision to grant parole to a man who was convicted of killing a Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper in the 1970s.
Jimmie Nelms, 78, was sentenced to consecutive life terms plus nine years after being convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm, aggravated kidnapping, and murder in the first degree of Kansas Highway Patrolman Trooper Conroy O’Brien.
In May 1978, O’Brien was patrolling the Kansas Turnpike when he stopped a vehicle for speeding near Matfield Green. He was ambushed while issuing a ticket, forced from his vehicle at gunpoint, shot twice in the back of the head, and left to die in a ditch. Three men were involved in his death. Nelms and his accomplices were captured after a gun battle with Trooper Charlie Smith.
Nelms was convicted in 1979 and has been housed at the Winfield Correctional Facility.
He has been eligible for parole since 1993 and has appeared before the parole board nine times. He was initially granted parole after a hearing in March, but an official decision wasn’t made until May 6.
The KHP and the Kansas State Troopers Association immediately condemned the decision following the May 8 announcement. A public and organizational effort to revoke Nelms’ parole followed.
On May 16, the board held a new hearing and reversed its earlier decision.