A 78-year-old resident of the Winfield Correctional Facility – who was to be paroled – has had a decision to release him rescinded.
In March, the Kansas Prisoner Review Board had granted parole for Jimmie Nelms. He was sentenced to consecutive life terms plus nine years in 1979 for the crimes of unlawful possession of a firearm, aggravated kidnapping, and murder in the first degree of Kansas Highway Patrolman Trooper Conroy O’Brien.
Nelms has been eligible for parole since 1993 and appeared before the board nine times before the decision earlier this year.
The board, in a new hearing on May 16 with Nelms, rescinded its previous decision to grant parole and decided to deny him release at this time.
The Kansas Highway Patrol and State Troopers Association condemned the decision and an effort began to revoke the granting of parole. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly had also asked that the decision be reversed.
Nelms has been in Winfield since July 2023. The crimes he was convicted of occurred in 1978 in Butler County.
