photo by: Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector

The Kansas Prisoner Review Board reversed a controversial decision to grant parole to 78-year-old Jimmie Nelms, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to two life terms in prison. The board authorized Nelms’ release in March, but reconsidered the action in wake of criticism from the state’s law enforcement community. This image is from the 2025 law enforcement memorial ceremony at the Capitol.

TOPEKA — The Kansas Prisoner Review Board responded to a backlash of criticism by rescinding a decision to authorize parole for a Winfield Correctional Facility inmate sentenced to life in prison in the shooting death of a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper.

The Kansas Department of Corrections issued a statement confirming the state review board, which had approved release of Jimmie Nelms in March, met May 16 and voted to reverse an order providing for Nelms’ conditional release.

Corrections spokesperson David Thompson said the board “rescinded its previous decision to grant parole and decided to deny him release at this time.”

In May 1978, Nelms shot KHP Trooper Conroy O’Brien, 26, during a traffic stop on the Kansas Turnpike near Matfield Green. Nelms was captured after a shootout with another KHP trooper.

Nelms, 78, was convicted of premeditated felony murder and sentenced to two life terms in prison, but became eligible for parole in 1993. He appeared before the state’s parole board nine times, Thompson said.

The original decision by review board members Carolyn Perez, Jeannie Wark and Mark Keating was sharply criticized by KHP Col. Erik Smith, Attorney General Kris Kobach and Kansas State Troopers Association president Sage Hill.

Smith, who said KHP consistently opposed Nelms’ release, said the state’s legal framework allowing parole of someone sentenced to life behind bars was flawed. He said there was “no conceivable world in which the release of a convicted cop killer – an executioner – is acceptable.”

Hill said the original decision to parole Nelms was “disgraceful and disgusting,” and review board members should feel “profound shame” for deciding Nelms ought to be freed.