MARC JACOBS
Hutch Post
The Kansas Prisoner Review Board has granted parole to Jimmie Nelms, a man convicted of murdering Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Conroy O’Brien during a 1978 traffic stop near Matfield Green.
Nelms, now in his 70s, was sentenced to two life terms plus additional years for aggravated kidnapping and unlawful possession of a firearm. He is scheduled to be released to out-of-state family custody, officials said.
The decision has sparked strong backlash from state officials and law enforcement groups, who say Nelms’ release undermines justice for the violent killing of a law enforcement officer.
“This cop killer received two life sentences after he brutally executed a highway patrol officer. Now, he is about to be released on parole. There is something deeply wrong with this picture,” said Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach in a statement. “Those who murder law enforcement officers should expect to receive the death penalty, not to be walking free on the streets of Kansas.”
Trooper O’Brien, 26, was conducting a routine traffic stop on the Kansas Turnpike during the early morning hours of May 24, 1978, when Nelms and two others overpowered him. Authorities said O’Brien was forced at gunpoint into a roadside ditch, where he was pistol-whipped and fatally shot twice in the head with his own service weapon.
The three suspects, later identified as being wanted in a string of armed robberies across multiple states, were apprehended later that day after engaging another trooper in a gunfight. All were taken into custody following a manhunt.
Col. Erik Smith, superintendent of the Kansas Highway Patrol, said he received notice of the parole decision early Wednesday morning and called the announcement “a gut-punch.”
“There is no conceivable world in which the release of a convicted cop killer—an executioner—is acceptable,” Smith said in a written statement. “While we may vehemently disagree with the Board’s decision, we must live with it by continuing to support [O'Brien’s] surviving family and his blue family.”
The Kansas State Troopers Association also condemned the decision, calling the board’s actions “disgraceful and disgusting.”
O’Brien, a native of Hutchinson, Kansas, joined the patrol in 1974 and transferred to the Kansas Turnpike detail in 1977. He was survived by his pregnant wife and their unborn daughter, who never met her father.
Under Kansas law at the time of Nelms’ sentencing, life imprisonment allowed for the possibility of parole. The Prisoner Review Board said it believes Nelms “is able and willing to fulfill the obligations of a law-abiding citizen and… can be released without detriment to the community or to himself.”
Despite continued opposition during parole hearings over the years, including the most recent in March, the board determined Nelms met the criteria for release.
The Kansas Highway Patrol emphasized that its members will continue to serve with professionalism and dignity and will not forget the sacrifice of Trooper O’Brien.
A memorial for O’Brien is located on the Kansas Turnpike and on the Kansas Highway Patrol’s official website.