(TNS) A 78-year-old man imprisoned for decades in the killing of a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper in 1978 had his parole rescinded after it was granted earlier this year.

The Kansas Prisoner Review Board granted Jimmie K. Nelms parole several weeks after his March 6 hearing. It was his ninth hearing before the board after the May 24, 1978, killing of trooper Conroy G. O’Brien, The Eagle reported.

On Monday, the Kansas Department of Corrections said the review board had rescinded its previous decision to grant Nelms parole.

“The board, in a new hearing on May 16 with Nelms, rescinded its previous decision to grant parole and decided to deny him release at this time,” the department said in a news release Monday.

The board did not have an explanation for the action. The decision comes after the parole was criticized. The Kansas State Trooper’s Association had condemned the decision to release Nelms.

“We are grateful to the KRB for ultimately choosing justice,” association president and KHP technical trooper Sage Hill said. “Trooper O’Brien gave his life in the line of duty. Granting parole to the man responsible for that murder deeply undermined public trust and the sacrifices of every law enforcement officer. Today, justice was reaffirmed, and we are grateful. Tomorrow, we will begin working to make sure such a close call never happens again.”

O’Brien stopped a speeding driver early in the morning near Matfield Green, about 44 miles east of Wichita, on the Kansas Turnpike. He didn’t know at the time that the three occupants were wanted for a string of armed robberies across multiple states, the association said.

They forced O’Brien away from his patrol vehicle and into the ditch.

“Nelms disarmed (O’Brien) and fractured his skull as he begged for his life,” the trooper association said. “Nelms executed Conroy by shooting him twice in the side of the head with his own service weapon.”

The suspects got into a shootout with officers later that day before being arrested.

“It does not go unnoticed when life sentences in Kansas aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, even for cop killers when there is no question of guilt,” the trooper association said in protesting the parole. “To the Prison Review Board: ... Please understand we will never forget your disgraceful and disgusting actions. We hope you feel profound shame from this day forward whenever you see a young Kansas State Trooper on the side of the road protecting our community.“

Nelms was convicted in 1978 of first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping. He was convicted in 1979 of unlawful possession of a firearm.

O’Brien had grown up in Abbyville, about 20 miles southwest of Hutchinson. He played football and basketball at Fairfield High School and Sterling College before attending Wichita State University.

He was married, and his wife was pregnant when he died.

In a 2011 hearing, his daughter, Neely Goen, told the review board that she had forgiven Nelms and did not urge the board either way. She said she had communicated with her father’s killer, who was studying “the word of God, and he prays.” Nelms had also made earrings for Goen.

“I will make a public statement at some point in the future, but for now we are going to sit with it,” Goen said on social media after Nelms had initially been granted parole.

Her mother, Tanda O’Brien Ulm, who had remarried, said in 2011 she wanted Nelms to stay in prison.

“I died that day, too,” she told the board in 2011. “I’ve never been the same.”

Nelms was 31 at the time of the crime. Co-defendendant Walter Myrick was 25. Myrick, who was also convicted of murdering O’Brien, died in prison in 2009. A third defendant, Stanford Swain, who was 21 at the time, was released from prison in 1983 after pleading to lesser charges and testifying for the prosecution.

By Eduardo Castillo The Wichita Eagle/Contributing: Michael Stavola of The Eagle

© 2025 The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kan.). Visit www.kansas.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.