Early discharge denied for parolee convicted in couple’s 1966 deaths

A man convicted of killing a Wichita couple in 1966 will remain on parole for at least another year or two.

The Kansas Department of Corrections’ Prisoner Review Board refused to approve an application from 71-year-old Alfred G. Jones asking that he be released early from his parole. The decision came Thursday, KDOC spokesman Jeremy Barclay said – a little more than a month after the board received Jones’ early discharge request. Jones was last paroled from prison in 2009.

Jones received two life sentences in connection with the fatal shootings of John and Susanne Marshall on July 16, 1966, in a grocery store near 21st and Grove. Newspaper reports from the time say Jones killed the couple and stole about $4,000 after John Marshall closed the store.

His requests for freedom have since been met with some opposition.

Barclay said the board opted against the early discharge request, in part, because of a handful of minor blemishes to Jones’ record since he was freed in 2009. He called the marks “interventions” and “recommendations” and described them as “things he had done while on parole that the parole officer suggested needed to change.”

The Prisoner Review Board, however, noted in its decision that overall Jones has been “doing very well” on parole, Barclay said, and suggested he reapply for early discharge in a year or two.

Barclay would not be specific about how many marks Jones has received, other than saying there were more than two and that those were about three years old. He also would not say what they were for.

“Clearly it wasn’t enough to dissuade the parole officer from not recommending his early discharge to the Prisoner Review Board,” Barclay said of the interventions and recommendations.

He characterized Jones’ application as “not that problematic.”

“But at the same time if you got an option, you want to make sure a person is on a path of smooth sailing” before making a decision, Barclay said.

“Go another year or two and he could certainly reapply, and by then those interventions, those recommendations, should be down path,” he said, and then Jones would have “a glowing file.”

Jones is one of about 500 inmates and parolees still under the supervision of KDOC for an undetermined amount of time because they were convicted of crimes before Kansas adopted sentencing guidelines. In order to be released from their parole obligations and restrictions, those offenders with so-called indeterminate sentences must apply for and be granted early discharge.

In a story about Jones’ request last week, The Eagle reported that KDOC approved 51 of these requests between July 2012 and June 2014. Of those, two Sedgwick County parolees had first-degree murder convictions.

Jones, in a brief interview for The Eagle’s story, called his request “a matter of procedure.” He lives and works in Wichita.

This story was originally published September 13, 2014 at 7:51 PM with the headline "Early discharge denied for parolee convicted in couple’s 1966 deaths."