Published: May. 8, 2025 at 2:18 PM CDT|Updated: 11 hours ago
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - A man convicted of killing a Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper in 1978 has been granted parole.
The Kansas Dept. of Corrections confirmed that the state’s Prisoner Review Board approved parole for Jimmie Nelms several weeks following a March 6th hearing. His actual release date is not yet set.
Kansas Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. Erik Smith released the following statement on their website Wednesday, May 7, 2025:
KDOC released the following statement to 13 NEWS:
Nelms was serving two life sentences in connection to the murder of Trooper Conroy G. O’Brien.
According to the KHP website, on May 24, 1978, at approximately 5 a.m., Trooper O’Brien stopped a vehicle on the Turnpike near Matfield Green (approximately 44 miles east of Wichita). About an hour later, a truck driver reported that a patrol car was stopped with its lights flashing and an officer was lying in the ditch. Troopers responding to the scene found O’Brien, dead from two gunshot wounds to the head that had been fired at close range.
Around 7:30 a.m., Trooper Charles Smith spotted a vehicle speeding north on US-77 approximately 4 miles south of Herington. Trooper Smith tried to stop the vehicle, initiating a chase along county roads. KHP said the vehicle reached a dead end, and three people got out and began firing at Smith. Trooper Smith returned fire, striking one of the suspects in the leg. All three suspects then fled into a nearby wheat field.
Authorities apprehended all three suspects that evening. Further investigation found that the three men were wanted in a string of armed robberies.
O’Brien was survived by his wife and unborn daughter.
State law at the time did not allow for a sentence of life without possibility of parole. Current law does allow for such a sentence in certain circumstances.
