Gerald Wayne (J.B.) Bounds, convicted murderer of Sherman Wright, is scheduled for his fourth, and possibly final, parole hearing, the morning of Oct. 20.
Bounds, who is serving a life sentence in the 1981 fatal shooting of 27-year-old Sherman Wright, appeared before Yusuf Hakeem and Charles Taylor, two members of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, via teleconference last fall, only to be denied.
At the Oct, 2010 hearing, Hakeem and Taylor said they would recommend to fellow board members that Bounds be denied parole for at least two years, due to the seriousness of the offense. However, in a final decision, the state board decided to review Bounds’ case again in a year. They also requested that Bounds undergo a psychological evaluation prior to the 2011 hearing.
Sixty-four year-old Bounds, of McMinnville, was convicted of first-degree murder in October, 1981 for the shooting death of 27-year-old former DeKalb County Deputy, Sherman Wright.
The heinous crime took place at the Odyssey game room on Broad Street in Smithville over what was believed to be a gambling debt of around $2,800 Sherman Wright allegedly owed Bounds.
Bounds’ 1981 trial was one of the longest criminal court cases in DeKalb County history with more than four days of testimony. A jury of seven women and five men took almost three hours to render the guilty plea.
At a 2002 parole hearing, at the Southeast Regional Correctional Facility in Pikeville, board members made the decision for Bounds to serve at least eight more years before being eligible for parole.
With the board’s final decision in 2010 to review his case in just one year, Bounds may be granted his freedom in less than four weeks.
The hearing is set for 8:30 a.m.