66 year old Gerald Wayne (J.B.) Bounds of McMinnville, serving a life prison sentence for the 1981 fatal shooting of Sherman Wright of Smithville will be up for another parole hearing next month.
The hearing will be held Wednesday, October 16 at the Southeast Regional Correctional Facility in Pikeville where Bounds is incarcerated.
Bounds is serving a life sentence for the first degree premeditated killing of Wright, who was shot once in the head just outside the Odyssey Arcade on West Broad Street, across from the Dairy Queen. The incident occurred on the afternoon of February 2nd, 1981, allegedly over a gambling debt. The game room no longer exists. The building now serves as the location for the Discount Tobacco Outlet.
Bounds was found guilty of first degree murder by a DeKalb County Circuit Court Jury following a trial in October 1981 and he has been in prison since, having served more than 32 years. Bounds admitted to shooting Wright but said it was unintentional.
He has been up for parole four times, in September 2002, August 2005, October 2010, and October 2011.
Following Bounds’ latest parole hearing on October 20, 2011 board member Yusuf Hakeem voted that Bounds be “put off” for two years before his next parole hearing and that in the meantime, he become involved in cognitive behavior programs including “Thinking for a Change’, “Criminal Thinking”, and “Victim Impact”. These programs, which were to be made available to him in prison, are designed to emphasize the role of altering thinking patterns in bringing about change in an offender’s life.
Three members of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to concur with the vote of board member Hakeem that Bounds be denied parole due to the seriousness of the offense.
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