21 year old Jessica Ashley May, serving an eight year sentence for attempted aggravated child neglect stemming from the 2015 death of her 23 month old son, may have to serve at least two more years behind bars.
A parole hearing was held for May Tuesday at the Carroll County Jail where she is incarcerated as a state prisoner. The parole hearings officer who heard the case made a non-binding recommendation to the Tennessee Board of Parole that Ms. May be declined parole due to the seriousness of the offense, and that her case be reviewed again in two years.
A final decision could come within the next two weeks.
The case will now go to a board member, who will review it and cast his/her binding vote. This process continues until three concurring votes are reached, which is what is needed by law to finalize the case. There are seven parole board members.
The board members consider a variety of factors in making decisions on whether to grant parole including the seriousness of the crime, time served, victim input, the inmate’s institutional record (programs completed, educational progress, disciplinary incidents, etc.), and other factors.
May stood before Judge Gary McKenzie in DeKalb County Criminal Court on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 and entered a plea to attempted aggravated child neglect, a Class B felony, and received an eight year sentence as a range I mitigated offender to serve at least 20% before parole eligibility. At the time May had already served 568 days since her arrest on May 19, 2015.
Less than a week before May’s plea, her fiance at the time, 25 year old Cody Key was handed a 45 year prison term for the beating death of May’s child, 23 month old Colten Alexander May after entering a plea in Putnam County Criminal Court to second degree murder. Key is to serve 100% of the sentence but he was given jail credit of 563 days for time served from May 19, 2015 to December 1, 2016.
Key is incarcerated at the South Central Correctional Center in Wayne County, a Tennessee Department of Correction facility.
The couple brought the child to the emergency room of Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital on Sunday morning, May 17, 2015 but he was already dead. It was determined that the child had suffered internal and other physical injuries that resulted in his death. Law enforcement officers concluded that Key had severely beaten the child and that May knew the abuse was taking place.
“I will say that Jessica May was not involved in the killing of her child, Colten May. She was not an actor in that homicide. We did charge her with neglect because of a history of abuse of the child in which she either turned a blind eye to or did nothing about it. The abuser of the child was Cody Key but Jessica May did nothing to prevent the abuse that was inflicted on the child by Cody Key and she turned a blind eye to it over a period of time. In plain language that is the gist of the circumstances as to why she was charged with neglect,” District Attorney General Bryant Dunaway told WJLE after the hearing.
May, who was pregnant again at the time of her arrest in 2015, was later transferred to the custody of the Tennessee Department of Correction due to her special needs. After giving birth, she was initially incarcerated in the Warren County Jail. Her child was placed in the custody of the Department of Children Services and is reportedly now with May’s family members.
Archived News & Obituaries