Double murderer to be paroled
By Jack Stephens
Published in News on September 16, 2005 1:47 PM
A Wayne County man convicted of killing his father and his stepmother will be paroled from prison in less than two years, despite the protests of his half-sisters and the District Attorney's Office.
Terry Wayne Weeks, 37, was convicted in 1985 for the murders of Jerry Truman Weeks and Peggy Price Weeks. Later, the N.C. Court of Appeals merged the sentences into one life term.
After serving 20 years in prison, Weeks became eligible for parole.
The state Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission agreed to release Weeks on Aug. 17, 2007, through the mutual agreement parole program, or MAPP, a three-way agreement among the commission, the state Division of Prisons and the defendant.
Under current sentencing laws, Weeks would not be eligible for parole. But because he was sentenced before the laws were changed in 1994, he was eligible under the laws in place at the time of his conviction.
Tammy Gurley, one of the sisters, said this week that she was shocked to learn that Weeks was in the MAPP program and that he was going to be paroled. She said Weeks should be made to serve the full two sentences.
The other sister, Holly Moore, said her feelings about Weeks' parole were "unprintable."
The sisters thanked people who had made calls to the parole commission on their behalf.
District Attorney Branny Vickory, who was prosecuting his first capital murder trial, had backed the sisters' appeal to the parole commission. He wrote that Weeks' actions were "incredibly violent and brutal and inflicted upon those who cared the most about him."
Although Weeks may have adjusted to prison life, Vickory wrote, that fact does not equate to his being able to adjust to society.
Weeks shot and killed his father, the sisters' stepfather, in February, 1985, then shot his stepmother, the sisters' mother, and set fire to the victims' home. Mrs. Weeks scrambled outside to escape the blaze before dying of her wounds.
A Wayne County Superior Court jury convicted Weeks on Sept. 18, 1985, of second-degree murder in his father's death and first-degree murder in his stepmother's death.
Both sisters testified in the trial. Vickory wrote to the commission that both women want to move on with their lives without being concerned about Weeks' whereabouts.