Killer up for parole again
By John Joyce
Published in News on August 26, 2014 1:46 PM
Goldie Jones ministered to her killer.
The Goldsboro woman met him while volunteering with a prison ministry.
On parole from a 12-year sentence for an attempted rape conviction, Garfield Noah Prevette kidnapped, bound and gagged and sexually abused the then-61-year-old Mrs. Jones.
That was 1984.
Thirty years later, Prevette is seeking to be paroled -- again.
He is now near 60 years old.
Three decades ago, however, at 29, he tortured the woman who volunteered her time to pray for his soul. Then he killed her.
A Wayne County jury convicted Prevette and he was sentenced to life in prison. But under the sentencing guidelines of the time, someone sentenced to life became eligible for parole after serving just 20 years.
Those laws have since been changed, but Prevette is grandfathered in under the old sentencing rules and could be released if he can convince a panel of the state Parole Commission members he has been rehabilitated.
N.C. Department of Public Safety communications officer Keith Acree said Prevette has been denied parole on several previous occasions.
"The law changed four or five years ago. We used to review murder convictions annually, but now it is once every three years," Acree said.
Prevette has been denied every year since becoming parole eligible in 2004. He was last denied in 2011.
Prevette's prior criminal history included assaults on the elderly -- women -- indecent exposure, drugs and escape from prison and attempted rape. Former Superior Court Judge Donald Jacobs, who was the district attorney who prosecuted Prevette for Mrs. Jones' slaying, said at his last attempt at parole that Prevette is a danger to society and should never be released.
The Parole Commission accepts letters expressing opinions on whether the public feel a person should be paroled or denied parole.
Anyone wanting to express there opinion can write the commission and mail their correspondence to 4222 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC, 27699.