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Witness to seek parole

Teen-ager serving 10-year sentence as accessory to murder to request freedom again

Web posted May 2, 1998

By S.B. Crawford
Columbia County Bureau

The key witness against two Columbia County teen-agers convicted in the 1994 pipe bomb slaying of Lakeside High School student Melanie Richey will make another request for parole later this month.

Jammie Lynn Lee, whose testimony against co-defendants Joe Kelsey and Geoffrey Payne helped win their murder convictions, is seeking freedom after serving 3 1/2 years of a 10-year sentence for accessory to murder.

Mr. Payne and Mr. Kelsey are serving life sentences for their convictions.

Peter O'Boyle, spokesman for the South Carolina Board of Pardons & Paroles, said Friday that Mr. Lee, 19, had again requested a hearing during which he will ask the board to release him from prison.

While Mr. Lee's hearing has been scheduled for May 19, he will not appear in person before the parole board, Mr. O'Boyle said.

``It is a video-conferencing hearing,'' he said.

Mr. Lee applied for parole last year, but his request was rejected. During a May 14, 1997, hearing, board members used three criteria to deny parole: the nature and seriousness of the offense; indication of violence in the offense; and the use of a deadly weapon.

Mr. Lee drove the car July 12, 1994, when Melanie was taken from a party in Evans, bludgeoned into unconsciousness and left off Garrett Road in Edgefield County, S.C., after a homemade pipe bomb was exploded in her mouth.

If his parole request is rejected again, he would be eligible to go before the parole board annually until his scheduled release in March 2000.

A successful petition for parole requires consent of at least five of the seven members of the Board of Pardons & Paroles.