Carson man tries for parole for third time

The hearing was over quickly.

Emory Crews told a Nevada Parole Commission board Tuesday he believed the man who killed his son should remain behind bars forever. But that possibility seems more and more unlikely, considering Conrad Holmes has been a model prisoner since his incarceration nine years ago.

On June 3, 1994, Holmes, then 29, shot to death Darryl Crews, 35, after the two argued at Holmes' Sonoma Street home.

Crews, a Nevada State Prison corrections officer, would have died from any one of the seven bullets pumped into his body by Holmes' .22-caliber rifle, a pathologist testified.

Emory Crews said that during the preliminary trial, Holmes gave him glaring, angry looks. During the parole hearing, Holmes appeared calm, Crews noted. This was Holmes' third try for parole on a sentence of life with parole after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

"He had a peaceful look about him this time, not compassionate, but calm," Crews said following the 30-minute hearing at the Department of Corrections offices on Silver Sage Street.

"I can see him being released sometime, but I'll never forgive him," he said.

Behind bars, Holmes has earned at least 12 college credits, holds a prestigious job in prison industries where he supervises fellow inmates, has taken anger-management courses and now teaches them, and, as far as prison officials know, has never been in a fight.

Because he has never had behavior issues, Holmes told the board through closed-circuit television from the Lovelock Correctional Center, his request for weekly counseling was denied.

He used his own money to hire an outside psychologist to help him with his issues, his sister Valarie Holmes said.

Other than a minor infraction in 1995, Holmes' record indicates he plays by the rules.

If paroled, Holmes said, he has siblings and friends and a job with an auto body shop in Grass Valley, Calif.

He said after his last parole hearing 2 1/2 years ago, he admitted his anger is what killed Darryl Crews.

"This may be semantics, Mr. Holmes," said Connie Bisbee, Parole Board Commission member. "But anger did not kill Mr. Crews; you and a gun killed Mr. Crews."

"You're right. I allowed myself to be in a situation I should have never been in," he conceded. "Myself and the gun killed that man."

"Considering that this was, at the end, almost an execution type murder," commission member Thomas Goodson asked Holmes, "do you think 114 months is enough time for a man's murder?"

After a pause, Holmes admitted: "There isn't enough time."

Bisbee said the board will decide the hearing's outcome in two to three weeks. If Holmes is paroled, he will be released in December.

"He really seems to be keeping his nose to the grindstone," Emory Crews said afterward. "I'll tell you what, he'll come out of prison a better man."