Mardi Gras Killer to be released from prison

The mother of the man killed during the Mardi Gras riot is warning the public. Her son's killer is about to be released from prison.

Kim Kime Parks got a letter from the Department of Corrections warning her Jerell Thomas, 32, would be released from prison after May 25. She posted the notice on Facebook.

"It made me sick to my stomach, truly,” said Kim Kime Parks," I wanted to warn people."

Jerrell Thomas killed her son, Kristopher Kime, in the Mardi Gras riot in Pioneer Square in 2001. Thomas was 17-years-old when he smashed Kime in the head with a skateboard. Kime, 20, died from the injuries.

Thomas was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison.  His sentence was reduced when the state Supreme Court ruled that no one can be convicted of murder when the death is an unintended result of an assault.  Thomas pleaded guilty to manslaughter and served about 8-and-a-half years in prison.

Two months after Thomas was released from prison, in December 2009, he was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend.  Thomas spent a few months in jail. A year later, in July 2011, he was arrested and convicted of assault and possessing a firearm when he threatened to kill a girlfriend. Thomas was sentenced to five years in prison, and his time is up May 25.

Those are two crimes he couldn't have committed had he served his original sentence for killing Kime, even with time off for good behavior.

"He hasn't shown he can behave himself,” said Kime Parks.

She's worried he could kill someone else.

"He can do it again to somebody else and that's what scares me more than anything else,” said Kime Parks. "That another family has to go through what we've gone through."

Cox Media Group