Bruce Franklin Jerrett to be paroled Jan. 24

A former Alleghany County resident is being paroled after receiving a life sentence for the murder of Dallas Parsons at his home in Piney Creek in the early morning hours of July 25, 1981.

Bruce Franklin Jerrett, then 34, was originally from Bel Aire, Md. and was convicted of the crime on Dec. 12, 1983. He will be released from prison on Jan. 24, 2005, slightly more than 21 years after being convicted of second-degree murder.

According to Melita Groomes, executive director of State Post Release Supervision and Parole Commission, Jerrett will be under intensive supervision by the N.C. Department of Probation and Parole for a minimum period of five years after his release.

Parsons was a 54-year-old Piney Creek dairy farmer at the time he was killed and was well respected in the community, said former Alleghany County Sheriff Joe Roberts. Roberts said Jerrett shot Parsons in his bed and then kidnapped his wife, Edith, ordering her to drive him to Tennessee. However, before leaving the home, Mrs. Parsons talked Jerrett into calling an ambulance for her husband. She then drove him to Sparta, the opposite direction he had asked her to go, and stopped for gas at the Pantry.

A newspaper story from the time said Edith Parsons was able to alert a Sparta Police officer, Officer Richard “Dickie” Caudill, by silently moving her mouth, stating, “He’s going to kill me.” Caudill stepped in between Parsons and Jerrett and Mrs. Parsons fled into a storeroom at the Pantry. Caudill then apprehended Jerrett without a struggle, but didn’t find out until later that Mr. Parsons had been shot.

“It seems like it happened on a Friday night,” Roberts said. Jerrett lived within two miles of Parsons and walked to the Parsons home the night of the crime, Roberts said.

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