Chatham County DA angry after parole of former Jivens gang member

Dec. 19--Chatham County prosecutors were irate Tuesday after the parole of a Savannah man sentenced to 14 concurrent life prison terms plus 115 years in an explosive 1993 armed robbery.

The Nov. 28 release of Christopher Lashaw Murray, 46, came just months after the state Board of Pardons and Paroles canceled his scheduled release in August, in part because of protests by District Attorney Meg Heap and her office.

Heap, along with her chief assistant Greg McConnell, said Tuesday that not only was Murray a member of the infamous Ricky Jivens drug gang that spread terror on the local community, but he also had several convictions for crimes committed while in state prisons.

Based on the severity of the sentence by Chatham County Superior Court Judge Michael Karpf, Heap said that judge "did not want this defendant to get out of jail."

"These are the most violent offenders," Heap said, adding she did not understand the board's thinking and cannot get an answer for it.

"They considered our objections in August, but two months later they paroled him again."

But Board spokesman Steve Hayes said Tuesday, "The board decided to proceed with its previous decision to grant parole after reviewing all case information, including information received since canceling a release date earlier this year. This would include any victim information recently submitted and any from the district attorney.

In addition, the board has placed the following restrictions on the offender while on parole:

--Banishment from Chatham County

--No contact with victims

--Compliance with electronic monitoring

--Required to register as a sex offender

--Compliance with applicable sex offender notification law

Earlier protest

McConnell, a frequent critic of the board's release practices, said in August that the office objected to Murray's release.

"At the very least, I request time for my office to notify the victims and enlist their feedback about parole," McConnell said. "I would also like enough time for me to obtain Murray's prison disciplinary records from the Department of Corrections."

At that time, Hayes said, "The board has canceled this release after receiving new information in the case. After reviewing the information, the board will determine whether to proceed with the release or make a new decision."

Hayes on Tuesday said, in addition, the board members take into account the entire prison record -- Murray has spent more than 25 years in prison -- including the many program completions an offender has.

Murray was released for work release, where offenders work in the community unsupervised as a part of their transition to society, as well as showing behavioral changes and lack of violations in years leading up to parole.

The board wants to see a progression and rehabilitation through program completions and elimination of misconduct. Community views, victim information and that from the DA is all included and considered as stated previously, Hayes said.

"The board has the discretion to determine who is paroled and when," Hayes said.

The prosecution

McConnell prosecuted Murray in 1993 for the armed robbery of a Pizza Hut restaurant on Abercorn Street near St. Joseph's Hospital on June 15, 1993.

At the time, Murray was a gang member of the Ricky Jivens gang, McConnell informed the board. "That gang was responsible for more murders in Savannah than any other gang in Savannah's history."

"Savannah led the nation in per capita murders one year when that gang was in operation."

Testimony at the 1991 federal court trial of eight members of the Jivens crack-cocaine ring showed that at least five people were killed by the gang in 1991, three of them by a 15-year-old youth who said Jivens' lieutenants directed his actions.

Jivens pleaded guilty separately before U.S. District Judge B. Avant Edenfield, who called the trial testimony "some of the most alarming testimony I've heard," including evidence of weapons, money and the "cavalier taking of lives."

Savannah police were staking out various pizza restaurants during a rash of armed robberies, including the one Murray and an accomplice robbed, McConnell said.

Patrons and employees were each robbed at AK-47 gunpoint, then forced into a large freezer in the back.

"Two of the victims robbed at gunpoint were children, one of whom ... was having his [seventh] birthday party there and Murray stole his birthday money."

Murray, wearing a mask and carrying an assault weapon, stole about $1,200, then engaged in a gun battle with two police police officers as he fled.

McConnell told the board that as Murray left the restaurant, he was surrounded by Savannah police cars and, "rather than surrendering, there was a wild gunfight in a highly populated business district of Savannah."

While police were transporting Murray to jail, an officer overheard Murray tell his co-defendant "that he intended to kill a 'cop' and only failed to do so because his gun jammed," McConnell said.

At his trial in 1993, a Chatham County Superior Court jury convicted Murray on 14 counts of armed robbery, two counts of aggravated assault, 18 counts of kidnapping, two counts of cruelty to children, two counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

"Karpf sentenced Murray on March 19, 1994, to 14 life sentences plus 115 years to serve consecutive to the life sentences," McConnell told the board, "that suggest that the judge intended Murray to spend to rest of his life in prison."

Under Georgia'sConstitution, the board is the only entity that can decide when a prison inmate who is parole-eligible can be released on parole.

State sentencing statutes determined Murray's parole eligibility date as June 15, 2000, officials said.

The board denied Murray parole in August 2000 for what then-parole board chairman Walter Ray said was the nature of his crime.

"During the course of this robbery, Murray stole $16 from a 7-year-old boy having a birthday party at the restaurant," Ray said. "He terrified the children at this party and everyone else present and he attempted to shoot police officers at the scene.

"This incident could have resulted in death and injury and Murray should be harshly punished."

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