Who is Jimmy O’Neal Spencer? Triple murderer blamed for Alabama ending most paroles

By William Thornton
AL.com

The tangled tale of a man eventually convicted in a brutal 2018 Alabama triple homicide led to reforms and changes in leadership at the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles, and in the rate of paroles granted dropping sharply.

Jimmy O’Neal Spencer was sentenced to death in November 2022 after being found guilty of seven counts of capital murder in the deaths of Martha Dell Reliford, 65, Marie Kitchens Martin, 74, and Martin's great-grandson, Colton Ryan Lee, 7.

A jury a month earlier had recommended the death penalty.

“If there ever was a reason for the death penalty to exist in this state, you’re it,” Judge Tim Riley told Spencer, according to WHNT.

Nellie Wray, Reliford’s sister, said simply, “He belongs in hell,” she said. “He killed a baby and two innocent women.”

Spencer was accused of killing Martin and her great-grandson in a robbery that garnered $13.

In a taped confession, Spencer told police he killed Reliford for about $600, and murdered the child to prevent leaving a witness.

At the time of the murders, the homeless convict was a violent offender just out of prison.

Authorities said Spencer strangled and stabbed Martin before taking off with her money. Lee, they said, died from blunt force trauma.

The boy and his great-grandmother were found dead that Friday at her Mulberry Street home in Guntersville.

Reliford - also killed by blunt force trauma - was found dead in her home across the street. Investigators said she was hit with the flat side of a hatchet, stabbed and robbed.

By the time of his arrest in the murders, Spencer had a long record of offenses, stretching back to 1984 when he was 19. Over the years, he was twice sentenced to life imprisonment.

In 2017, he was serving two life sentences for eight convictions, including three for burglary, three for escape, one for assault, and one for unlawful breaking and entering of a vehicle.

He was granted parole on Nov. 2 of that year, and released to a homeless shelter in Birmingham, where he was supposed to remain for six months.

He left three weeks later.

Spencer traveled to Guntersville, where he had several run-ins with law enforcement and was charged for multiple violations of the law, from traffic offenses and possession of drug paraphernalia, to attempting to elude police, resisting arrest and illegal possession of a firearm. However, his parole was not revoked.

In 2022, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, the former district attorney of Marshall County, argued before the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles to reject parole for him for his earlier crimes.

“What I am grateful about is the fact that as a result of this case, we highlighted the fact that decisions you make should be based upon what is appropriate for community safety, for what is appropriate for releasing individuals in our society that can live there as productive citizens,” Marshall said.

“Jimmy Spencer was given that opportunity, wrongfully so. And almost within hours of that release ignored the rules established by this organization and decided to commit additional offenses, which should not be surprising to anybody that knew his record. As a result of that, three innocent people, two of which I personally knew well, lost their life.”

At his 2022 capital murder sentencing hearing in Guntersville, Spencer appeared to show some remorse after hearing victim impact statements.

Speaking to the courtroom, he said, “I am sorry about what happened. There’s no way I can change it. If I could I would.”

Alabama began deciding not to let nearly anyone out of prison around the time of the triple murder.

“By being reckless, three people got killed,” Janette Grantham, the director of Victims of Crime and Leniency, said of his parole.

Following the triple-killing, Gov. Kay Ivey and Marshall criticized the handling of the case and other parts of the parole agency’s work.

“By any measure, Spencer is unworthy of parole,” the governor wrote in 2022. “He has proven that he is a danger to the public and cannot be trusted in any way. His first award of parole was a grievous error, with deadly consequences for three precious lives.”

State lawmakers in 2019 passed legislation that made some changes to the board, how it operated and how its members were appointed.

Lyn Head, a prosecutor for nearly two decades who joined the board in 2016 and became chairperson in 2018 resigned as head of the parole board in October of 2019.

Head, who did not vote on Spencer’s release, said she left after changes gave the governor more control of the board.

“I felt like I no longer had a place there because I was interested in reducing recidivism,” said Head. “And there was nothing indicating that was going to happen.”

Ivey named Leigh Gwathney, who had worked as assistant Alabama attorney general and in the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office, as Head’s replacement.

Gwathney, the board chair, votes against nearly everyone whose case comes before the board.

Paroles dropped almost immediately after the 2019 changes.

According to the board's data, in fiscal year 2023, there were 3,583 parole hearings. Just 297 were granted.

Five years ago, more than half of those who had a parole hearing were granted release.

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