The West Virginia Parole Board controls the fate of thousands of incarcerated state residents. Its nine members decide if and when inmates are rehabilitated and can return to society as law-abiding citizens. In one case board members first granted, then reversed a parole decision, prompting questions about whether the agency is following its own rules.
On March 4, 2009, Anthony Jennings shot Huntington police officer Ryan Bentley. The nine-year veteran was chasing Jennings after interrupting an armed robbery.
As Bentley closed in on the suspect in an alley the 19-year-old fired and the officer went down.
Jennings stopped, turned and moved toward Bentley, firing several more times. One of those bullets hit the officer again.
Bentley survived but was permanently injured.
Hours later, Jennings was arrested. He was tried, found guilty and sentenced to three to 15 years in prison.
“I have apologized to him multiple times and will continue to apologize to him. Not only to him but his family as well,” Jennings said. “I know the pain that I've caused. I know the hurt that I've caused his family. I can only imagine the weight that it bears and for that I do apologize for what I have done. That pain that I've caused his family, whether that be his significant other or his children, I feel absolutely devastated for knowing that I almost took his children away the same way that my father was taken from me.”
Since starting his sentence, Jennings has been denied parole seven times.
Each time he was denied, officer Bentley testified at the hearing but there was an exception to that trend.
In March 2019, Bentley was not at Jennings' parole hearing and the outcome was very different.
A three-member panel voted unanimously to grant Jennings deferred parole, contingent upon him having a place to live.
Board members cited Jennings' moderate to low risk and needs assessment, successful completion of risk reducing programs, positive behavior in the Division of Corrections, institutional progress, acceptance of responsibility and willingness to comply with previous board decisions.
But Jennings never got out of prison. Before he was released, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeff Sandy made a call to the parole board, stopping the process.
“I consulted with my legal counsel here at that time and they advised me that the person should be, should have been notified,” Sandy told Eyewitness News. “I said, ‘If not, you need to take appropriate actions to make it correct.’”
The secretary denies trying to influence hearings from taking place.
The parole board appears to not be following its own procedures. On the board's correspondence, it states "If you desire future notifications of parole hearings and decisions, please submit your request in writing. If you do not respond, no additional communications will be disseminated."
Eyewitness News obtained a 2020 email from board member Ted White, who was on the panel that heard both of Jennings' 2019 hearings.
White said while Bentley never responded in writing he always attended the hearings. White went on to write the board's policy should change to always notify victims regardless of the cost and whether they acknowledge correspondence.
It should be noted the board's procedure to discontinue notices if no response was received was in violation of West Virginia Code 62-12-23, which states notice to victims "shall be sent by certified mail."
Additionally, the victims have the right "to attend the parole hearing to be heard regarding the propriety of granting parole to the prisoner."
After Sandy's call, the board sent Bentley a notice saying in part the victim "was not appropriately notified in accordance with the board's procedural rules." The parole board was now obeying the law its own policy ignored.
Another hearing was set for three months later. Bentley would be present and he would not be alone. During the hearing Bentley delivered his victim statement, detailing a night of horror.
He takes a pop shot over his shoulder. It goes in right here through my throat and blows out my back. I don't remember going to the ground, I just hit the ground and was laying on my gun side, was laying on the gun. When I had hit, I had fractured my elbow. I'm in really bad shape and I look up and I see from the knees down coming towards me. And excuse my language, I thought this was it. This was the way it ends. There's only one way to come back, no matter how it's described or being cool, it's to finish me off and you just hear bang, bang, bang, bang! Dodging bullets left and right and one of them hits me like a sledgehammer in the leg and I still deal with it on a daily basis.
Following Bentley's statement, Jennings apologized to the officer for his actions but the board was not swayed.
“l believe it was completely, I felt like it was almost staged,” Jennings said. “Like they just went through the motions and handed me a decision that was handed to them.”
Bentley's statement may not have been the only factor which swayed the board.
Despite West Virginia Code 62-12-23 which states, "only the victims may submit written statements and speak at the parole hearing," three non-victims voiced strong opposition to Jennings' release.
Through a Freedom of Information Act request, Eyewitness News obtained an audio recording of the hearing.
Immediately prior to the official business, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams, former Huntington Police Chief Hank Dial and former St. Albans Police Chief Joe Crawford all told board members why Jennings should stay locked up.
“Letting someone out for parole who shot a police officer, even a day early in my opinion, is let out too early,” Williams said. “If a police officer is shot, in my opinion, they have to, it's absolutely necessary for them to serve the entire term.”
Dial discussed his perspective on the shooting.
“In my 28 years of doing this I've seen a lot of violent crimes,” Dial said. “I've only heard of one time somebody shooting somebody and then coming back to shoot them again in 28 years. That's pretty heinous.”
Crawford also weighed in on the matter.
“My concern is I have 12,000 residents and my police officers that I'm responsible for to make sure that they're protected,” Crawford said.
Technically, the men did not speak during the hearing. It's impossible to know how much influence they wielded by stating their opposition to parole just seconds before the official proceedings got underway.
Eyewitness News requested an interview with Parole Board Chair Benita Murphy to ask why this was all allowed. She declined our request.
After the June hearing board members cited none of the positive factors which were listed in the March hearing summary. Instead, the June summary stated the following:
The Board has carefully considered all of the factors disclosed in your records, considered the positive and negative factors related to your risk of re-offending, your progress in the DOC, your re-entry planning efforts, and the various official reports from the DOC, treatment providers, the court documents, as well as input from the community, victims, family and officials. The Board has considered your risk and needs and your interview during the parole hearing.
Jennings' parole was denied.
“Now whether or not that was able to sway a decision, or like I said before, I felt like that decision was already made and was given to them to give to me,” Jennings said. “I believe that he had contacted and reached out to people that were in high places and were able to reach out to people that could hand out that decision.”
Later, when asked on Facebook by a constituent if he could assist with Jennings' parole efforts, Williams said he "helped organize that effort to block Jennings' parole. I passionately believe that anyone that shoots a police officer should never be released early."
The mayor stated he wrote a letter opposing parole and that "but by the grace of God, officer Bentley would be dead."
Williams concluded by writing he could never support giving Jennings an early release.
Eyewitness News asked Williams for an interview to talk about his involvement in the Jennings parole hearing. We did not get a response.
Additionally, Eyewitness News filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the city for communications related to Jennings' parole hearings. Huntington said no, citing two letters and two separate email chains about Jennings that were identified as "internal memoranda" and not subject to a FOIA request.
We don't know how Williams organized efforts to block Jennings' release, nor who else was involved in the effort.
There's no doubt Bentley's presence at the hearing and the comments by Williams and the two police chiefs made a difference in the board's decision.
In the December 2020 email from board member Ted White he said, "Due to mass protest from police and other people, the parole was held up and another hearing scheduled."
White went on to write, "The parole would never have been granted if the officer had been there for the first hearing."
In West Virginia, the parole board makes decisions using both objective and subjective metrics. In each case, severity of the crime, victim statements and community responses get thrown into the mix with the inmates' progress with programs and educational opportunities.
Jennings checked all of the parole board's boxes in the March 2019 hearing. Just three months later, all of those figurative check marks had been erased.
"It's hard for me knowing what I know to think... that it was not rigged, that the decision was not given to the parole members for somebody higher than them to give me that decision because we witnessed it,” Jennings said. “Once that parole hearing was conducted in the way a parole hearing is supposed to be conducted, I was given parole. Nothing changed except for the statement of my victim and his presence with his entourage that that parole was taken from me.”
Eyewitness News could find no place where the identity or profession of a victim is mentioned as a factor to be considered in parole hearings. Jennings said the only reason his parole has been repeatedly declined, and even snatched away after being approved, is that his victim was a police officer.
“If my victim would have been anybody besides who it was, a police officer, I believe I would have been let out six years ago,” Jennings said.
Eyewitness News requested an interview with officer Bentley for this story and received no response.
Jennings said he's not bitter about the board's actions and decisions. He’s looking forward to getting his college degree next month.
Jennings said if parole is never granted, his release date is set for September 2026.
“There's not a program or class that I have not taken that DOC or BCR has to offer,” Jennings said. “I will be obtaining my bachelor's degree with honors in April. I just feel like myself, in order to benefit the people in my life, to benefit my family -- I have to be a better person.”
When Jennings was sentenced in 2009, there were no provisions for different penalties in cases where an officer was shot.
However, West Virginia has just enacted the Patrol Officer Cassie Marie Johnson Memorial Act. It increases penalties to 15 years to life in prison for anyone causing the death of a police officer or first responder.
Jennings has another parole hearing scheduled for Tuesday. It will be his eighth. Eyewitness News will let you know what the board decides.