WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) — A man serving a sentence for a 1993 murder in Warren was granted parole last week by the state Parole Board.
Sheldon Jackson, 52, will be released Dec. 18 and be placed on five years probation. He will be released to a halfway house, a news release from the Trumbull County Prosecutors Office said.
The board made their decision Wednesday after a two-hour hearing. They voted 5-4 in favor of Jackson’s request.
Jackson was serving a 20 to life sentence for the 1993 murder of Theodore Emerson, 79, during a home invasion at Emerson’s Jefferson Street SW home in Warren.
Also beaten and stabbed during the home invasion was Kathryn Emerson, 74. She could not testify at trial for Jackson and the other defendants because of her injuries. She later died in Pennsylvania.
Jackson pleaded guilty before a three-judge panel to charges of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, burglary and robbery. He had a parole hearing in 2013, but his parole was denied at that time.
Jackson had been a staff barber in prison for several years at Grafton Correctional Facility and had no discipline in recent years, his attorney told the board. His attorney said Jackson wants to be a barber after his release from prison.
The prosecutor’s office opposed Jackson’s parole request because of the “horrific nature” of his crimes and his history of violating prison rules.
Prosecutors also noted that the day before the Emersons were attacked, Jackson and his two co-defendants attacked another couple and robbed them as well.
