Jeremy Kelly: Convicted murderer roamed streets for a year due to federal-state communication failure

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA: A convicted murderer who was supposed to be behind bars roamed the streets for more than a year because of bad communication between federal and state authorities, according to reports.

It took until Jeremy Brian Kelly’s (the state prisoner) parole hearing scheduled for January 30 for officials with the Nevada Department of Corrections to realize that he was not in custody, per court records obtained by the Las Vegas Review Journal.

Why was Jeremy Kelly arrested? 

When Kelly killed a 47-year-old man in Las Vegas in 1996, he was only 15 years old. A copy of the original arrest affidavit was made public by the local CBS affiliate KLAS.

It stated that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was called at 12:30 a.m. on June 2, 1996, regarding gunshots at an apartment. When they arrived, Terry Dixon had been shot in the head and was dead.

According to the affidavit, witnesses told police that Dixon's son Sean had been threatening to kill his father and had a pistol. Witnesses reported seeing three persons flee the residence following the gunshot.

A security guard said he saw a Ford truck leaving the complex with two juveniles later identified as Sean Dixon and Kelly inside. Cops later spotted the vehicle and the driver fled, leading them on a high-speed chase, the affidavit said.

Dixon and Kelly were arrested after the truck crashed. Sean Dixon and Kelly were given a life sentence with the chance of parole after a jury found them guilty of first-degree murder, robbery, and conspiracy to commit murder.

Kelly was given parole by prison officials in April 2016, but less than two years later, in December 2017, he was reportedly captured selling drugs and carrying a gun.

According to court documents, federal authorities charged him with felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, possessing a controlled substance with the purpose to distribute heroin, and possessing a handgun in furtherance of a narcotics trafficking offense.

Parole is yet to be announced for Kelly 

In June 2019, Kelly acknowledged that he was a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and a controlled substance to distribute heroin. The judge sentenced the defendant to three and a half years in prison, according to court records.

In June 2022, Kelly was released from the Federal Bureau of Prisons' custody following the completion of his federal term. At this point, things began to go wrong.

Kelly had broken his probation with the gun and drug charges, therefore the BOP ought to have sent him back to the Nevada Department of Corrections at that time.

According to KLAS, which cited court records, Kelly was released into the streets by the BOP because it never inquired with Nevada authorities about whether Kelly was the subject of a hold.

"The Nevada Department of Corrections was looking for the defendant’s location for his parole hearing it was at that [time] they realized the defendant was not returned to their custody,” court minutes from the hearing said.

Kelly's absence was discovered by NDOC authorities in December while they were getting ready for his parole hearing, according to KLAS. Kelly was given an arrest warrant by a judge on January 25.

Around 5 p.m. on February 16, a license plate reader in northwest Las Vegas detected a strange car, prompting the contact of police, according to KLAS.

Kelly was arrested by officers following a traffic stop. He remains at the Clark County Jail. A parole board will determine Kelly’s fate in April, KLAS reported.