Dickson mom’s killer up for parole again. ‘If he gets out he’ll come after us.’

The anxiety and anger is back again for the Newberry family.

Next month, James Spann will have a parole hearing after serving 29 years of a 51-year life sentence for fatally shooting Karie Ann Newberry in the head in 1994.

D.J. Tucker, 29, said his family now has to “relive what the monster did to my mom” every four years.

“Not only shooting her five times in the head but dragging her down in the woods leaving her overnight then returning and setting her body on fire,” Tucker said.

Spann, 49, who was previously denied parole four years ago, admitted in 1994 to murdering Newberry, who had given birth to Tucker just five months prior.

Spann told the judge he shot Newberry in the head with a .22-caliber pistol on Dec. 17, 1993, then dragged her from the back of his truck into a wooded area, where he shot her in the head four more times. The following night he returned and doused the 17-year-old girl’s body with gasoline and set it on fire.

“I know we’re all nervous and upset. We feel like one if he gets out he’ll come after us because he blames us for keeping him in,” Tucker said. “Prison is the only life he’s ever known so we fear if he gets out he’ll do it to some other family. Upset and angry is how a lot of us feel, especially me.”

District Attorney Ray Crouch said he testified on behalf of the family at the last parole hearing and plans to do so again.

“I am opposing his release on parole,” said Crouch, noting he was not employed by the district attorney’s office when Spann was convicted.

Tucker remains saddened and angered that he never was able to know his mom. Multiple people, including strangers, have written the state parole board asking that Spann not be released, Tucker said.

Related:Dickson infant's mom shot, burned. 25 years later, son 'relieved' her killer denied parole.

'It's not over for me'

Tucker didn’t know how his mother died until age 15. His grandmother decided it was time he knew.

“She had kept all the newspaper articles from back then, and she let me read everything,” Tucker said.

He gives a lot of credit to his grandparents for keeping his mother’s memory alive by showing him photos and telling stories about her.

“I’ve always wondered what it would have been like if she was still here; to raise me or just to have a relationship with her and know what she was like,” he said.

In 1994, Spann told the judge that he and Newberry had consensual sex in the back of his truck, but because he didn’t use a condom, he feared she would claim he raped her. Spann, who was 20 at the time, waived his right to a jury trial and asked that a judge sentence him. Prosecutors sought the death penalty. But because Newberry probably died within minutes of being shot, prosecutors weren't able to use the following shots or the burning to show that the murder was "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel," according to a Tennessean story in 1994.

Newberry’s father, Charles, has remained angered about Spann’s parole possibility for 28 years.

"It may be over for the state, but it's not over for me," said Charles at the time of Spann’s sentencing. "When this first happened, they told me to stay calm. I was told to let the system work. I was told justice would be served. But it wasn't.”

Tucker hopes the public continues to contact the state parole board asking that Spann remain in the Bledsoe County Correctional Complex prison. The parole hearing is Sept. 7. 

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Dickson mom’s killer up for parole again. ‘He’ll come after us.’