Convicted murderer Charles Ray Turner may be trading in his prison stripes for street clothes a little sooner than what local law enforcement officials prefer.

Turner, 35, pled guilty in 1994 to the second degree murder of local 2-year-old Devin Rose who he was babysitting on Oct. 11, 1992. Turner was originally charged with first degree murder and felony child abuse before pleading guilty to the lesser charge.

According to the North Carolina Department of Corrections, he is currently incarcerated in the Wilkes County Correctional Center and will be paroled if he satisfactorily completes a parole program on or before April 7, 2012. The Post Release Supervision and Parole Commission of North Carolina stated that it has approved Turner’s case for parole via the Mutual Agreement Parole Program (MAPP). This parole program is a scholastic and vocational program that is a three-way agreement between the commission, the Division of Prisons, and the offender, a press release from the commission read.

Although the state’s current Structured Sentencing law eliminates parole for crimes committed on or after Oct. 1, 1994 the commission does have the responsibility of paroling offenders who were sentenced under previous sentencing guidelines.

Ashe County Sheriff James Williams, who assisted the investigation, remembers Turner’s case vividly.

“It’s a case that still keeps me awake at night,” Williams said. “It was one of the worst cases I have worked in my career. It’s just one of those things that you have to push to the back of your mind and go on…but it’s hard to do that at times. That case was really hard on all the deputies here who worked it.”

Although Williams could not disclose the exact details of the case he did say that it involved the torture and murder of the toddler. Williams, who is well aware of Turner’s pending release, said he has written to the state’s parole board asking that he “never be released” due to the severity of the crime.

According to court records at the Ashe County Courthouse, Turner was babysitting the toddler while the parents were gone. Turner later told officers that during this time he was swinging Rose around by the arm in the front yard when he heard a “pop” in Rose’s arm. When Rose began crying, he told authorities that he then “shook” Rose for two minutes until he passed out. When the child regained consciousness he began crying once again.

At this point, Turner then struck Rose’s abdomen with a broom, slapped his face and stomach before placing the child face down in a pillow. It wasn’t until after Turner force fed Rose bleach that he called paramedics. Rose later succumbed to his wounds on Oct. 13, 1992. An autopsy conducted by a Forsyth County official revealed “bite marks and teeth prints” on the child’s scalp.

It is unknown at this time if Turner would return to Ashe County if he was to be released. He was a resident of Jefferson at the time of his arrest.

A side note to Turner’s incarceration is that he has committed six infractions between 2002 and 2008 while in custody under the DOC. These infractions include citations of unauthorized possession of funds and money and theft of property.

Please continue to follow the Jefferson Post and www.jeffersonpost.com for additional details surrounding Turner’s pending parole.