A man convicted in the 1986 murder of a former Salisbury businessman has been approved for parole.
Randy Lee Scott will be released from prison after 25 years, according to a notice from the N.C. Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission.
Scott, 58, and codefendant Thomas John Reeb were each sentenced to life in prison for the Dec. 9, 1986, slaying of Gary Henry Grade.
The sentences were imposed under the old Fair Sentencing law, which allowed for parole even in cases where convictions resulted in life terms. That provision was eliminated in 1994 under the Structured Sentencing law.
Scott is scheduled for release on Nov. 4. Records on the N.C. Department of Public Safety website show he’s currently in a correctional facility in Forsyth County.
Reeb, 66, remains in prison. His next custody review is scheduled for Feb. 1, 2014.
Scott and Reeb were charged on Dec. 10, 1986, after the body of 28-year-old Grade was found on the floor of his home on Charles Street off Old Airport Road. His hands had been bound behind his back with silver duct tape. His face was stuffed in a pillow. A single bullet had penetrated his temple.
Grade’s girlfriend, Cindy Beck Hensley, had been tied up, shot in the mouth and left for dead. She waited until the assailants left Grade’s home, then went next door for help. She later told authorities Reeb fired the shots that killed Grade and wounded her.
The house had been ransacked, with furniture ripped to pieces. Bob Martin, who was Rowan County’s sheriff at the time, told the Post it “looked like the people involved were definitely looking for something.” Investigators later said the killing was drug-related and that Grade and Hensley knew the attackers.
Grade had operated a swimming pool and spa installation business until about three months before the murder.
Scott’s wife, Brenda, and Morris McLean Andrews, who along with Scott lived in High Point at the time, were also charged with murder, assault and robbery. The state accepted pleas of second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury during the jury selection phase of the trial.
Scott and Reeb were each also convicted of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and robbery with a dangerous weapon.