DA: Victim’s family wasn’t notified by ADOC of convicted murderer’s early release

BLOUNT CO., Ala. (WBRC) - Dozens of Alabama inmates are out of prison. They were released as part of a new sentencing guidelines law that took effect Tuesday.

The Alabama Department of Corrections says it has not released any inmate without first notifying victim’s families, but Blount County’s district attorney says that’s not true for a man convicted of murder in the county.

The victim’s family wasn’t notified by ADOC according to District Attorney Pamela Casey. She told us she’s the one who had to let them know.

We have confirmed that Barry Randall Thomas is among the inmates released. He was convicted of murder in the early 90′s and sentenced to 30 years for killing his brother and threatening to kill someone else.

Casey tells us the victim’s family wasn’t notified by the state that Thomas was going to be released early.

Over the years, Casey has fought to keep Thomas in jail. She sent a letter to pardons and parole in 2020 asking them to deny his parole. She also says people who have been convicted of violent crimes should be excluded from the mandatory early release law.

“You really have to exclude those people from that mandatory release and I begged my legislators to don’t do this. I can just see this happening and fast forward 14 months later and there we are and it’s one of our cases,” Casey said.

Casey said the victim’s family filed a restraining order against Thomas when they found out he was going to be released.

We’re told Thomas has been released with GPS monitoring to a halfway house until August. That’s when his sentence is up.

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