A Kinston man convicted in 1977 of first-degree murder and assault with intent to rape has been approved for parole.
Ronald Earl Small, who was 19 at the time, was convicted Jan. 13, 1977, for the first-degree murder of Alexandria Hill, 18, and sentenced to life in prison. He was also convicted of the assault and was sentenced to 5 years in prison, a sentence that ran concurrently with the life sentence.
According to archives of The Free Press, Small, now 50, confessed to beating Hill when she refused to have sex with him Sept. 12, 1976. She was found bloody, unconscious and with her clothes torn at the playground of Sampson School.
An officer testified Hill “was in poor condition … She had been brutally beaten about the head.”
A doctor at Lenoir Memorial Hospital, where Hill was originally treated, testified her jaw and windpipe were fractured, her left ear and eye were cut, both eyes were swollen shut and her face and neck were “massively swollen.”
Hill was later transferred to Duke Hospital, where she died on Oct. 6, 1976.
Small, according to The Free Press archives, said he only confessed to police because he thought they had enough evidence to convict him, he was tired and he was told the judge would go easier on him if he confessed.
Small testified when he left Hill she was conscious. According to archives, when he came back, he found her beaten unconscious.
The all-white jury deliberated for 80 minutes before finding him guilty.
An after-hours call to the Post Release Supervision and Parole Commission produced no answer Monday.
Under the state's current sentencing law, known as “structured sentencing,” people who commit certain crimes after Oct. 1, 1994, are not eligible for parole. “However, the Commission has the responsibility of paroling offenders who were sentenced under previous sentencing guidelines,” a letter sent to The Free Press announcing Small's parole stated.
