[imagesource: Bob Jordan/AP]

On July 23, 1993, James Jordan was murdered while sleeping in his car off the side of a highway in Lumberton, North Carolina.

The father of Michael Jordan, widely regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time, was shot and killed in a car that his son had gifted to him, having pulled off the road to sleep during a long-distance drive.

Now one of the men convicted in the murder, Larry Demery (pictured above), has been granted parole, despite the fact that Demery and co-defendant Daniel Green were both convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Reporting below via CNN:

North Carolina eliminated parole from crimes committed on or after October 1, 1994. But since Demery was sentenced before the change in guidelines, he was still eligible, the release said.

Demery’s parole date has been set for August 6, 2023.

In 1995, Demery pleaded guilty of murder and testified against Green, who still maintains his innocence and continues to seek release from prison.

On the night of the murder, James Jordan was driving back from a funeral when he made the fateful decision to pull over. He was missing for three weeks until investigators located his red Lexus, found hidden in the woods near Fayetteville, North Carolina:

Demery said he and Green [below, in a 2010 phpoto] had been preparing to rob a motel when the expensive car caught their eye and they changed their target. Jordan awoke and asked what was happening as he was shot, Demery said during the trial.

Demery said they had no idea who their victim was until they rifled through his possessions.

“I believe we’ve killed Michael Jordan’s daddy,” Demery said Green told him.

They took his body to a swamp near Bennettsville, South Carolina, Demery said. Witnesses at the time said the young men drove Jordan’s car to pick up dates after killing him.

When officers found Jordan’s body, it was badly decomposed, and around 100 kilometres from where his car was found, across state lines.

At the time of the murder, Demery was 17, and Green was 18.

Michael Jordan has yet to release a statement on news of the 2023 parole.

[source:cnn]