Four convicted killers from Limestone County were paroled this week from the state prison system and Sheriff Mike Blakely is outraged with the news.

“I can’t believe they did it,” Blakely said. “I’m shocked and disappointed. “These were brutal murders and we were opposed to any of them being released.”

The inmates granted parole Tuesday by the Alabama Board of Pardons and Parole in Montgomery were Charles Farinelli, 44, of Arab; Perry Lee Fleming, 64, of Tanner; Joseph Twarog, 45; and James Willie Harris, 41, of Athens. All four were either convicted of murder or pleaded guilty to murder in separate cases in Limestone County Circuit Criminal Court.

Farinelli shot and killed Keith Heck in what Blakely called a “murder for hire” plot in 1986. Heck was shot in the head execution-style as he fled a home near Salem. He was convicted of murder by a Limestone County jury and served 19 years in prison before being paroled.

Fleming shot and killed his girlfriend, Mildred Webster, after breaking into her home on Oakdale Road. Blakely said he shot her several times with a 30-30 deer rifle and fled in her Cadillac. He was later apprehended in Indiana.

Fleming pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison. He served 16 years in prison as the result of the 1990 murder.

Fleming and Webster met at the General Motors Saginaw Steering Gear Plant where they both worked at the time of the murder.

Twarog stabbed and killed Raymond Delappe with a knife during a robbery at the Hatfield Campgrounds in April 1993.

He was sentenced to life in prison in March 1994 and served 12 years. A transient, Twarog robbed and killed Delappe who had taken him in and trusted him as his friend, police said.

Harris shot and killed his father, Charlie Harris, with a shotgun while in the course of of committing a theft of a wallet and money in July 1993.

He was sentenced to life in prison for the murder and served 10 years before being paroled.

“I filed letters of protest in every one of these cases,” Limestone County District Attorney Kristi Valls said Wednesday. “It is really very, very frustrating. I am kind of shocked because I objected to every single one of them.”

Blakely blamed Gov. Bob Riley, who he says has refused to build new prisons to handle the prisoner load in Alabama.

“I’m shocked and disappointed. But this is the sign of this administration which is just like the (Fob) James administration who turned everybody loose,” the sheriff said.

“We’re talking about a contract killing in the Farinelli case. We think we know who killed Mr. Heck that day, but Farinelli never told us. I just can’t see why the state would turn such a criminal lose. A murder for hire is not like a crime of passion. It is the baddest of the bad.”

Blakely called Fleming a “cold-blooded killer.”

“He shot his girlfriend’s leg off with a deer rifle and then stole her car. It was a brutal murder.”

Valls said the state did deny parole for convicted murderer Chris Harris, who at the age of 16, was one of three people arrested for killing Barbara Ann Wilson, 49, inside her 100 Fishhook Drive home in Athens in the mid 1990’s.

Harris was sentenced to life in prison for Wilson’s murder. He has served nearly 10 years in prison.