By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
While a Brewton woman with a lengthy criminal profile was granted parole, two other state inmates with local ties were denied during recent hearings by the Alabama Board of Pardons & Paroles.
Catrina Renee Faircloth, 33, had been imprisoned for less than two years after being sentenced in 2020 to 15 years as a habitual felony offender but had accumulated more than three years (1,174 days) of “good time.”
Faircloth’s most recent conviction — on a charge of obstructing justice by using a false identity — came after a 2019 traffic stop by East Brewton police resulted in the discovery of drug paraphernalia in the vehicle she was driving, which had a tag from another vehicle.
Two others convicted in Escambia County — one sentenced to life for an Atmore murder, the other a Tennessee man who was convicted of first-degree theft — were turned down in their bids for early release.
Mcgregory Ladale Riley, 53, who is housed at Fountain Correctional Facility, was convicted of murder in the December 31, 2000, stabbing death of his girlfriend, Jomika Williams, and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
Published reports indicate that Riley and Williams were involved in an argument at the Jack Springs Road apartment they shared. Williams attempted to stab Riley with a kitchen knife. Riley reportedly grabbed another kitchen knife and stabbed Williams nine times.
Court documents show he then bought a 150-pill bottle of Tylenol and took all of it in a suicide attempt. When that didn’t work, he reportedly drank an undisclosed quantity of antifreeze and called police to report the death.
Riley has been behind bars for almost 21 years. His next parole hearing is set for October 1, 2026.
Gregory Austin Smith, 26, of Tennessee was convicted here in 2020 of first-degree theft and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He enjoyed a brief fling with freedom after a county corrections officer helped him and another inmate escape from the local work release program. The escape earned him another 10-year stretch, but it was to be served concurrently.
Smith, who is housed at Elmore Correctional Facility, has spent less than two years in prison. He will next be considered for parole in 2026.