‘Show and Tell’ killer wants out

CARSON CITY -- Henderson resident George Thiede is preparing yet again to make the trek to the state capital to ask the Board of Parole Commissioners to reject the release of "show and tell" killer Sandy Shaw.

Thiede, 44, has consistently opposed a pardon for Shaw and her subsequent efforts to win parole for her role in the killing of his brother, James Cotton Kelly. Kelly was 21 when he was slain. At a hearing scheduled for Wednesday, Thiede is to again ask the Parole Board to reject Shaw's request to be released.

"I want to look the commissioners in the face when I testify," said Thiede, who has made numerous appearances on behalf of his brother for more than a decade. "I'm doing this to honor my brother and to make sure justice is served for all."

He plans to take his 17-year-old son Tomi to next week's hearing because his son never got to meet his uncle and has questions about what happened more than 20 years ago.

Shaw was 15 in 1986, when she and two male accomplices lured Kelly into the desert where he was robbed of $1,400 and shot repeatedly in the face.

In the days after the killing, Shaw took her Rancho High School friends to view the corpse, causing the crime to become known as the show-and-tell case. Kelly's body was not discovered by authorities for six days.

Thiede has made it his mission over the past many years to fight against Shaw's release.

In her recent appearances before the pardons and parole boards, Shaw has denied firing any of the shots that killed Kelly. Witnesses testified Shaw told them after the crime that she had participated in the actual shooting, but her defense said she was just bragging.

The parole hearing will be teleconferenced from the capital to the Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Center, where Shaw is serving her sentence and where she will answer questions posed by parole board members. The hearing will be the second since she won a pardon in 2004 making her immediately eligible for parole.

Shaw, who is now 36, went before the parole board in December 2004, and the board denied her parole request.

She was originally sentenced to life without parole for her role in the killing. On appeal, the sentence was changed to two life sentences with the chance for parole.

In 1997, Shaw first sought a pardon seeking to run the two life sentences at the same time, thereby getting an earlier parole date. That request was denied.

Thiede was at that hearing a decade ago to oppose Shaw's pardon request and has made it his mission to oppose her release ever since.

A different Pardons Board in November 2004 acted favorably on Shaw's request, voting to make her immediately eligible for parole. The Parole Board has the final say on whether to release Shaw.

Without the commutation by the Pardons Board in 2004, Shaw would not have been eligible for parole until 2009.

Shaw said at her first parole hearing she went into prison a confused child and wanted a chance to live as a responsible adult.

"Prison has made me a better person," she said. "I am not the same person I was. Take into consideration I came in as a child and now I am a grown adult."

At the hearing, Shaw apologized to Thiede for the death of his brother.

The Parole Board gave no reason for the denial of her first parole request.

Las Vegas attorney Bill Terry, who represented Shaw at the Pardons Board hearing where she was granted relief, said he won't be representing her at the parole hearing. New rules allowing inmates to have representatives speak on their behalf before the Parole Board don't take effect until Oct. 1.

"I wish her all the luck," he said. "Absolutely it is time she gets relief. It's been a very long time in prison for her starting at 15 years old."

Terry said it would be unfortunate if the Parole Board did not act favorably, given the vote of the majority of the pardons board in 2004, including then-Gov. Kenny Guinn, to make her immediately eligible for parole.

But Thiede sees it differently.

Her age at the time of the crime should not matter because at 15, "you know right from wrong," he said.

Shaw already received a break on her sentence when it was changed to allow for eventual parole, before any action by the Pardons Board, Thiede said.

He also questions whether Shaw has been honest about her role in the crime.

"I'm really praying for her to stay in," Thiede said.