MAYSVILLE, Ky. - A parole board has freed the man convicted of killing Maysville police officer Danny Hay in 1979.

        Gary Wayne Wilson, now 48, was sentenced to 40 years in prison on charges of first-degree burglary and first-degree manslaughter on April 4, 1980.

        Officer Hay was 22 when he was shot three times in the chest early on the morning of Oct. 15, 1979, while searching for an intruder inside a now-defunct grocery store. He was pronounced dead at a Maysville hospital a short time later.

        Officer Hay is the only Maysville police officer killed in the line of duty.

        Mr. Wilson was due to be released today from the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex, said Cindy Hall, the prison's public information officer. He will be free, but under supervised release. The board's decision comes five years before he was due to be set free without supervision.

        Mr. Wilson's parole will not end until 2021, a condition requested by the Hay family. He also cannot make contact with the Hay family and must stay out of Mason and its adjoining counties.

        Phillip Hay, the slain officer's younger brother, attended Tuesday's parole hearing. The family had a mixed reaction to Mr. Wilson's release.

        “Although we feel like it was a loss, we still feel somewhat of a victory because we got our conditions,” Mr. Hay said.

        Maysville Police Lt. Col. Kent Butcher, who worked with Officer Hay the night he was killed, found Mr. Wilson's release tough to take.

        “I guess in the back of my mind, I didn't want this day to happen, but it's here,” he said.

        Officer Hay came on duty at 11 p.m. and dropped Col. Butcher off at midnight. Officer Hay was shot about 2:40 a.m.

        “When I got out of the car, I told him to be careful and to call me if he needed anything. And that's the last time I saw him,” he said.

        Phillip Hay said the family was insulted by the conviction and sentence he received.

        “The judicial system is a joke. He was sentenced to 40 years and he's going to serve half of it,” he said.

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