Triggerman in Pamela Smart murder case gets parole

John Bacon | USA TODAY

The teen triggerman in the sensational Pamela Smart murder case was granted parole Thursday, his first chance for freedom after 25 years in prison.

William "Billy' Flynn, who turned 41 on Thursday, could be freed as soon as June 4, the New Hampshire Adult Parole Board ruled.

Flynn was Smart's 16-year-old lover when he shot her husband, Gregory, in the head in 1990. Smart was 22 and a teacher at Flynn's school, Winnacunnet High in Hampton, N.H.

Prosecutors said Smart seduced Flynn and threatened to stop having sex with him unless he committed the murder. Flynn said Smart feared she would lose her dog and other items in a divorce. Flynn and three friends carried out the plot; two have already been released from prison and the third is eligible for parole this year.

The case blanketed supermarket tabloids and inspired the 1995 film To Die For that starred Nicole Kidman.

Smart, who admitted seducing Flynn but denied planning the killing, was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder, conspiracy and related charges. She is serving a life sentence without parole.

Flynn has married, earned a GED and studied to become an electrician while in prison. He was moved in recent months to a minimum security prison in Maine as part of a work-release program. He spoke at his hearing via phone from that prison.

Jeffrey Lyons, spokesman for the New Hampshire Department of Corrections, told USA TODAY that two members of Gregg Smart's family attended the hearing, reading a statement discussing how much they missed their brother. Lyons said the family appeared to accept the decision.

Flynn has been working at an undisclosed job and plans on living in Maine upon his release.

"The parole board has to approve his final plan, to make sure he has a job to go to, a place to live," Lyons said. "I don't foresee a problem getting that approval."

Gregg Smart's brother, Dean, in 2011 wrote the book Skylights and Screen Doors that he describes as the real story behind the murder. He told People magazine last year that he had no problem with Flynn preparing for release.

But he had no sympathy for his former sister-in-law.

"I do not think she deserves to be set free," Dean Smart told People. "I do believe that she's guilty, and I do believe that it's completely fair" that she remain in prison.

Flynn and Pamela Smart met while both volunteered for a drug awareness program at their school. Flynn testified that, after they became intimate, Smart threatened to halt their relationship unless he killed her husband.

Flynn said an attempt to do so in April 1990 fell through. But on May 1, Flynn's friend, Patrick "Pete" Randall, held a knife to Smart's throat and Flynn shot him, testimony indicated. Two other friends, Vance Lattime and Raymond Fowler, waited in the getaway car.

Lattime and Fowler were freed in 2005.

Smart is being held at the maximum-security Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Westchester County, N.Y., where she has completed two master's degrees. In 1996 she was beaten by two inmates who accused her of snitching on their relationship. She suffered a fractured eye socket and required plastic surgery.