A 48-year-old who as a teenager killed a father of seven during a dispute over a music competition in Springfield has been granted parole from his life sentence, records show. The state Parole Board granted release to Rockland Baines to a halfway house following a “one-year stepdown to lower security,” according to a March 18 ruling . Baines pleaded guilty in May 1995 to second-degree murder in the shooting of John Meddar, 35, and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, the ruling said. Baines, then 17, had attended a DJ competition at a Springfield club on the night of Nov. 25, 1993, featuring participants from the city and the Hartford, Conn. area, the ruling said. As the competition ended in the predawn hours, a dispute over who had won ensued, and Baines shot Meddar several times, the ruling said. He had been denied parole in 2009 and 2023, and in between he had postponed hearings in 2014, 2019, and 2022. The board unanimously approved his release following his most recent hearing in November, records show. “Mr. Baines has strong family support and a strong reentry plan,” the ruling said. “He has engaged in mental health supports. He has committed to vocational training and received OSHA certification in January 2024.” A prosecutor spoke in opposition to parole at Baines’s hearing and his nephew spoke in favor, the ruling said. Once he’s released, Baines will have to maintain a nightly curfew for the first six months and submit to electronic monitoring, among other conditions. He remains incarcerated at MCI-Shirley, records show. Meddar was a native of Jamaica who moved to the US in his early 20s, according to a death notice . He was survived by many relatives, including three sons and four daughters, the notice said.
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