Melvin Eugene Turnbill, 42, who has served a little more than 11 years of a 25-year sentence for the 2002 murder of 20-year-old Joshua Murphy has been given chance for parole within a year.
Tennessee Board of Parole member Tim Gobble voted to grant Turnbill’s parole upon completion of a nine-12 month substance abuse program. The case will now go to the remaining five members of the parole board. Three votes for parole are required.
Turnbill entered a guilty plea  to facilitating first degree murder in DeKalb County Criminal Court in September 2003.
Murphy was shot dead in the Laurel Hill Community on September 15, 2002. His body was not discovered until three days later.
Turnbill has served eleven years and seven months of the 25-year sentence. His application for parole was denied two years ago.
Christopher Nicholas Orlando, serving a 45-year sentence for facilitation of first degree murder in the case, is believed by authorities to have pulled the trigger. He was convicted in April, 2004. Orlando’s parole after a March, 2013 hearing, and he will be up for parole again in 2016.