'Please deny his request': Spanberger's board heard a murdered mother's family, then voted 4-0

When Christine Allen was killed, her daughter was 3 months old. On Sept. 10, her family asked Gov. Abigail Spanberger's parole board to keep the man convicted of her murder in prison for the full 40 years a jury recommended. The board voted 4-0 to release him.

Troy Demar was convicted of second-degree murder in Fairfax County in 1999 and sentenced to 40 years with nothing suspended, according to the board's September report. WJLA 7News reported that Allen was found stabbed to death in the home she shared with Demar in 1998, and that Demar testified he did not kill her.

The jump is stark. A Washington Examiner analysis published Oct. 7 found that Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin's parole board approved 1.23% of parole requests in all of 2025, granting 32, while Spanberger's board, installed in mid-March, posted a 13.89% release rate in roughly half of 2026, with 38 grants, which the Examiner described as more than 10 times Youngkin's rate. A separate WJLA 7News analysis of every decision since Spanberger's board first met in May counted 48 grants in 205 discretionary and geriatric parole cases, about 23.4%, or "almost one in four," compared with fewer than two in 100 under Youngkin's board. Bolts magazine, analyzing monthly decisions, put Youngkin's board at about 2% from January 2022 through September 2023 and 1.6% for 2023. The analyses cover different periods and case counts, which is why the 2026 figures differ. The board's own reports show 14 grants in 44 parole decisions in August, about 32%, and 7 grants in 85 decisions in September, about 8.2%.

Three immediate family members spoke against release, and a board staffer read a statement from Allen's daughter, according to the minutes. "He should have to do 40 years because my sister never got to see 40. So why should he?" one sister said, according to WJLA. "Christine doesn't get a second chance."

One member answered, "I recognize the strong opposition to Mr. Demar's release on parole, but he has done everything that he's required to do." Another said he had done "more programming than most of the inmates we see or read about," the station reported.

The board's reasons, in its report and minutes, included rehabilitation, an infraction-free record since incarceration, no previous felony convictions, educational advancement, a low risk score and a stable release plan. Those are serious points, and a parole-advocacy group, the Due Process Institute, argued Oct. 7 that coverage should include them.

But Demar's own case shows the stakes of who sits on the board. He had served about 28 years of a 40-year term. The jury recommended the maximum, according to WJLA. Under Youngkin, the board's grant rate was about 2%, according to Bolts. Spanberger replaced every member.

Former Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, said the releases are "completely 100% now the responsibility of Abigail Spanberger." A Washington Examiner opinion writer called for the board to release its full case files.

Demar was not the only homicide grant. The same day, the board released Calvin Darnell Johnson, serving life for a 1989 first-degree murder in Richmond, after its Victim Services Team said it could not find the victim's next of kin.

The four members who voted were Chair Shannon Dion, Vice Chair Kecia Brothers Hayes, Tyrone Nelson and Valerie Boykin, all Spanberger appointees. Bishop Kevin White was absent.

Why the board matters: Virginia abolished parole for most crimes in 1995, under a truth-in-sentencing law pushed by Republican Gov. George Allen's administration, according to Bolts. The people still eligible are mostly those convicted of serious crimes before then, older prisoners seeking geriatric release, and people covered by 2020 expansions for juvenile offenders and some 1995-2000 jury cases, which Democrats passed after taking full control of state government in 2019, Bolts reported. That leaves the decision in the hands of five people the governor appoints. Statewide, violent crime fell to 210.5 per 100,000 residents in 2025, down 7% from 2024, according to the Department of Criminal Justice Services.

Fairfax is an independent city in Northern Virginia.

Fairfax County is a county in Northern Virginia. Its county seat is Fairfax, an independent city.

Richmond is an independent city in the Richmond region.