The Tennessee Board of Parole voted to decline the parole of Jerry Carpenter, who murdered Myrtle Chapman 31 years ago with an axe.
The parole board will review Carpenter’s case again in three years.
Carpenter had his fourth parole board hearing earlier in June.
Court documents show Carpenter had stolen money from Chapman's store, and Chapman had confronted him about it. He later returned to Chapman’s store with the axe.
Carpenter argued for parole during the hearing on June 1.
He said he is a changed man and not the same person who killed Chapman.
"The pain that I caused the Chapman family and my own family will never go away," Carpenter said, speaking through a TV screen.
The Chapman family doesn't believe he is a different person.
"I don't see how that's possible. I just don't think that they could do enough for you to be a changed person," Chapman's sister Wanda Martin said.
Martin said Carpenter changes his story during every parole hearing.
Carpenter has faced and been denied parole three times prior to Wednesday in 2007, 2010 and 2013.
