Local woman aims to keep convicted killer behind bars, despite his parole eligibility

HATTIESBURG, MISS. - A man convicted of capital murder nearly 40 years ago will appear before a parole board to decide if he should be released from prison. However, the victim’s family wants the convict to remain behind bars saying he is a danger to the public.

“They stabbed her 41 times,” Brenda Housley, the victim's daughter said. “They gagged her, blindfolded her, and raped her.”

Housley, the daughter of Rose Gunter describes what happened to her mother nearly 36 years ago after two men broke into Gunter’s home. One of the men, Eric Fuselier was an escaped fugitive from Louisiana at the time. “[We] still may have to try to got up there and talk to them [the parole board] again and try to get them to keep somebody in jail,” Housley said. “I mean, she was the third person he had killed.” March 1, Housley received a letter in the mail from Mississippi’s parole board notifying her that one of the murders could be released from prison soon. Fuselier, a convicted murderer had an extensive criminal record, with crimes that date all the way back to the 1960s. When asked about her family’s safety, Housley admitted that if Fuselier where released from prison she does not believe her family would be safe. She also said, she would consider it a personal injustice. The court originally gave Fuselier the death penalty in the mid-1980s, but due to a technical error the death conviction would be reversed, and Fuselier would later plead guilty to capital murder in exchange for life in prison. “To me life is life,” Housley explained. “He’s going to stay there.” Now, Housley wonders why would the state consider releasing a criminal with such a violent past. The state has not set a date for Fuselier to appear before the parole board, but Hosley believes it will be sometime this month (April 2019).