Convicted murderer Charles Chaples, now 59, will complete one year in a lower-security prison before being released on parole following a June 4 decision by the state’s parole board.

Chaples was sentenced to life in prison in March 1983 for the murder of Raymond Santos, a night watchman at the now-defunct Lincoln Park.

He stalked and shot Santos three times with a stolen shotgun in an attempted robbery the previous year.

According to a 2015 decision denying parole, Chaples had also been paroled in the mid-2000s. He lived in New Bedford and worked as a truck driver until he assaulted his then-girlfriend in an altercation that resulted in a broken collarbone.

In September 2007, Chaples became a fugitive, hiding in the woods in Marion for 20 hours before being caught. The manhunt involved parole officers, local police, multiple state police K-9 units, and a state police helicopter. 

The parole board wrote in the June 4 decision that Chaples “has addressed his causative factors through meaningful treatment/programming” since his last parole hearing.

“It is the opinion of the Board that he has demonstrated a level of rehabilitation that would make his release compatible with the welfare of society,” the decision reads.

After spending a year in a lower-security facility, Chaples will be released to an approved home plan. Conditions of his parole include a curfew from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m., wearing an electronic monitoring device, mental health counseling, and supervision and testing for alcohol or drug use.

He has served 33 years in prison and is currently being held at the medium-security Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater.