Craig Minngia’s next Massachusetts Parole Board review is listed for different dates in the available accounts. MassLive reported that he was scheduled to appear on Oct. 22, 2026; a separate state hearing-calendar listing identifies Oct. 27. The discrepancy has not been resolved, so the hearing date should be confirmed before publication.
Minngia is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder, with the possibility of parole, and also received a concurrent sentence of 10 to 12 years for armed burglary. Massachusetts law makes a person serving a qualifying life sentence eligible for parole after the minimum term set by the court; the second-degree-murder statute likewise ties eligibility to the court-fixed term. See Chapter 127, Section 133A and Chapter 265, Section 2.
The board rejected Minngia’s first parole bid in 2023, after a hearing on Oct. 13, 2022. MassLive reported that the board’s concerns included limited participation in rehabilitation programming and a June 2022 disciplinary finding. It also reported that board members considered completion of sex-offender treatment important and questioned Minngia’s reasons for enrolling. Student attorneys from Northeastern University School of Law represented him at the 2022 hearing. MassLive’s report is the source for these details.
Minngia pleaded guilty in Worcester Superior Court on Nov. 12, 2011, to killing Lillian Johnson, 79, and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, according to MassLive’s coverage. Johnson was found dead in her Worcester apartment in July 1984. The killing remained unsolved for more than two decades. The Telegram & Gazette reported that crime-scene blood was sent to the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory in 2004 and that investigators later matched it to Minngia through the FBI’s CODIS database. The newspaper also reported that his DNA profile entered the system after a New York conviction for sexual assault of a child. The Telegram & Gazette’s account reported that Minngia had attended Clark University and lived above Johnson’s apartment at 1 Freeland Street.
