The coldblooded parolee who allegedly slaughtered an elderly Queens couple and torched their homes was on the streets after getting a pass for a sex offender registry violation, officials confirmed.
Convicted sex offender Jamel McGriff, 42, was out of prison for more than a year when the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision received word from the NYPD that the career criminal failed to register his address as required on the registry in 2024, a department spokesman said.
But instead of being slapped with a parole violation, he continued to walk free until Wednesday when he was busted for the shocking double murder of Frank and Maureen Olton inside their Bellerose home — where they were found bound, stabbed and torched after up to five hours of terror at his hands.
McGriff is still facing a charge from the Bronx District Attorney’s Office over the alleged sex offender registry rule-breaking, but was released pending trial because the felony count isn’t bail eligible under the state’s criminal justice reforms.
McGriff was also a suspect in two crimes over the summer, but the state prison agency only leveled a parole violation this week in one of the crimes — an alleged attempted robbery in a Verizon store stickup in August.
The NYPD initially sent the DOCCS an arrest notice about McGriff in November 2024 over the alleged sex offender registry infraction, which happened that July, according to officials.
While the violation could have landed McGriff back in the slammer, the DOCCS claimed Wednesday he was sticking by other mandates and determined he had not “violated his parole in an important respect.”
“At the time the parole staff was advised of the arrest, [McGriff] was compliant with his supervision, reported as directed and was engaged in employment and treatment,” the DOCCS said in a statement.
“He also had never changed his address without the parole office’s knowledge and was in fact transferred from a Manhattan bureau to a Bronx bureau once his new address was approved.”
He pleaded not guilty to the felony charge tied to violating sex offender rules and his case remains open in Bronx criminal court, according to court records.
He was released by the courts with the charge not bail eligible, according to a law enforcement source.
On Monday, McGriff was spotted in the Oltons’ neighborhood asking other residents if he could come into their homes to charge his phone, witnesses said. He allegedly convinced 77-year-old Frank Olton to allow him into his backyard, then got into the home through the backdoor, according to cops and surveillance footage obtained by The Post.
After the FDNY was called to a fire at the residence allegedly set by McGriff five hours later, rescue workers for the body of Frank Olton covered in stab wounds and tied to a pole in the basement. Maureen Olton was found dead on the first floor.
The accused killer was on the lam for two days after the gruesome slayings after using his alleged victims’ credit cards to casually take in an afternoon movie in Manhattan before cops picked him up in the borough Wednesday afternoon.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch argued during a press conference McGriff should have been slapped with a parole violation over the sex offender infraction after he served a 16-year prison sentence over a robbery and sex act conviction.
The DOCCS said as of Wednesday it’s collected enough evidence from the NYPD to issue a parole violation against McGriff over the Verizon store case.
“In fact, as the NYPD Chief of Detectives [Joseph Kenny] has publicly acknowledged, the parole officer was essential in identifying the subject as the prime suspect,” the DOCCS said.
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