Mar. 4—GUILFORD COUNTY — A convicted killer from Greensboro who once escaped prison in Davidson County and was recaptured in High Point has been approved for release from prison on parole, the N.C. Post Release Supervision and Parole Commission announced Friday.

Kenzil D. Collington, 56, was 17 years old in 1983 when he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and breaking and entering in the March 30, 1983, death of his next-door neighbor, Sue Miles Dahamni, 40. She had been beaten with a wooden paddle and stabbed with a steak knife.

In 1997, Collington was being held in the minimum-security prison in Lexington and was considered a model prisoner, but after attending church in Midway one day with his volunteer sponsor he disappeared, state officials said at the time. He was recaptured less than two hours later at a friend's house in High Point.

Collington had been sentenced to life plus 10 years, and the state's current sentencing law eliminates parole for crimes committed on or after Oct. 1, 1994, but the state must allow parole for those sentenced under previous sentencing guidelines calling for it.

The commission said Collington was approved for parole through the state's Mutual Agreement Parole Program, a scholastic and vocational program intended to help inmates prepare for the transition out of prison.