SALISBURY — A man who pleaded guilty to killing three people in Salisbury in 1987 has been released prison on parole.

The Salisbury Post reported that 63-year-old Clifford Allen Nichols was released this week.

Nichols pleaded guilty in 1990 to killing Gralin Nailing, Booker Barfield and Edwin Little Jr.

The North Carolina Department of Correction said Nichols has returned to Davie County, where he lived at the time of the killings.

A police officer responding to a disturbance found a woman in the street that had been beaten and shot. In the home, the officer found Barfield and Nailing dead. Little died on the way to the hospital.

Police found cocaine and drug paraphernalia in the home.

Investigators arrested Nichols a week later after finding blood in his car.