Mark David Chapman, the man who killed John Lennon in December 1980, was denied parole for the 10th time on Thursday. (New York State Department of Corrections)
Mark David Chapman, the man who killed John Lennon, has been denied parole for the 10th time.
Chapman, 63, went before New York's parole board on Thursday in what was his 10th attempt to be released from the Wende Correctional Facility in western New York, where he's serving a 20-years-to-life sentence.
Chapman shot and killed Lennon, a former Beatles star, outside of his apartment in The Dakota building in Manhattan on Dec. 8, 1980.
People walk by the entrance to the Dakota Apartments, in New York on Aug. 15, 2018, where John Lennon was shot by Mark Chapman in 1980. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
The state's parole board last denied Chapman's request two years ago — describing the murder of Lennon as "selfish and evil." The board determined Chapman should remain behind bars, in part because of the premeditated and "celebrity-seeking" nature of the crime.
When he applied for parole in 2014, Chapman told the board that he still gets letters about the pain he caused in his pursuit of notoriety.
A woman sets a photograph down as she joins fans of former Beatle John Lennon who have gathered at the Imagine mosaic in the Strawberry Fields section of New York's Central Park to mark the 35th anniversary of his death, in New York on Dec. 8, 2015. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)
"I am sorry for causing that type of pain," he said. "I am sorry for being such an idiot and choosing the wrong way for glory."
Years earlier, in 2010, Chapman recalled he had considered shooting Johnny Carson or Elizabeth Taylor instead, but said that Lennon was more accessibly as his luxury apartment building near Central Park "wasn't quite as cloistered."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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