He helped another almost kill a woman twenty years ago. He needed to stay where he is.

Acknowledging that he was being, in his words, an “asshole” wasn’t enough for an Iowa man who convince a parole board to approve him for release. The crime he committed – helping to kidnap a woman, beating her nearly to death and leaving her in a pet cemetery – was too heinous a crime to look past.

James Rainer, 43, will remain in prison for at least another six years on his second-degree kidnapping and attempted murder convictions stemming from when in May 2000, he and Nicholas Hanegan kidnapped Carrie Fleenor and attempted to kill her in the cemetery because Hanegan thought she was telling law enforcement that he was a drug dealer, an assertion she denied in court later. Fleenor suffered severe injuries that kept her in the hospital for a week, according to court records.

Reportedly since their incarceration, Rainer and Hanegan have been associating with prison hate groups, causing some concern among some following the case of what they would be involved with should they ever be released. Hanegan is serving a life terms, and Rainer was given a 35-year prison sentence but those who are convicted of second-degree kidnapping as Rainer can be eligible for parole after 22 years. At his parole hearing Tuesday, Rainer told the parole board that what he had done was wrong saying, “The reason I did that to Carrie is because I was being an asshole.” Regardless the three-member parole board denied his request to be released.

Hanegan serves his time in a separate facility, but has filed for post-conviction relief in an effort to be released. Rainer is currently being housed at Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.