The family of Kelly Ann Tinyes, right, is urging state...

The family of Kelly Ann Tinyes, right, is urging state parole officials to keep convicted killer, Robert Golub, left, in prison. Credit: Handouts, Newsday / Alejandra Villa

State officials have denied parole for the killer of 13-year-old Kelly Ann Tinyes, a decision bringing her family some relief while their pain remains raw decades later.

Robert Golub, now 46, is serving a prison term of 25 years to life after a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in the March 1989 slaying.

The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision made its denial of Golub's first parole appeal public Monday. It means the convicted killer who has been in prison since 1990 will be behind bars for at least another two years.

But the victim's father, Richard Tinyes, said Monday that, while the family is pleased with the ruling, it's frustrating knowing they will have to fight the release of his daughter's killer all over again when Golub comes up for another parole hearing in 2015.

"There's really no solace here for the Tinyes family," he said.

The family has said that lobbying against Golub's release on parole was like living through the trauma of Kelly's murder all over again. They collected about 3,600 signatures in an online petition as part of their efforts to convince the parole board to deny Golub's release.

"Please help us make sure that he will never be freed from his prison, just as we can never be freed from the pain and inconsolable grief his actions have caused our family," their appeal on gopetition.com read in part.

The office of Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice asked the parole board in a letter earlier this year to turn down Golub's parole request, a Rice spokesman said Monday.

The Tinyes and Golub families had lived only a few doors from each other in Valley Stream, and the teenager's killing sparked a bitter feud between the neighbors that endured until the Golubs moved away from the block in 2009.

The victim was last seen leaving her Horton Road home and going into the Golub residence. The next day, authorities recovered her body in a sleeping bag in a closet near the house's basement stairs. Prosecutors said she'd been strangled, sexually mutilated, and her head severely beaten.

In its decision, the parole board told Golub that his release wasn't warranted "as there is a reasonable probability you would not live at liberty without again violating the law."

They also said letting him out would be "incompatible with the welfare of society."

In 2009, Golub insisted from Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville in a Newsday interview that he had nothing to do with Kelly's slaying. Authorities said he said he worked as a paralegal assistant in a law library in prison and he said he practiced his Catholic faith while incarcerated.

He called Kelly's murder "tragedy No. 1," and referred to himself as "tragedy No. 2."

Sal Marinello, who represented Golub at trial, said Monday he wasn't surprised to hear that the parole board turned down his former client's appeal for release.

"It's to be expected the first time he comes up for parole, it's not going to be granted," said the lawyer, who added that Golub still might be paroled someday.

"If he's done his time in an appropriate manner . . . there comes a time when he should be paroled," Marinello said.

In the meantime, the Tinyes family is facing yet another holiday season without their loved one.

"We say our own prayers to Kelly," Richard Tinyes said Monday. "It's tough around the holidays."

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