Mark David Chapman, the man who gunned down American rock icon, John Lennon nearly 38 years ago has failed in his tenth try to win freedom from a prison sentence that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.

On Thursday, the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said the state board denied parole for the 63-year-old Chapman after a hearing and told him he would have to wait another two years until it considers him for release again.

“The panel has determined that your release would be incompatible with the welfare and safety of society,” a three-member panel of the state Board of Parole told Chapman in a letter.

Chapman, who has previously said he was severely troubled when he shot the former Beatle and was seeking to gain notoriety, is serving 20 years to life after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1981.

Known as inmate 81A3860, Chapman has been held at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, just east of Buffalo since 2012 after he was transferred from Attica, which is about 15 miles away.

At his previous parole hearing in August 2016, Chapman described his younger self as a sociopath with low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts, trapped by the inescapable idea of killing Lennon to gain fame.

“I was obsessed on one thing and that was shooting him so that I could be somebody. And 35 years later I see what a horrible decision that was and how selfish it was,” Chapman had said