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Yereth RosenReuters
12:20 a.m. CDT, May 29, 2013

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A 24-year-old man has been charged with killing an elderly couple and raping their 2-year-old great-grandchild, in a crime that occurred just hours after he was released from prison in a separate sexual-assault case, state officials said on Tuesday.

Jerry Active was arrested on Saturday by police and has been charged in the murders of Sorn Sreap, 71, and her husband, Touch Chea, 73, and the rape of the toddler they were babysitting that night. Active is also charged with raping Sreap.

The elderly victims' bodies had signs of blunt-force trauma, but autopsies will determine the cause of death, the Anchorage Police Department said in a statement. Active could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted of the murders and rapes.

Active, who had pleaded guilty to breaking into a Dillingham, Alaska, home in 2009 and sexually assaulting a child and other residents, was released from prison on probation on Saturday morning after serving part of a seven-year sentence, said Kaci Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Corrections.

It was not immediately clear why Active was allowed to serve less than his full sentence. Schroeder said she did not have certain details about his case.

He was released from prison in Anchorage at 8:09 a.m. Saturday, about 12 hours before the crimes were reported, Schroeder said.

The toddler's parents returned home from a movie and found the suspect naked in a bedroom with the child and the great-grandparents dead, said the Anchorage police statement. The parents confronted the suspect, but he escaped, police said.

Active was arraigned on Sunday, with bail set at $1.5 million, according to court records. A state judge on Tuesday scheduled a June 5 preliminary hearing.

A public defender for Active could not be reached for comment.

Active has a lengthy court record, with several misdemeanor arrests prior to the 2009 felony case. He was first released on the Dillingham case on October 2, 2011, but violated probation and was sent back to prison two days later, according to records Schroeder released.

Since then he has been in and out of prison after committing other probation violations, Schroeder said.

(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Lisa Shumaker)