Calhoun County Juvenile Lifer Gets Shorter Sentence Sep. 27

A Battle Creek man who was sentenced to life in prison without parole as a juvenile has now gotten his shorter sentence, per a Supreme Court ruling.

The Battle Creek Enquirer reports that 37-year-old Joseph Stanford Jr. was in Calhoun County Court on Wednesday, and was sentenced to between 28 and 60 years in prison; he’s already served 17 years, which means he could get parole in about a decade. Stanford had originally been charged in the death of Candace Irwin in 2000, where he and another man broke into a home to rob it, when the second man fatally shot Irwin, and also shot her mother in the head.

Stanford said in court this week that he was remorseful, and that he didn’t know his accomplice had a gun when they decided to rob the home. Candace’s mother Lisa O’Connell said she wished he had received a tougher sentence.

Stanford was due for resentencing after a 2012 ruling in the US Supreme Court, which said life without parole sentences for juveniles was cruel and unusual punishment.

Next: Kellogg CEO Bryant Resigns