Two teen killers seeking life-no parole reconsideration

Two St. Landry teen killers seek to have life-no parole sentences rescinded or amended, but want different results than a third got earlier this year.

Chad Young and Andrew Hundley, both of Eunice, and Larry Sylvester of Opelousas were underage when they killed. They were convicted of murder and sentenced to mandatory life.

The U.S. Supreme Court  in June 2012 ruled that life with no expectation of parole is cruel and unusual punishment for under-age killers. There are about 2,000 such inmates across the country.

Since the ruling, legislatures and state courts have wrestled with how to address the issue.

The Louisiana Legislature this year amended state law to provide the possibility of parole after a juvenile killer has served at least 35 years of a life sentence though it retains the judicial right to impose sentence without parole for the “worst offenders and the worst cases.”

Under the new law, a sentencing hearing must be held where a judge considers a number of factors, including the defendant’s age, his family and home environment, and the circumstances of the crime.

Sylvester killed in January 1973 when he was 15 and was convicted of first-degree murder in April 1973. He has been in prison since.  

Young  was 17 when he killed his parents and a brother in 1988. He was convicted of first-degree murder.

Hundley was 15 when he killed a 14-year-old girl near the former site of the Mowata Store in 1997. He was convicted of second-degree murder.

Young has been undergoing psychological evaluation since May in preparation for filing a motion for re-sentencing.

Sylvester’s motion for a sentencing hearing has been continued in Judge Ellis Daigle’s court until Nov. 14.

Hundley, on the other hand, has already had his sentence amended, though not with the results sought by his motion.

Judge John Trahan after a hearing corrected Hundley’s sentence by removing the no-parole restriction.

That effectively does Hundley little good. 

The Louisiana Supreme Court has held that the Pardon and Parole Board cannot consider commutation of a sentence unless the inmate has a fixed term. Life is not a fixed term.

Unless the governor commutes Hundley’s sentence to a fixed term, or the Supreme Court changes its mind, or Hundley successfully petitions for a fixed-term sentence, parole is apparently not an option for him.

Hundley’s lawyer provided the court a raft of information regarding his model prisoner status, including responsibilities as administrative clerk in the Louisiana State Police Barracks Offenders Affairs Office, where 150 trusties are managed.

The compendium of accomplishments as an inmate are similar to the record of achievement that Hundley had before the murder -- an exemplary student, active in a number of extracurricular and community activities.

Hundley rejected the state’s offer to reduce the murder charge to manslaughter in exchange for a guilty plea.

His counsel notes that the then-teenager was unable to grasp the concept of a manslaughter sentence versus a second-degree conviction sentence “due to his immaturity. He could have left prison at age 40 but that concept was too long a period for a 15-year-old,” counsel argued in its motion for a fixed-term sentence, which Trahan rejected.

Sylvester also has a lengthy record of prison accomplishment. His petitions to the court include references those activities. “I’m thankful the vices of the prison environment have not controlled my mentality,” he writes.

Sylvester acted at the direction of a 30-year-old accomplice when he shot his victim. He has contended in previous filings that he was unduly influence by that man because of his age and that that should be a factor in consideration of re-sentencing.

Sylvester, like Young, had had run-ins with the law before murdering.

 According to records, when he was 14 Sylvester and a six-year-old tried to steal a woman’s purse, knocking her down and injuring her. Four days later, the record shows, he indecently assaulted an 11-year-old girl.

He was tried in Juvenile Court for attempted theft and indecent assault and decreed a delinquent. He was sent to a diagnostic center for confinement. After his mother objected, a second trial was held, with the same results. Months later, he committed murder.