Teen killer seeking sentence review after 40 years in prison

A St. Landry Parish sentence review hearing has been scheduled for Larry Sylvester, convicted of murder when he was 15 and sent to prison for life in 1973.
The U.S. Supreme Court last year said life sentences for persons under age 18 amount to cruel and unusual punishment, leaving states to figure out what to do about more than 200 persons serving such sentences across the land.
Sylvester contends his lengthy record of prison accomplishment amounts to proof of his rehabilitation.
“I’m thankful the vices of the prison environment have not controlled my mentality,” he writes as part of a lengthy petition to the court. He is represented by court-appointed counsel Randy Wagley.
Sylvester was convicted in April 1973 of a January 1973 murder committed at the direction of a 30-year-old accomplice.
He has contended in previous filings that he was unduly influenced by that man because of his young age and that that should be a factor in consideration of re-sentencing.
The fact that Sylvester was tried and convicted less than 90 days after the murder is an indication of how much things have changed in the criminal justice system since.
Under today’s system, arraignment rarely occurs that soon.
The murder charge was not Sylvester’s first run-in with the law.
Records indicate that when he was 14 he and another juvenile tried to steal a woman’s purse, knocking her down and injuring her in the process.
Four days later, according to the record, he indecently assaulted an 11-year-old girl. He was tried in juvenile court and declared a delinquent.
He was sent to a diagnostic center for confinement. Months later, he was charged with murder.
The hearing is scheduled for April 9 before Interim Judge Marion Edwards.