BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — A Calhoun County judge ruled Friday to keep a man’s life without parole sentence for killing a little girl, according to Prosecutor Dave Gilbert.
45-year-old Jason Symonds was convicted of the 1994 murder of five-year-old Nicole VanNoty, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Symonds was just 16 at the time when he beat, raped and killed the child.
His case was reevaluated back in 2017 after a federal Supreme Court ruling, but his sentence remained.
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The courts took another look at the case recently because of a new Michigan Supreme Court ruling in 2022, which determined it unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile to life in prison without parole.
The attorneys representing Symonds argued Friday that he turned over a new leaf while in prison and deserves a new sentence; however, the judge disagreed and maintained the life without parole sentence given to Symonds originally.
