DENVER – Colorado’s highest court is considering whether to free a convict who was sent back to prison after being mistakenly released from a 98-year sentence decades early and reforming his life.
An attorney for Rene Lima-Marin told the court Thursday that it was cruel and unusual punishment to put him back behind bars because he started a family and never reoffended during his six years of freedom.
Lima-Marin, now 37, was convicted in 2000 on multiple counts of robbery, kidnapping and burglary after he and another man robbed two suburban Denver video stores at gunpoint. A judge issued him back-to-back sentences for a total of 98 years.
But a court clerk mistakenly wrote in Lima-Marin’s file that the sentences were to run at the same time. Corrections officials depend on that file to determine how much time an inmate should serve. Lima-Marin was released on parole in 2008. He held a job, married and had a son before authorities realized the mistake in January 2014, when a team of police officers returned him to prison to complete his sentence.
Lima-Marin completed parole and lived openly in the same community where he committed his crimes, coaching his son’s soccer team, Orlando attorney Patrick Megaro told the judges.
But prosecutors have said Lima-Marin was fully aware of the error and never notified authorities as he set about building his life. He withdrew an appeal of his sentence in 2001, a rare move they said proves he wanted to avoid further court action that would call attention to the mistake.
Lima-Marin’s co-defendant, Michael Clifton, also would have been mistakenly released early, but the error in his file was uncovered after he filed an appeal in his case, which he lost. Clifton is serving 98 years in prison.
Lima-Marin told The Associated Press last year that he asked few questions when his public defender told him he would be serving his sentences concurrently and urged him to withdraw an appeal he had filed in the case.
“I’m struggling to understand how he could have come away thinking it was a 16-year sentence and not something much larger,” Justice William W. Hood III said. But Lima-Marin was not educated in the legal system, Megaro said.
Assistant Attorney General Kathy Gillespie argued the case was an unfortunate mistake but not misconduct. She urged the judges to send the case back to a trial court to hold a hearing about what Lima-Marin and others knew at the time of his mistaken release.
“There are obvious sympathetic, emotional issues with this case. It bothers all of us,” she said.
It could be months before the justices issue their ruling. Meanwhile, Lima-Marin’s wife, Jasmine, said Thursday that her sons, now 9 and 5, continue to struggle without him.
“It gets worse as time goes on,” she said. “They’re older now so they’re starting to understand what they are missing out on not having their dad there.”
