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Message
Armed robber was never told to report to prison
Posted on 4/17/14 at 12:53 pm
Posted on 4/17/14 at 12:53 pm
quote:
ST. LOUIS (AP) — After he was convicted of armed robbery in 2000, Cornealious Anderson was sentenced to 13 years behind bars and told to await instructions on when and where to report to prison. But those instructions never came.
So Anderson didn't report. He spent the next 13 years turning his life around — getting married, raising three kids, learning a trade. He made no effort to conceal his identity or whereabouts. Anderson paid taxes and traffic tickets, renewed his driver's license and registered his businesses.
Not until last year did the Missouri Department of Corrections discover the clerical error that kept him free. Now he's fighting for release, saying authorities missed their chance to incarcerate him.
In a single day last July, Anderson's life was turned upside-down.
"They sent a SWAT team to his house," Anderson's attorney, Patrick Megaro, said Wednesday. "He was getting his 3-year-old daughter breakfast, and these men with automatic weapons bang on his door."
Anderson, 37, was taken to Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston, Mo., to begin serving the sentence. A court appeal filed in February asks for him to be freed.
Anderson had just one arrest for marijuana possession on his record when he and a cousin robbed an assistant manager for a St. Charles Burger King restaurant on Aug. 15, 1999. The men, wearing masks, showed a gun (it turned out to be a BB gun) and demanded money that was about to be placed in a deposit box.
The worker gave up the bag of cash, and the masked men drove away. The worker turned in the car's license plate number.
Anderson was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison and waited for word on what to do next.
"His attorney said, 'Listen, they're going to get you some day, so just wait for the order,'" Megaro said. "As time goes by, the order never comes. What does a normal person believe? Maybe they forgot about it. It's only human nature to hope they just let it go. He really didn't know what to do.
"A year goes by, two years, five years, 10 years. He's thinking, 'I guess they don't care about me anymore,'" Megaro said.
So Anderson went about his life. Megaro said he was not a fugitive, was never on the run. In fact, just the opposite.
Megaro described Anderson as a model citizen — a married father who became a carpenter and started three businesses. He paid income and property taxes and kept a driver's license showing his true name and address. When he was pulled over for a couple of traffic violations, nothing showed up indicating he should be in prison.
That's why Anderson was shocked when the marshals arrived.
He now lives among the general population at Charleston. Megaro said Anderson is holding his own— barely.
"He's doing his best to keep his spirits up," Megaro said. "Each day that goes by, more hope is lost. It's a daily struggle for him."
Peter Joy, director of the Criminal Justice Clinic at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, said it isn't unusual in a country with such a high prison population for sentences to fall through the cracks. What is unusual, Joy said, is for it to go unnoticed for so long.
"The real tragedy here is that one aspect of prison is the idea of rehabilitation," Joy said. "Here we have somebody who has led a perfect life for 13 years. He did everything right. So he doesn't need rehabilitation."
What happens next isn't clear. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster on Tuesday filed a court response that said the state is justified in making Anderson serve the sentence.
However, Koster wrote that Megaro could refile the case as an action against the director of the Department of Corrections, which could give Anderson credit for the time he was technically at large.
Megaro doubted that strategy would work. He said the law does not allow credit for time served when the convicted person was not behind bars.
"I don't think that's an option, unfortunately," Megaro said.
Instead, he's relying on case law. The last time anything like this happened in Missouri was 1912. In that case, the convicted man was set free, Megaro said.
Gov. Jay Nixon could also commute the sentence. A spokesman for Nixon declined to comment.
LINK
Posted on 4/17/14 at 12:57 pm to Byron Bojangles III
Sucks for the guy if he did truly turn his life around for the better. Also hate it for his little girl that watched him get taken away like that.
Posted on 4/17/14 at 12:57 pm to Byron Bojangles III
I read this this morning. Hard to believe the state of Missouri could be so stupid. The guy turns his life around and he's ordered to prison to serve 13 years for a crime he committed 14 years ago - simply because they forgot about him.
Posted on 4/17/14 at 12:58 pm to Byron Bojangles III
FREE Cornealious
Posted on 4/17/14 at 12:58 pm to Byron Bojangles III
missouri messed up, should just let the guy go on about his business
Posted on 4/17/14 at 12:59 pm to RollTide1987
I mean he's supposed to do the time. I wouldn't feel bad about it if he hadn't turned his life around.
Posted on 4/17/14 at 12:59 pm to RollTide1987
Still needs to do his time.
Posted on 4/17/14 at 12:59 pm to Byron Bojangles III
This is one of those cases that should be looked at as a special circumstance rather than just reading the rules blindly and following them. It could go either way and I truly don't know what is the correct route here. I guess if he has truly been this upstanding citizen as the article claims, then he needs no rehabilitation and should be set free. Wonder if that 1912 precedent will help him, hope so.
Posted on 4/17/14 at 12:59 pm to Byron Bojangles III
con·se·quence
noun \'kän(t)-s?-?kwen(t)s, -kw?n(t)s\
: something that happens as a result of a particular action or set of conditions
noun \'kän(t)-s?-?kwen(t)s, -kw?n(t)s\
: something that happens as a result of a particular action or set of conditions
Posted on 4/17/14 at 1:00 pm to Byron Bojangles III
Governor gonna commute his sentence... watch and see.
Posted on 4/17/14 at 1:00 pm to RollTide1987
The guy was convicted of armed robbery. That means he held a gun on some poor person and made them hand over money. I find it hard to believe he is now "barely holding on" in prison and that he is suddenly a nice guy. Believe none of what you read and half of what you see. Missouri realy screwed up here but I am not so sure he should be set free.
Posted on 4/17/14 at 1:01 pm to RollTide1987
It's interesting to think about where he would be today if he had been imprisoned when he was supposed to be. He probably would have been out of prison for at least a few years. Would he be a career criminal? Would he be on his way towards being a contributing member of society? I tend to think that it's more likely that he would have been the former. I don't think prison rehabilitates anybody.
Posted on 4/17/14 at 1:01 pm to Darth_Vader
quote:
con·se·quence
noun \'kän(t)-s?-?kwen(t)s, -kw?n(t)s\
: something that happens as a result of a particular action or set of conditions
What consequences does Missouri have to face for fricking up so bad?
Posted on 4/17/14 at 1:01 pm to DanTiger
quote:
That means he held a gun on some poor person and made them hand over money.
A BB gun.
Posted on 4/17/14 at 1:02 pm to Peazey
quote:
A BB gun.
The person with the gun pointed on them might not know that
This post was edited on 4/17/14 at 1:02 pm
Posted on 4/17/14 at 1:02 pm to Byron Bojangles III
I saw that this morning. How in the eff does that happen?
Posted on 4/17/14 at 1:02 pm to Byron Bojangles III
Tough situation because it looks like he really has turned his life around. Prison can turn him back to how he was before.
Also, was a SWAT team in full gear really necessary to go pick him up?
Also, was a SWAT team in full gear really necessary to go pick him up?
Posted on 4/17/14 at 1:03 pm to DanTiger
quote:
That means he held a gun on some poor person and made them hand over money.
Read the article. It was a BB gun.
I'm not saying the guy is innocent, but one of the main purposes of prison is rehabilitation. From all accounts, this guy is rehabilitated.
This post was edited on 4/17/14 at 1:04 pm
Posted on 4/17/14 at 1:04 pm to Peazey
quote:
A BB gun.
How would you feel if you were the person he pointed it at and robbed?
Posted on 4/17/14 at 1:04 pm to SuperSoakher
I understand why people say he should do his time but there is an issue I have with this case that makes me think in a way he has already. It sounds like he has turned his life around (good for him). The issue is he was told to stay close to report to prison. And basically he did that. He stayed close, waited and waited. Moved forward with is life but kept it in Missouri. So he basically kept his life to the area for all these years. I hope the state does right by their screw up and cuts his time there way short. He now has a kid in his life to bring up not to make the mistakes he made.
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