Two convicted killers who were teenagers when they murdered an Air Force veteran after torturing him for 10 hours by chaining him to a tree, beating him with a bat and lighting him on fire have been re-sentenced as adults to life in prison.
The badly decomposed body of 31-year-old Cordell Richards was found burned and tied to a treein a secluded area near Fort Walton Beach, Florida in March 1999.
Ronald Bell and his then-girlfriend Kristel Maestas, who were 17 and 16 at the time, have both been in prison ever since they kidnapped and brutally murdered the Air Force veteran.
But the pair, who are now in their 30s, were re-sentenced on Monday to life in prison after a lengthy legal fight over whether they should be given lesser jail time because they were just teens at the time of the slaying.
Ronald Bell and Kristel Maestas, who 17 and 16 at the time of Cordell Richards' 1999 murder, were re-sentenced to life in prison in Florida on Monday. The pair had becomeeligible for re-sentencing after the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that juveniles couldn't be sentenced to life without parole
They had become eligible for re-sentencing after the FloridaSupreme Court ruled in March 2015 that juveniles couldn't be sentenced to life without parole due to their ages.
Bell had initially been sentenced to death in Richards' slaying but later had it reduced to life without parole in 2003 because he was not yet 18 when he committed the crime.
Prosecutors said the victim was killed in revenge for sexual advances the teenagers claimed Richards had made toward one of the girls.
A judge on Monday had to re-evaluate the evidence, their ages at the time and the factors in each of their case before re-sentencing them.
He was emotionless as he was re-sentenced on Monday to life in prison for first degree murder and a consecutive life sentence for kidnapping, the Florida Daily News reports.
Maestas cried as she was re-sentenced to life in prison and a consecutive 30-year sentence for kidnapping.
Bell, Maestas and another one of their friends - then 16-year-oldRenee Lincks - attacked the victim with a blunt object in his home before kidnapping him and taking him to a secluded area.
What followed was two days of brutal torture.
The badly decomposed body of 31-year-old Cordell Richards was found burned and tied to a tree in a secluded area near Fort Walton Beach, Florida in March 1999
Cordell Richard's mother Ruby Richards and Cordell's daughter Reanna Richards embrace in court on Monday after the two killers were jailed for life
The high school students chained Richards to a tree, beat him with a baseball bat and set him on fire while he was still alive.
The trio left him to die before returning the next day to find him still alive.
They bought a meat cleaver from a nearby store and then slit his throat. Authorities said they then returned the weapon to Target to get a refund.
Lincks ended up pleading no contest to manslaughter and false imprisonment in exchange for her testimony against the other two. She was released from prison in 2012.
Just prior to the re-sentencing on Monday, a relative of the victim wrote a lengthy post on Facebook urging the judge to put Bell andMaestas away for life.
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'There are 'experts' that would have us believe that a person is not capable of concrete decision making before the age of 25 years. Yet we allow them to vote, buy cigarettes and alcohol, join the military, buy guns, get married and have children of their own,'Rhonda Powell Walker, who had a daughter with the victim, said.
'When these people chose to torture and murder Cordell Richards, they made a choice. They were given a trial and were found guilty and sentenced. That should have been the end of it. They were both sentenced to life in prison without parole.
'When they murdered a man THEY GAVE US...his family a LIFE sentence. Our sentence will NEVER be reduced. He will never come back to visit his daughter, his parents, or his brother. Why should they serve a lesser sentence than the family they damaged for life?
'I pray justice for Cordell Richards and his family will be served.'
FAQs
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