NORRISTOWN >> Four men who were juveniles at the time they committed murders in West Pottsgrove and Norristown between 1993 and 1999 still potentially could fight for new sentences in the wake of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that deemed mandatory life terms for juveniles were unconstitutional and that the ban on such sentences is to be applied retroactively.
Additionally, on Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in a separate ruling, said prosecutors bear “the burden of proving, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the juvenile offender is incapable of rehabilitation.”
Those who could still seek a review and re-sentencing hearing include:
* Ricky Maurice Roberts, now 41, formerly of the 800 block of East Howard Street, West Pottsgrove, pleaded guilty but mentally ill in November 1993 to a charge of general homicide in connection with the June 7, 1993, shooting death of neighbor Brenda J. Rhoades in her home. A county judge, who had to determine Roberts’ degree of guilt, subsequently convicted Roberts, who was 17 at the time of the killing, of first-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison.
* In 1995, Nathaniel Bundy, of Norristown, was convicted of second-degree murder, robbery and assault and sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the Aug. 27, 1994, stomping death of 25-year-old Kyle Ramage in Norristown during an alleged robbery plot. Bunday was 17 at the time of the killing and is now 40.
* Jorge Munoz, now 38, was convicted in 1998 of first-degree murder in connection with a December 1996 gang-related slaying of a rival gang member in Norristown, court documents indicate. Munoz, who was 17 at the time of the fatal shooting, killed in retaliation for a prior incident in which a member of the victim’s gang stabbed a member of Munoz’s gang.
* Terrell L. Clary, formerly of the 500 block of Norris Street, Norristown, was convicted in 2000 of first-degree murder in connection with the November 1999 shooting death of William Six, 39, in Palm Alley. Clary, now 34, was 17 at the time of the killing and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
A fifth man, Aaron Claude Phillips, now 48, formerly of Upper Dublin, was re-sentenced on Tuesday in county court to 30 years to life in prison on a charge of second-degree murder in connection with the July 9, 1986, beating death of 86-year-old Anthony E. McEvoy during a robbery inside McEvoy’s West Pottsgrove home.
Phillips, who was convicted at a nonjury trial in January 1988 of second-degree murder and sentenced to a mandatory life prison term, was granted a re-sentencing hearing in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional for juveniles.
In the past, state sentencing laws provided only one option, life imprisonment, for juveniles tried as adults and who were convicted of first-degree murder, an intentional killing, or second-degree murder, a killing committed during the course of another felony.
But after the Supreme Court decision Pennsylvania legislators drafted new guidelines for juveniles convicted of murder.
