Killer who raped 5-year-old girl and beat her to death as a teen is denied chance at parole
A man who beat, raped, and murdered a 5-year-old girl as a teenager will remain in prison for the rest of his life after unsuccessfully arguing he had been rehabilitated.
lawandcrime.com
A Michigan man who beat, raped, and murdered a 5-year-old girl as a teenager will remain in prison for the rest of his life after unsuccessfully arguing that he had been rehabilitated after spending nearly 30 years in prison, a judge ruled earlier this week.
Jason Benjamin Symonds, 45, was 16 when he viciously attacked and killed 5-year-old Nicole VanNoty in 1994. The victim was a playmate of his younger stepsister, who Symonds lured into the basement of an abandoned building owned by his father.
“Once in the basement, defendant sexually molested the victim, and struck her numerous times with the blunt edge of a hatchet, with a wooden dowel wrapped with wire, and with a metal rod, killing her,” a 1997 state court of appeals decision explains. “Defendant then placed her naked body in a black garbage bag and buried her behind the abandoned house. The following day, defendant allegedly incriminated himself to a friend, and after agreeing to be interviewed by the police, defendant confessed that he had killed the victim.”
Symonds was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1995.
