A teenager who was part of a vicious street gang that terrorized several Intown neighborhoods in 2010 — killing, raping and robbing — must be re-sentenced because he was a few months shy of his 18th birthday when he and his gang committed their crimes.
The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday ordered a new sentence for Robert Veal because it is unconstitutional to give a life-without-parole sentence to a juvenile; he was 17 1/2 at the time.
Veal was initially sentenced to life without parole plus six additional life sentences and 40 years in prison in 2012.
"The (U.S.) Supreme Court has now made it clear that life without parole sentences may be constitutionally imposed only on the worst of the worst juvenile murderers," Justice David Nahmias wrote for the unanimous Georgia high court.
A Fulton County prosecutor said at Veal's 2012 trial that he and the ringleader, Tamario Wise, "should never, ever breathe a breath of fresh air again. These guys were very dangerous. This was one of the most prolific street gang crimes in the history of the city."
Still, the Georgia Supreme Court said, the trial judge did not make an official finding that Veal was “irreparably corrupt” or “permanently incorrigible.”
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that it was a violation of the Eighth Amendment protection from cruel and unusual punishment to sentence juveniles to life without parole except for "the rare juvenile offender who exhibits such irretrievable depravity that rehabilitation is impossible." Earlier this year, the high court said the prohibition on life without parole for most young killers was retroactive.
No date has been set for Veal’s re-sentencing. A judge could again sentence him to life without parole if there is a judicial finding that Veal is the worst of the worst, which fits in the U.S. Supreme Court’s guidelines.
The gang crimes started just two weeks after Wise was released from adult prison, having served three years for a crime he did at age 15 — aggravated assault with intent to commit robbery.
Wise led his gang into Intown neighborhoods such as Virginia-Highland and Grant Park, where, according to testimony, they would troll the streets for victims, terrifying residents with the randomness and viciousness of their crimes.
At the time, police suspected the gang, known as the Jack Boys, had committed more than 20 crimes between Aug. 18 and Nov. 27 of 2010, when they were arrested.
But the crimes that captured headlines happened in November of that year.
Charles Boyer and his girlfriend, Lisa McGraw, were returning to Boyer's Virginia-Highland apartment around 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 22, 2010, when they encountered Veal, Wise and Raphael Cross between the car and the front door.
Boyer and McGraw gave the three men the keys to his car and her purse and then ran. McGraw made it to a neighbor's apartment but Boyer was shot and killed.
Several hours later the trio captured John Davis as he was walking outside his Grant Park apartment. They forced him at gunpoint to take them to his apartment, where they found Davis’ roommate and her boyfriend, Joseph Oliver, sleeping. Davis and Oliver were tied up while Veal raped and sodomized the woman.
Cross testified against Veal and Wise and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Wise and Veal were convicted of a number of violent felonies, including murder, rape, aggravated sodomy, kidnapping, false imprisonment, armed robbery and participating in a street gang.
Wise is serving life without parole plus 14 life sentences and another 290 years in prison.
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