FAYETTEVILLE -- Lawyers for a man convicted of gunning down a Springdale store owner in 1976 argue he legally can't be resentenced and should be released from custody immediately.
Dennis Wayne Lewis, 59, of Wichita, Kan., was convicted of capital murder and assault with intent to rob. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Supreme Court ruling prompted resentencings
On Jan. 25 a divided U.S. Supreme Court said an earlier ruling that struck down automatic life terms with no chance of parole for teen murderers should be applied retroactively. The ruling means even inmates convicted years ago must be considered for parole or given a new sentence. The court’s ruling came in the case of Henry Montgomery, who has been in prison since 1963 for killing a sheriff’s deputy in Baton Rouge, La. Montgomery was 17 at the time.
The latest U.S. Supreme Court decision doesn’t bar judges from sentencing teen killers to life in prison, but the court has said life sentences for teens should be rare, and only used in the worst cases.
The court’s ruling could affect more than 1,000 prison inmates across the country who were involved in murders while they were teens. Some of those inmates have been behind bars more than 50 years.
In June, Lincoln County Circuit Judge Jodi Raines Dennis vacated the sentences of 56 state inmates who were minors when they were sentenced to life without parole.
Source: Staff report
Lewis was 17 years and 5 months old when he killed J̶a̶c̶o̶b̶ Jared* Jerome Cobb at Cobb's Western Store and Pawn Shop during an armed robbery April 8, 1974.
Recent state and federal appeals court rulings have said mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. Teens should at least have the hope of someday being released, according to the rulings, which are retroactive.
Lewis, a lanky man with thick glasses and short-cropped, graying hair, appeared in a Washington County Circuit Court for the first time in more than four decades Monday. He chatted with his lawyers as he sat in the jury box and exchanged glances and smiles with several relatives who were in the gallery, including a brother, sister and a niece. His parents are dead.
Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay met with Lewis' attorneys, L. Gray Dellinger and Larry Kissee, and Washington County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett in chambers about scheduling in the case. Lindsay will give Durrett until Oct. 17 to respond to the motion to dismiss filed Monday morning. Lewis' lawyers will then have until Oct. 24 to respond. Lindsay set a hearing on the motion for Nov. 14.
"We're just trying to get him out. He's been punished quite a bit," Dellinger said.
Lewis has had no prison rules infractions in 42 years, Dellinger said.
"He's been a model prisoner," he said.
Lewis' case is unusual among the 56 Arkansas cases in which juvenile life sentences have been vacated, according to his lawyers. They maintain there are no constitutional sentencing options now available to the court based on state law at the time Lewis committed his crime. The motion asks the court to release him immediately.
Prosecutors sought the death penalty against Lewis, who had a prior armed robbery conviction in Kansas. Lewis was convicted of capital felony murder in January 1975, according to the motion. Sentencing was based on a 1973 state law that provided for a person convicted of capital felony murder to be punished either by death by electrocution or life in prison without the possibility of parole. There was no option for a term of years.
The motion argues that any sentence Lewis may be given today must be in accordance with the state statute that was in effect at the time the crime was committed. The 1973 law offered only life without parole or death. The law was changed in 1975, effective Jan. 1, 1976, to provide for a sentence of 10-40 years or life, but that law is not applicable because it was after the fact, according to the motion.
Durrett declined comment on specifics of the motion Monday, saying he needs to research and study the motion and applicable law.
Lewis wore a dark brown wig into the store and shot Cobb in the chest with a .22-caliber pistol before cutting the telephone line and leaving with six stolen .22-caliber pistols. A customer found Cobb's body several minutes later. Cobb had $1,000 cash in his pocket and the cash register hadn't been disturbed.
Lewis threw the murder weapon into Lake Fayetteville, and the stolen guns and a pair of gloves were found on the grounds of the Springdale Country Club. Two off-duty Springdale police officers caught Lewis about three blocks from the store at Lake Fayetteville Park some 30 minutes after the killing. Lewis surrendered after one of the officers fired a shotgun round over his head.
Lewis is being held at the Department of Correction's Cummins Unit at Grady in Lincoln County. He is one of three men spending life in prison for murders they committed in Washington County as teens.
The other two area men are James Dean Vancleave, 54, of Springdale, who was convicted of capital murder in 1978, and Christopher S. Segerstrom, 45, of Fayetteville, who was convicted of capital murder in 1986.
There are no cases in Benton or Madison counties.
NW News on 09/13/2016
*CORRECTION: Jared Jerome Cobb was murdered in 1976 by Dennis Wayne Lewis, who is set to be resentenced in the case because he was a juvenile at the time and was given a sentence of life in prison without parole. Cobb's first name was incorrect in this story.