GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Nearly 60 years after murdering two gas station clerks in Walker, a 78-year-old man will go free.
Judge Scott Noto on Wednesday granted Charles Ronald Martin release from prison. He is the oldest person in Kent County to be resentenced under new “juvie lifer” laws.
“I’m no longer a threat to anybody,” Martin told the judge. “I’d like to have a chance to prove it.”
At 78, double murderer is oldest in Kent County to seek chance at freedom
In March of 1968, Martin — then 20 years old — shot and killed 53-year-old Gerald Gort and 17-year-old Jack McRoy, both clerks at the Cavalier Service Station on Remembrance Road, during a robbery. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole…