BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (WOOD) — A man convicted of raping and killing a 5-year-old girl in Battle Creek as a teenager decades ago will remain incarcerated for life without the possibility of parole after a state court denied his appeal.
Now 48, Jason Symonds was 16 when he killed Nicole Van Noty in April 1994. He was tried as an adult and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Decades later, courts ruled that mandatory life sentences for young offenders are unconstitutional, giving so-called juvenile lifers the opportunity to be resentenced. As those cases go before various courts, judges must evaluate offenders using factors like their age at the time of the crime, their background and their potential to be rehabilitated…