US citizen sentenced to 241 years in prison

MISSOURI: Teenager in Missouri, Bobby Bostic, was 16 years old when he was sentenced to 241 years of imprisonment for multiple crimes committed including firing at two people. He was given consecutive sentences which will keep him in jail until January 2091, at least.

Bobby Bostic is from St Louis, Missouri, in the American Midwest. He was one of four; his older brother and sister had a different dad. Growing up, his father wasn’t around.

 

Aged 10, he started smoking and drinking. He was aged 13 and was he started smoking illegal drugs, at the same time, he would steal cars, or ride in stolen ones.

“It was a status symbol,” he said in an interview with the BBC News. “That was our idea of wealth – a car that wasn’t even ours.”

Bostic and his friend, Donald Hutson, were smoking on the streets when they laid eyes on their first victim

“We knew they weren’t from that neighborhood. They had a lot of stuff on their truck,” says Bostic.

The victims were giving presents to a needy family, as part of a newspaper appeal. They had two car-loads and a truck. One of the presents was a Christmas tree; another was an old couch.

“It wasn’t a plan,” says Bostic. “We saw them. I looked at him [Hutson]; he looked at me, a knowing look. It was just an instant thing. We pulled the guns out.”

Bostic and Hutson approached the first victim put a gun to her head. When she ran, they chased her. Her boyfriend tried to stop them so Bostic shot him. “I can’t make excuses,” he says. “I didn’t even know what I was doing. I wasn’t trying to kill the dude or hit him. I can’t make excuses for it. I shouldn’t have done it, and I regret it.”

The other victim of the same day was a woman taking packages from her car for the same charitable cause. Bostic and Hutson put a gun to her head, took her car keys, forced her into the back, and drove off. They were arrested an hour later.

Four months after being arrested, Bostic was offered a deal: plead guilty and take a life sentence – 30 years – with the chance of parole. He turned it down.Eight months later, he was offered a “mercy of the court” deal: plead guilty and take what the judge decides. Again, he turned it down.

Bostic went on trial and was found guilty of 17 counts, including eight counts of armed criminal action, and three counts of robbery. Before his sentencing in 1997, his lawyer suggested writing to the judge, so he did, four times. Each letter made his situation worse.

The judge ordered Bostic’s sentences to run consecutively, rather than concurrently. The total was 241 years.

“You are the biggest fool who has ever stood in front of this court. You have expressed no remorse. You feel sorry for yourself only. You made your choice, and you’re gonna die with your choice,” said Judge Baker. “Because Bobby Bostic – you will die in the Department of Corrections.”

“Reality set in the very moment I was given 241 years, and she told me I would die in prison, when that happens, the world drops, and reality sets in. It’s no longer a game. Your life has just been taken away. That’s when I got the wake-up call.”

In jail now he is known to be an avid reader and has also taken business classes, a paralegal diploma, many others. One of them was a victims’ advocate class.

The US Supreme Court is expected to comment on Bostic’s case in April. It could order a re-sentencing; it is more likely to ask for a more legal argument.