Teen who was sentenced to life gets break 14 years later

PORT HURON (AP) — A man who was a teen when he helped his older brother kill a woman in St. Clair County will get a chance for parole under a new sentence.

Raymond Carp, now 30, was 15 when Maryann McNeely was killed in 2006. He was convicted and automatically sentenced to life in prison, but a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions is giving so-called juvenile lifers an opportunity for shorter terms.

Judge Michael West sentenced Carp to at least 25 years in prison last Thursday, which means he’ll be eligible for parole after another 11 years.

Carp’s attorney, Cecilia Quirindongo Baunsoe, said he had an unhealthy home environment at the time, mental health problems and a severe learning disability, the Port Huron Times Herald reported.

“I’m truly sorry. ... I’ve been working on myself a lot the past 15 years, and I am trying to do the best that I can to be a better man,” Carp told McNeely’s family.

McNeely’s daughter, Erica Woodward, wasn’t swayed.

“Anything that she hoped for or dreamed for is gone, and I don’t understand why he gets a second chance,” Woodward said.