DENVER (AP) — A man who was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a fatal carjacking in Colorado as a teenager has been released.
The Denver Post reports 39-year-old Curtis Brooks walked out of the Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility on Monday after serving 22 years.
He was 15 and homeless in 1995 when three other teens enlisted him to help steal a car in Aurora. One of the other teens shot and killed 24-year-old Christopher Ramos.
Brooks was convicted of murder, with a mandatory life sentence and no parole. The U.S. Supreme Court has since deemed such sentences for juveniles cruel and unusual, and in December, then-Gov. John Hickenlooper granted Brooks clemency.
Brooks says he deserved prison and is remorseful, but he has grown up and changed his life.
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Information from: The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com