A 'life without possibility': State to decide whether young killers will be given parole

BY Brandi Kruse  on January 14, 2013 @ 3:35 am (Updated: 10:44 am - 1/14/13 )

On Sept. 20, 1992, Guy and Ara Gilbert got a message on their answering machine that they will never forget.

It was from the Klickitat County sheriff, who had just arrested their 15-year-old son, Jeremiah.

In a remote canyon 20 miles east of Goldendale, Wash., Jeremiah and another teen took the lives of two men: 35-year-old Robert David Gresham and 26-year-old Loren Evans.

The boys ran away from their homes in Buckley and went on a "dope and drinking run," as Jeremiah recalled. Armed with a rifle, Jeremiah shot Gresham and Evans while trying to steal a Ford Bronco.

He was convicted on two counts of aggravated, first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"I can remember driving home (from the trial), crying all the way home; realizing that we'd never have our son home again," said his father, Guy Gilbert.

Now 36, Jeremiah James Gilbert is incarcerated at the corrections center in Clallam Bay. But after 20 years behind bars, he could be released due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that deemed his sentence unconstitutional.

Gilbert is one of 30 inmates in the state of Washington currently serving life without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles; a mandatory sentence here for those convicted of aggravated, first-degree murder before the age of 18.

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that life without parole cannot be the only option for children who kill.

"It's absolutely the case that children don't understand the consequences, and the lifetime consequences, not only for themselves but also for the victim," said Nick Straley, a staff attorney in the Institutions Project for Columbia Legal Services, a non-profit law firm based in Seattle.

Straley said the state legislature must now decide how to come into compliance with the SCOTUS ruling. He would like to see inmates such as Jeremiah Gilbert be given an opportunity for parole.

"These are awful crimes, and no one is suggesting that there shouldn't be some level of punishment," he said. "What we are suggesting is that there needs to be an evaluation, both at the front end to evaluate the nature of the crime and the child's circumstances, and a determination made based on that individual."

Straley said Gilbert would be an ideal candidate for parole. He teaches other inmates release preparedness at Clallam Bay and participates in a program where prisoners train dogs for adoption; his is a husky-lab mix named Lily.

"He's really tried to turn his life around," Straley said. "He, I think, is indicative of the efforts that can be made over a long period of time in prison to better yourself."

"He came in as a child, and over time he has grown up and his brain has developed and he has realized he made some horrid, awful, terrible mistakes and he's coming to grips with those."

According to a survey commissioned by Columbia Legal Services and conducted by a class at the University of Washington, only six percent of people in Washington would oppose parole for children ages 13 to 15 who commit murder.

Jim Gleason, who was the sheriff in Klickitat County in 1992, said he would oppose parole for Gilbert, who he likened to Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza and Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes.

Gleason, now retired and living in Oregon, recalled the murders vividly. He said Gilbert told investigators he shot Evans twice to "put them out of his misery."

On a recent Sunday afternoon inside their home in Wenatchee, Guy and Ara Gilbert flipped through a book of photos. One picture showed Jeremiah on his father's shoulders when he was just a toddler. In another, Jeremiah grinned for his first-grade class photo.

"I missed that I didn't have him as a son letting me do fatherly things like teach him how to drive, his first dates, growing into a family," Guy Gilbert said.

"Our first grandchild from him - we won't have any," said Ara.

They say their son has become a better person behind bars, and hope to make up for two decades of lost time. Guy Gilbert said those who disagree should look back at their 15-year-old selves.

"I would want them to think about some of the things they did when they were fifteen," he said. "Have they matured? Have they grown? Have they gotten beyond those things and would they ever go back and do those things? Probably not."

During an interview in July 2012 for an unrelated story, Jeremiah Gilbert spoke with KIRO Radio about the possibility of release.

"I am a realist," he said. I have steeled myself for the possibility of being told, 'We decide you are still worthy of your life sentence and that's what we're staying with.'"

In a letter written on Dec. 10, 2012, Gilbert said he is working to develop family and community ties should he be granted parole.

"I haven't a clue how much longer I'll be imprisoned," he wrote. "I do, however know I'll not waste a minute more merely existing."

The state legislature is expected to take up the issue of juvenile life without parole sentences this session, which begins on Monday.

Brandi Kruse, KIRO Radio Reporter
Brandi Kruse is a reporter for KIRO Radio who is as spontaneous and adventurous in her free time as she is on the job. Brandi arrived at KIRO Radio in March 2011 and has already collected three regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her reporting.
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Comments (30)


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  • sea77 wrote...
    Easy to judge
    January 14, 2013 2:42 pm
    It seems easy for many of you to pass judgment on individuals that you don't even know. You have no idea what their home lives were like nor the particulars of things that happened to them as children. Open your mind and your heart to the possibility of forgiveness. They are not talking about releasing people who have shown no remorse, nor who don't show signs of rehabilitation. Many of the people who are affected by this are caring and loving individuals who made terrible mistakes. Something none of us are immune from.
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  • xplanes wrote...
    sea77
    January 14, 2013 2:54 pm
    I don't care one bit if they have remorse or not. Laws against murder are not there to induce remorse. They aren't there for a time out so they can be reached. They are there to a) prevent murders (yeah right). b) place a public value on innocent human life. c) to provide a legal method of protecting society from those proven to disregard the value of innocent life, the consequences for doing so and the danger they themselves are to others. I'm a Christian. I believe in forgiveness. That is what one individual does towards another. It's not society going easy and failing to punish and protect. Letting a cold blooded killer out of jail ever is a big miscarriage of justice. It diminishes the value society has for the victims. It diminishes the deterrent value. Most of all... it places the focus on the murderer and not the victims. Feel free to forgive all the murderers you want based on their childhood or whatever moves you deep inside, but don't expect society to join you.
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  • sea77 wrote...
    xplanes
    January 14, 2013 3:07 pm
    You obviously are educated, just not on the statistics with regard to how many people who have been incarcerated as juveniles for extended periods of time actually re-offend. So, with regard to protecting human life, I'll just go ahead and disregard that comment altogether as there is no basis to automatically assume that these people would ever re-offend in the same manner. Your lack of caring is obvious, and I don't care whether you are Christian, Muslim or Buddhist. And according to your religion, the only judgment to be passed is by God. I don't expect society to "join" me. I simply think things through and actually am not afraid to say what I truly think.
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  • xplanes wrote...
    Ha,
    January 14, 2013 3:38 pm
    So because I don't agree with you I don't think things through? That's typical. They killed two men for their truck. In cold blood. Why exactly should I assume they deserve a second chance? because you read something about how very few re offend? How about the news papers I read where plenty do re offend. How about all the families destroyed because we let them have a second chance? It's funny how liberals are perfectly willing to deny rights to law abiding citizens if it will save one life, but knowing some will die when murderers are set free isn't enough to deny liberty to convicted murderers. I don't see the point in putting my wife and kids at risk so you can feel good about the few murderers you were able to instill remorse into.
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  • sea77 wrote...
    Ha
    January 14, 2013 3:49 pm
    I did not claim that you don't think things through. I was making a statement with regard to myself. Now, if you took that personally, only you know that. I know what they did. No one said you should assume they deserve a second chance, what I was saying is that some of these people have shown remorse and a great capacity for rehabilitation and that they are not necessarily the people they were at age 13, 14, 15, etc. Some people do change and their entire lives need not be defined by a decision or a moment made as a poorly guided adolescent. Its not just what I've read either, I know one of these people on a personal level and know for a fact that this person deserves and will get a second chance. So, everything that is being said here really doesn't matter.
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  • sea77 wrote...
    Correction
    January 14, 2013 3:58 pm
    The newspaper articles that you read cannot possibly have given you any information with regard to a juvenile sentenced to life without parole re offending because none of them have ever been released. None of them have had a second chance.
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  • LDT wrote...
    reality
    January 18, 2013 5:54 pm
    One of the reasons the U.S .Supreme Court made the recommendation that they did was because there are new scientific studies that show that the brain is not fully developed until the age of 25. http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-9646.pdf http://www.hhs.gov/opa/familylife/tech_assistance/etraining/adolescent_brain/Development/prefrontal_cortex/ This coupled with the study on Adverse Childhood experiences strongly support the fact that young people do not fully comprehend the results of their actions. It is well documented that people who have committed a murder have the lowest rate of recidivism, are the most receptive to rehabilitation and those who when released will lead productive lives. Keeping people in prison serves no purpose other than to cost tax payers money. It cost $46,000 a year to house an inmate in this state and no it is not because they receive education, great medical care and cable TV. One needs to just talk to a family member or visit a prison to see that it is far from any of the falsely perceived concepts that so many people believe to be reality. Sitting in prison will give the individual no opportunity to show their remorse or even do anything to honor the life of their victim. This argument has nothing to do with liberals or any ideology, prison is not a deterrent, if it was we would not have the prison population we do. We as a country have the world’s largest prison population, the world’s most severe prison sentences yet we have the world’s highest crime rate. Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian who killed 77 people received 21 years in prison and Norway has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Maybe because they use prison as a way to change what is obviously erroneous thinking and not as a way of inflicting vengeance and our society has come to view as justice.
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  • sea77 wrote...
    reality
    January 18, 2013 11:11 pm
    Thank you, LDT. Couldn't have said it better.
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