Updated 12:47 p.m. Dec. 12 to expand details of sentencing process.
Back in May 2011, John Wesley Jones was sentenced to 32 years in prison for his involvement with the ATM Solutions robbery. Today, after two rounds of appeals, that sentence has been upheld.
So, what was behind this particular appeals process?
- In the sentencing process, there is something called the "career criminal" designation, which lengthens sentences handed down to those under that label.
- The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals says that Jones was initially sentenced erroneously under the "career criminal" designation (in other words, he was deemed to be a "career criminal" but was later found not to be). This allowed for a re-sentencing of Jones.
- The Court also says that when the judge re-sentenced Jones without the designation, but kept his sentence the same, it was not improper to do so because of the severity and repeat-nature of his crimes.
Jones, the first of the ATM Solutions robbers captured, also escaped from the Lincoln County Jail on Nov. 15, 2011 while waiting for sentencing. He was recaptured two days later.
(For those of you who love to dig through documents, you can read the decision in its entirety here).
Follow Kelsey Proud on Twitter: @KelseyProud
