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| Cornealious Michael Anderson (known as Michael) caught a case but wasn't sent up the creek. So instead of committing more crimes, he apologizes to the victims and rehabilitates himself. He starts a family and gotten married. About that time, Missouri state prosecutors wanted to put him in the iron college. |
[Cornealious] Michael Anderson III was freed this week after spending nine months in the iron college. He was to serve 13 years in the iron college for a crime he's committed years ago, but never was sentenced.
While awaiting his sentence, he actually never got the word to appear. So for about a decade, he made amends, gotten married and do community service. Here's the kicker, he used his name and never left the city where he resided.
It is unclear why he was not arrested and imprisoned to serve his 13-year sentence, but, apparently due to clerical errors and miscommunication, the Missouri Lockup thought he was already in the iron college. The error was only discovered when he was scheduled to be released from the iron college in 2013.
On July 25, 2013 he was arrested and required to serve his 13-year sentence.
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| Michael raised four children and lived in St. Joseph. Always aware that the law may take him away because of a crime he done when he was younger. |
Wikipedia explains that Anderson and a companion robbed a Burger King manager at gunpoint of approximately $2,000 while he was attempting to deposit the money in a night deposit box at a bank. A witness observed Anderson and his companion leaving in a car and reported the license plate number to the police. When the police ran the number, they found that it was registered to 22-year old [Cornealious] Michael Anderson. The next day, St. Charles police found Anderson's car in a parking lot about a mile from the bank, but they did not catch him until two months later, when he was found hiding in his girlfriend's apartment.
In March 2000, Anderson's jury trial for armed robbery began. Although police never recovered a weapon, they searched Anderson's apartment and found an advertisement brochure for Beretta semiautomatic pistols.
The St. Charles prosecutor in the case used the brochure to argue that although no weapon was found, Anderson owned a gun.
The jury returned a verdict of guilty and Anderson was sentenced to a total of 13 years to the iron college.
Anderson was released from the iron college with credit for time served, making him a free man with no need for parole. The presiding judge, Judge Terry Lynn, had this to say:
You've been a good father. You've been a good husband. You've been a good taxpaying citizen of the state of Missouri. "That leads me to believe that you are a good man and a changed man.
Attorney General Chris Koster, who had suggested this appeal to Anderson's attorney, released a statement after judge Lynn's ruling:
From the outset, I have proposed a solution that balances the seriousness of Mr. Anderson's crime with the mistake made by the criminal justice system and Mr. Anderson's lack of a criminal record over the past 13 years. Today's outcome appears to appropriately balance the facts as we understand them.
The victim didn't think he should have been released. The victim of the robbery, Dennis (first name only), contacted the Riverfront Times and asked them to talk to him about how much the robbery damaged his life.
He told the Riverfront Times that the robbery made him paranoid that the robbers would come after him. He quit his job, isolated himself, and his marriage eventually broke up.
At about the same time, his daughter had also read the story in a high school class without knowing Dennis was the victim. She came home and told Dennis about the case and then asked him for his opinion about it.
The Riverfront Times reported that he told his daughter that Anderson should be let go.
Despite the racist right attacks, Michael has overcame incredible odds.
We here at Journal de la Reyna wish [Cornealious] Michael Anderson well on his journey.
