Man gets new sentence in slaying during burglary

LANSING (AP) — A 41-year-old man who was serving a no-parole sentence for a slaying during a Michigan burglary when he was a teenager has received a new sentence that offers a chance at freedom.

The Lansing State Journal reports Robert Whitfield was resentenced Wednesday to 25 to 60 years for the death of Joseph Kuchar. Whitfield wiped away tears as he apologized to Kuchar’s family and Gary Fuller, who was wounded in the 1992 Lansing shooting.

Whitfield says he’s “always been remorseful.”

His resentencing comes in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that mandatory life without parole sentences for those younger than 18 violate the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Whitfield was 15 at the time of the killing.