Reporting for News Team One: Mid-West Region

A Colorado man was sent to prison to serve 90 years after he had served a 10 year sentence and completed parole.

Rene Michael Lima-Marin was 19 years old when he was charged for robbery with an unloaded gun in 1998. He served 10 years of his 16 year sentence, and was released to his family.

Since 2008, Rene began to turn his life around. He married Jasmine Lima-Marin, the two had a child, they bought a home, he stepped in as a step-father to Jasmine’s son, and was gainfully employed. Now 35, all was going well during Rene’s second chance, until January 2014.

A supposed “clerical error” sent Rene back to jail to serve 90 more years in prison, essentially a life sentence. He completed his parole in 2013, and was doing well. So why did it take more than 5 years discover this “mistake”, and take a man away from his family?

Rene’s wife Jasmine has started a Change.org petition, which urges Attorney General John Suthers, Arapahoe County Chief Judge William Blair Sylvester, and Colorado Appeals Chief Judge Alan Loeb to release Rene. The petition has more than 120,000 signatures, and looks to gain at least 150,000.

One of the Lima-Marins’ neighbors chimed in that Rene is an “outstanding father and husband” and deserves to be with his family. A former coworker states that Rene was a “productive team member” and “someone to look up to”. A family friend insists that Rene was “better to me than I could ever be to him”.

In Colorado, Robbery, which is a Class 4 Felony, comes with a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 8 years in prison. Burglary 1 and 2, which can either be Class 3 or 4 Felonies, would carry a sentence up to 16 years (which is what Rene was sentenced to). A Class 2 Felony would be 24 years in prison, so it seemed the 90 additional years were pulled out of nowhere.

However, CBS News reports that Rene was sentenced on eight convictions, which totaled to a 98 year sentence. The clerk’s error was that the sentences were to be run concurrently, rather than consecutively.

With the petition’s momentum, the hope is that a rehabilitated man who served his time and turned his life around will be able to return to his family and resume his life, rather than serve a ridiculous amount of time in prison.