Convicted killers got life sentences as teens. Now they have a shot to get out early. – NJ.com

The New Jersey Supreme Court recently gave the green light for three men who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms as juveniles to argue they’ve served enough time for their crimes.

The men will get hearings in their county’s trial court in light of the January decision, called the Comer decision, which grants such juveniles convicted as adults to petition for parole after 20 years behind bars, a reduction from the standard 30-year period of parole ineligibility in a typical life sentence.

As many as 60 inmates are eligible for Comer hearings, officials say.

In the Comer case, regarding James Comer, a 17-year-old charged in a robbery spree in Essex County, a split 4-3 Supreme Court acknowledged the science that children’s brains are not fully developed as teens, and they can change their impulses and impetuousness from adolescence to adulthood.

Comer hearings are just that, hearings, and the defendants must convince a judge they have indeed been rehabilitated and matured.

The high court ordered hearings for Walter Tormasi, Brandon Still and Nicholas Watson. They come after recent appeals court decisions in each case were denied, during which they argued the length of the sentences. Each appealed those decisions to the Supreme Court.

The high court granted each one, but instead of hearing the cases, the court immediately sent each to the trial court for a Comer hearing.

The inmates are each being represented by the New Jersey Public Defender’s Office. Assistant Public Defender Joseph Russo, a head appeals attorney, declined comment on each since they are pending.

Tormasi generated the most headlines.

He was 16 when he shot his mother in front of their Bridgewater home in March of 1996. After being waived to adult court in Somerset County, where he was convicted at trial in early 1998, a judge sentenced him to life in prison with a 30-year parole ineligibility.

Among the appeals Tormasi has filed was one, heard in 2014, in which he argued for a new trial based on a 38-page affidavit he said his father typed and in which his father confessed to hiring an assassin to kill his estranged wife and let his son take the fall.

The judge denied it, saying he could not authenticate the document, a signature was missing and Tormasi’s father had died in 2010.

Tormasi is currently 42 years old, has been incarcerated for over 25 years and resides in New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. His next parole eligibility date, before the Comer decision win, is in 2026.

Still was 17 when he and another teen (who was convicted separately and is also serving a lengthy sentence) shot a young man in a home in Pleasantville. The argument that sparked the confrontation was over a marijuana-stuffed cigar called a blunt, court documents show.

The two stole $50 and the blunt from the victim, prior appeals decisions say.

Still was convicted at trial in Atlantic County of felony murder and related crimes and sentenced to 45 years in prison with the 30-year parole ineligibility. All of his prior appeals have upheld his crimes, the latest decided in December 2020.

He’s been behind bars for about 20 years and is currently 37 years old and at East Jersey State Prison in Rahway. His pre-Comer parole date is in 2031.

Watson’s case is different from Tormasi and Still as he’s not completed 20 years behind bars, and he was not convicted of murder.

He was part of a four-person robbery crew that targeted a number of people and establishments during a violent one-night spree in Passaic and Clifton in August 2006. A gas station attendant died in one of the stickups, but the jury at his Passaic County trial found him not guilty of felony murder. (The other suspects were also convicted and sentenced to prison terms; two have since been released.)

The jury did convict Watson of multiple robbery and firearm charges, and the judge sentenced Watson to consecutive terms on two of the robberies and gun charges for an aggregate 39-year term, requiring 28 of it to be served before he’s eligible for parole, his latest appeal decision says.

Exactly why the Supreme Court granted him a Comer hearing is not clear, but his previos appeals have argued his sentence is unjust and excessive.

Watson has been in the state prison system for about 13 years, is 33 years old and is also at East Jersey State Prison. His pre-Comer parole date is in 2035.

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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com.