HOLLAND, Mich — More than two decades after he gunned down a Holland restaurant worker during a robbery, a three-judge panel says the life sentence given to Juan Carlos Nunez is proper, even though Nunez was 16 when the murder occurred.
“The evidence does not establish that defendant’s age and youth affected or mitigated his role in the armed robbery and first-degree felony murder,’’ the appeals court wrote.
Nunez was originally sentenced to mandatory life without the possibility of parole for the 1997 murder Scott Anderson, who was shot in the face with a sawed-off shotgun inside Pereddies Restaurant and Deli.
A 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturned mandatory life sentences for juvenile killers, setting the stage for a two-day resentencing hearing for Nunez last year.
An Ottawa County judge in April of 2019 upheld the life term imposed in 1998, deciding that the circumstances of the crime supported the no-parole sentence.
In a recent eight-page decision, the Court of Appeals agreed. “Ample evidence weighed against defendant,’’ justices wrote.
Nunez and an accomplice entered Pereddies on Sept. 17, 1997 through a back door. A handful of employees were there at the time, including Anderson, who worked as the kitchen manager.
While the accomplice, armed with a knife, took control of three workers, Nunez went to the office to rob the restaurant manager. Nunez was armed with a sawed-off shotgun.
After the manger gave Nunez money and her purse, Nunez led her to the kitchen area. Anderson, 22, came around the corner and called the manager’s name. At that point, Nunez stepped toward Anderson and shot him in the left eye, killing him instantly.
Nunez “demonstrated a complete lack of regard for the consequences of his conduct including the death of another human being,’’ the appeals court wrote in upholding the life sentence.
Nunez also has a history of misconducts while in prison, which weighs against the possibility of his rehabilitation, the appeals court wrote.
Nunez, who turned 40 years old last week, is serving his sentence of life without parole at a state prison in Muskegon Heights.
Nunez is Ottawa County’s only juvenile lifer. Resentencing hearings are pending statewide for scores of other juvenile lifers, including several in Kent and Muskegon counties.
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