PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — A Peoria County judge has resentenced a man who was given life in prison at age 15 to a 65-year term for a 2004 double murder.
The (Peoria) Journal Star reports that now age 27, Martize Smolley, was resentenced Wednesday by Chief Peoria County Judge Steve Kouri. The judge gave Smolley two consecutive 32 1/2-year sentences for the 2004 killings of Kelly Houser and her 14-year-old daughter Amy Allen. Authorities say Smolley was trying to rob them. He was convicted during a 2005 bench trial.
Smolley apologized and told the judge that he has changed since he was 15 and he regrets “terrible things” that he has done.
He received the new sentence because the U.S. Supreme Court ended mandatory life sentences for juveniles in 2012.
