Imprisoned for 20 years, juvenile lifer has a chance at parole

LANSING -- After nearly 20 years in prison, Calvin Wilson could be free in as few as seven years.

In a hearing Wednesday, Ingham County Circuit Judge James Jamo scrapped Wilson’s life sentence for murder and resentenced him to a minimum of 27 years.

Wilson has been in prison since the age of 17 for the killing of Samaan “Simon” Samara during a 1997 holdup at a Lansing party store.

His resentencing Wednesday comes after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling found that mandatory life without parole sentences for those younger than 18 violate the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

With the Supreme Court ruling, more than 350 juvenile lifers in Michigan became eligible for resentencing in January 2016.

Last summer, Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon, after meeting with victims and considering the defendant’s potential for rehabilitation, said she would not ask for a life sentence for Wilson.

His sentence Wednesday stemmed from a stipulated agreement between prosecutors and defense. Jamo sentenced Wilson to 25 to 60 years for first degree murder, 25 to 60 years for armed robbery and two years for felony firearm. His sentences for murder and armed robbery will be served concurrently.

“Calvin is certainly on the path to rehabilitation and will hopefully be paroled in seven years,” his lawyer, Jessica Zimbelman, said. “It's certainly an encouraging sentence and a fair sentence for him.”

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Wilson shot Samara in the face on Oct. 13, 1997, after demanding money from the 62-year-old at the One Stop Party Shop on East Grand River Avenue. He then made a store clerk stand over Samara’s body and open the cash register so that he could grab cash.

The shooting shook the community in and around the party store, according to State Journal reports, as many knew Samara as a man who befriended many and gave out candy to neighborhood children.

Zimbelman said Wilson is remorseful for his actions and is capable of rehabilitation.

In a sentencing memorandum, Zimbelman said at the time of the murder Wilson was “living in an unstable environment fraught with drug abuse and violence. He had little to no supervision and lacked basic coping skills.”

Born to a 15-year-old mother and 17-year-old father, Wilson’s childhood included several contacts with protective services regarding lack of supervision, dirty living conditions and abuse, according to Zimbelman’s sentencing memo.

In 2016 President Obama banned juvenile solitary confinement:

When Wilson was 11, his mother went to prison for involuntary manslaughter. He began smoking marijuana and “hanging with the wrong crowd," including one of the men involved in the 1997 armed robbery.

“Today, Mr. Wilson is an adult with a strong support network,” Zimbelman wrote. “His crime reflects immaturity and the trauma and chaos that shaped his childhood.”

If given parole, Zimbelman said Wilson plans to live with his aunt in Lansing and work with a workforce development agency.

Wilson is the second and last juvenile lifer to be resentenced in Ingham County.

In November, 41-year-old Robert Whitfield was resentenced to 25 to 60 years for the murder of Joseph Kuchar.

Whitfield was 15 on Jan. 19, 1992 when he smoked a crack-cocaine laced joint and burglarized a Willow Street home. During the robbery, he shot Kuchar while the 37-year-old man begged for his life. He attempted to shoot a second man but the bullet ended up only grazing him.

Contact Reporter Beth LeBlanc at 517-377-1167 or eleblanc@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @LSJBethLeBlanc.