MASON CITY – A man who committed murder in Mason City when he was a teenager and then was convicted of the crime has had his life sentence amended so that he has a shot at freedom some day.
A jury found Damion Seats guilty of murdering 28-year-old Isidoro Erreguin in 2008 with a gun as he was sleeping on a couch at a North End Mason City home. Seats was 17-years-old at the time of the crime, which also involved burglary. Judge Colleen Weiland denied Seats, now age 25, a more lenient punishment after his 2008 first degree murder conviction as she handed him a sentence of prison for life with no chance of parole.
However, a 2012 ruling by Governor Terry Branstad commuted the life sentences of Seats and 37 other Iowa prison inmates who committed crimes as juveniles that gave them life sentences. Branstad’s “blanket commutation” changed life sentences to 60-year sentences for 38 juveniles sentenced to life with no chance of parole. This ruling by the governor followed a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that state law can’t automatically impose life sentences with no chance of parole for juveniles.
Seats had been due for resentencing in district court since the Iowa Supreme Court remanded his case to the lower court. On July 21 in a Mason City courtroom, Judge James Drew amended Seats’ sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He was then taken back to prison in Fort Madison.
Any chance that he is trying to better himself while in prison, or just hanging around with the other thugs talking shit. That way when he gets out in 30-40 years he can be a responsible upstanding tax paying citizen.
What’s with Brandstad? Let these murderers out early? I’d like to get out of this country, so much bs and the values and integrity no longer exist.
It was not Branstad but the legislature. They made a law that says a minor can not have a life sentence without the “chance” of parole. He was a minor when he killed that guy. Branstad had nothing to do with it. It was the courts.
there was a study once,, more blacks in jail then whites. only one conclusion to that, more blacks committing crimes
What ? Okay give him to syria -iran -libya –
There are lots of murderers walking free amongst us. Corporate murderers, Killer Cops, politicians who start wars, generals who send men in to die, Judges and Juries who set people free. It’s not all just black men who directly kill. Indirect murder is more damaging.
Still smoking your socks I see.