Sentenced as a teenager to life in prison, Arkansas inmate free after 4 decades

Dennis Wayne Lewis
Dennis Wayne Lewis

FAYETTEVILLE -- A Washington County judge ordered the release of a man who was sentenced to life in prison for a murder he committed when he was a teenager in Springdale more than 40 years ago.

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Dennis Wayne Lewis, 59, of Wichita, Kan., was convicted of capital murder and assault with intent to rob. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, something recent courts have found unconstitutional because he was a minor at the time and the only other sentence available for him was execution.

Lewis was 17 years and 5 months old when he killed Jared Jerome Cobb at Cobb's Western Store and Pawn Shop during an armed robbery April 8, 1974.

On Tuesday, 4th Judicial Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay signed an order vacating Lewis' sentence and ordered his immediate release from the Arkansas Department of Correction.

Lewis' case is unusual among the 56 Arkansas cases in which youthful offenders' life sentences have been vacated, according to his attorneys L. Gray Dellinger and Larry Kissee.

Lewis was sentenced under a 1970s state law that provided for a person convicted of capital murder to be punished either by electrocution or life in prison without possibility of parole.

The law was changed in 1975, effective Jan. 1, 1976, to provide for a sentence of 10-40 years or life in prison, but that law is not applicable in Lewis' case because it went into effect after he was convicted, according to his lawyers' motion for his release.

The lawyers argued that any resentencing of Lewis now would have to be done in accordance with the statute under which he was convicted, but since that statute has since been overturned, it leaves the court with no constitutional path forward to resentence Lewis. Because of that, they argued, he should be released.

Washington County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett said Tuesday that he and others, including at the state attorney general's office, have studied the matter over the past several weeks and concluded that Lewis' lawyers were correct.

"It's frustrating with all these cases that they were decided so long ago, and all these families have had so much time to put this behind them and, all of a sudden, here it comes again. It comes bubbling back up to the top," Durrett said.

The criminals "had their appeals," he said, and the victims' families "think I'm never going to have to worry about this guy getting out of prison again, and lo and behold 40 years later you get a court saying we think the law should be different now."

Dellinger said he was expecting Lewis' brother to pick up Lewis on Tuesday at the Washington County jail and take him to Kansas to live.

"We're happy. It's been a long journey. I don't know what his future holds," Dellinger said. "I really feel badly for the victim's family, and I'm sure Dennis wishes he could undo what he did."

"We were right" about the sentencing argument in Lewis' case, Dellinger said. "It's just a quirk in the law. I think he's about the only one that [the quirk] will apply to. They amended the statute in 1975."

Recent state and federal court rulings have said mandatory life without parole sentences for youthful offenders are unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. Teens should at least have the hope of someday being released, according to the U.S. and state court rulings, which the courts have made retroactive.

Prosecutors sought the death penalty for Lewis, who had a previous armed robbery conviction in Kansas. In January 1975, Lewis was convicted of capital felony murder.

According to old court records and newspaper clippings, on the day Lewis committed the crime, he wore a dark-brown wig into the store and shot Cobb in the chest with a .22-caliber pistol. He then cut the telephone line and took six .22-caliber pistols. A customer found Cobb's body several minutes later. Cobb had $1,000 cash in his pocket, and the store's cash register hadn't been disturbed.

Lewis threw the murder weapon into Lake Fayetteville. The stolen guns and a pair of gloves were found on the grounds of the Springdale Country Club. Two off-duty Springdale police officers caught Lewis about three blocks from the store at Lake Fayetteville Park approximately 30 minutes after the killing. Lewis surrendered after one of the officers fired a shotgun round over his head.

Lewis had been held at the Cummins Unit at Grady in Lincoln County. He is one of three men spending life in prison for murders they committed as teens in Washington County.

The other two men are James Dean Vancleave, 54, of Springdale, who was convicted of capital murder in 1978, and Christopher S. Segerstrom, 45, of Fayetteville, who was convicted of capital murder in 1986. The sentencing argument in Lewis' case does not apply in their cases.

Metro on 10/26/2016

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