A US man, who was sent to years 13 years later by authorities, has been released after 10 months in prison.
Cornealious “Mike” Anderson was sentenced in 2000 to 13 years in jail for armed robbery, but slipped through the net of Missouri authorities and was only finally sent to jail in July 2013.
During his thirteen years since conviction, Anderson married, divorced, and married again, started a family, founded a number of different construction business, paid his taxes, and coached youth football.
He made no attempt to hide his identity during this period, and also reportedly reminded authorities that he should be serving prison time but to no avail. He was only finally sent to jail when a clerk at Missouri Department of Corrections noticed he wasn’t in prison when his sentence was due to end in July last year.
After spending the last ten months in jail, judge Terry Lynn Brown freed him on Monday on the basis of his 13 years of good behaviour before his arrest, saying:
“You’ve been a good father. You’ve been a good husband. You’ve been a good taxpaying citizen of the state of Missouri. That leads me to believe that you are a good man and a changed man.”
Attorney General Chris Koster said in a statement:
“From the outset, I have proposed a solution that balances the seriousness of Mr. Anderson’s crime with the mistake made by the criminal justice system and Mr Anderson’s lack of a criminal record over the past 13 years. Today’s outcome appears to appropriately balance the facts as we understand them.”
