A Michigan man who brutally assaulted, raped, and killed a 5-year-old girl during his teenage years will spend the rest of his life in prison, despite claiming rehabilitation in court Friday.
According to Fox 17, Jason Benjamin Symonds, aged 45, assaulted and murdered a young child when he was 16 years old. The victim, Nicole VanNoty, was found dead in an abandoned basement in 1994, owned by the defendant’s father at the time.
Nicole was a playmate of Symonds’ stepsister when the defendant enticed her into the basement.
On Friday, a Calhoun County judge denied Symonds’ attempt to get out of prison early, although the defendant claimed his nearly 30 years behind bars had rehabilitated him, prosecutor Dave Gilbert said.
“According to the testimony presented at trial, defendant lured his stepsister’s five-year-old playmate into the basement of an abandoned and boarded-up house owned by his father and located near defendant’s own home,” a 1997 Michigan Court of Appeals document read.
“Once in the basement, defendant sexually molested the victim, and struck her numerous times with the blunt edge of a hatchet, with a wooden dowel wrapped with wire, and with a metal rod, killing her.
“Defendant then placed her naked body in a black garbage bag and buried her behind the abandoned house. The following day, defendant allegedly incriminated himself to a friend, and after agreeing to be interviewed by the police, defendant confessed that he had killed the victim.”
Jason Symonds Appeal by Leigh Egan
The case was reevaluated after a 2022 Michigan Supreme Court ruling declared it unconstitutional to impose life imprisonment without parole on juveniles. Symonds’ lawyers said Friday that he had undergone positive changes in prison and warranted a revised sentence.
Gilbert argued that there is no way to prove rehabilitation for someone who violently committed a heinous sex crime against a child, UpNorthLive reports.
“There are no 5-year-olds in prison. How do you test that he’s rehabilitated from raping and killing 5-year-olds?”
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[Feature Photo: Nicole VanNoty/GoFundMe]
