Jermayne Timmons was 15 years old when he fired a gun at a group of rival teens in Albany. The bullet missed the teens but fatally struck 10-year-old Kathina Thomas as she played outside her nearby home.
Timmons was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the 2008 killing and, two years ago, he was released after his first parole hearing.
“I was young and dumb,” he later told WTEN. Timmons earned a bachelor’s degree and got married while in prison, and told the station his release was “another starting point.”
Timmons, who didn’t return a call seeking comment, was one of the hundreds of so-called “juvenile lifers” in state prisons, according to lawyers who in 2018 brought a class action case on their behalf.
The prisoners were convicted of major crimes they committed before reach