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WILKES-BARRE — A man convicted of two 1999 murders when he was just a teenager may see his life sentences overturned in the near future.
Kenneth Carl Crawford III, 34, of Oklahoma, was recently granted a re-sentencing by Luzerne County Judge Fred A. Pierantoni III.
On Thursday, Pierantoni signed an order that the Luzerne County Probation/Parole Department must prepare an updated pre-sentence investigation report before Crawford’s Jan. 29 re-sentencing.
Crawford has been serving two life sentences since 2001 for the murders of Diana Algar and Jose Molina at the Paradise Camp Resort in Hollenback Township.
In 2013, Crawford filed court papers that argued his life terms were unlawful under a new law regarding life sentences for juveniles.
The state law, passed shortly before his 2013 filing, mandated that juveniles convicted of first- and second-degree murder could no longer receive a mandatory life sentence when tried as adults. Instead, judges would have access to a range of sentencing options, which could still include a life term.
The law was passed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled mandatory life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional in 2012 in the case Miller v. Alabama. In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court further ruled that the finding in Miller v. Alabama could be retroactively applied to cases which took place before the decision — cases like Crawford’s.
Crawford, who was 15 when the murders took place, argued he should receive a new sentence.
Crawford, along with David Lee Hanley, killed Algar and Molina while hitchhiking in July 1999. Crawford and Hanley were taken in by the pair before their deaths.
They ransacked Algar’s trailer, stealing her rifles and her car, eventually abandoning it in Virginia.
Hanley is also serving two life sentences.
The pair allegedly committed other crimes in Illinois only a month before the murders.
An Illinois detective told the Times Leader in 2000 they tied up a man at a campground, whipped him with electrical cords and stole his money and his car, which they abandoned in Ohio.