CASSOPOLIS — A former Niles resident sentenced to life without parole for first-degree premeditated murder was given a 25- to 60-year resentence Thursday.

Cass County Circuit Court Judge Mark Herman gave a resentence to Robert Leamon III, 43, at the Cass County Law and Courts Building, 60296 M-62, Cassopolis. In 1997, Leamon was sentenced for killing 15-year-old Niles resident Rebecca Stowe.

The resentence was a result of 2012 a Supreme Court ruling in “Miller v. Alabama” that granted retrials for all prisoners serving life without parole for murders committed when they were juveniles.

Leamon was 16 when he killed his girlfriend, Stowe, because she refused to have an abortion. He dug a hole, invited her near its location, killed her with his hands, buried her, then lied to law enforcement about her death for 27 months.

The need for a new sentence was determined Jan. 15, when Herman issued an order for Leamon to be resentenced as a result of a July 30 and 31, 2019 rehearing.

Leamon has been in prison since Oct. 5, 1995. He will be eligible for parole in 249 days as of his Thursday resentencing.

“This will be a process,” said defending attorney Sofia Nelson, a state assistant appellate defender. “There is no Mr. Leamon coming home tomorrow, next week, in a few months. It takes time. He’ll be reviewed by the parole board, interviewed by the parole board.”

Nelson and Herman both remarked while in court that a parole board may not grant Leamon parole.

A core theme of Nelson’s argument during rehearing and resentencing was highlighting Leamon’s mentorship, social justice and teaching programs while in jail. That, coupled with positive remarks from the Michigan Department of Corrections about Leamon’s behavior will be considered by the parole board.

Fitz called Leamon’s actions in jail and his speech before the court, where he apologized to friends and family of Stowe through tears, “manipulative.”

“Up until the Miller case, in the state of Michigan as well as this country, when you got life in prison as a juvenile or an adult, you served a mandatory life in prison,” he said. “Now, for the first time, families are subjected to this new process.”

Fitz said he intends to appeal Herman’s decision, but the pain and fear Stowe’s family has resurfaced.

“After Robert’s original conviction of life in prison, we had some closure,” said Cindy Slates, Stowe’s sister, before the court. “And now, it’s opening up our wounds all over again.”

At Slates’ side was a framed photograph of Stowe facing Herman. Behind her were friends and family of Stowe, some wearing memorial pins of support.

Fitz said he has worked in many murder cases, and the pain of losing someone does not disappear.

He called Leamon’s actions in murder and the “torture” he gave to Stowe’s family “cruel and unusual.” It was a reference to the type of punishment deemed unconstitutional.

It was also referenced the “Miller v. Alabama” case that gave Leamon his eventual resentence. The Supreme Court used the wordage to describe life without parole sentences given to juveniles convicted of murder.

In his remarks before passing the sentence, Herman said two extreme viewpoints existed in some audience members. Some wanted Leamon in prison until his death. Others wanted him out immediately. Both were against the court and the law would carry out.

He said his decision was “a balance” between the two viewpoints, a decision that recognized Leamon’s strides in becoming a better person by helping others while in prison and that recognized the heinous crime he committed 27 years ago.

Slates and Fitz did not find Leamon’s turnaround in prison to be commendable. Instead, they said they found it to be an act to get himself out of jail.

Nelson, however, did see Leamon as reformed.

“I would be proud to have him as my neighbor,” she said. “He has proved that rehabilitation is possible, that we’re all more than the worst thing than we’ve ever done.”