PANAMA CITY — A man who was 17 years old when he was convicted of killing a man over a botched steroid robbery plot will be arguing for a new sentence, according to court officials.
Attorneys and Circuit Judge Michael Overstreet met Friday to discuss a possible date to discuss a new sentence for the now 37-year-old Thomas Robert McGill.
McGill was sentenced to life in prison without a chance for parole in 1996 for the shooting death of fellow football player Tory King during a plot to rob him of steroids. However, due to a Florida Supreme Court decision, McGill will be arguing for a lighter sentence since he was a minor at the time of the slaying, according to court documents.
Jurors found McGill guilty of first-degree murder in April 1996. Prosecutors showed that while McGill was attempting to rob Kind of steroids at gunpoint, he ended up shooting him. King died from his injuries.
McGill’s attorney claimed he was intoxicated on steroids at the time and attempting to get more from his fellow football player, who usually dealt them to him.
McGill’s is among several other cases of juveniles serving life sentences that were retroactively entitled to sentence hearings in the wake of a decision by the Florida State Supreme Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 in an Alabama case that juveniles cannot be sentenced to life without parole because, in part, their brains aren’t fully developed and there’s a better chance for reform than with adult offenders. The Florida Supreme Court ruled in Rebecca Falcon’s case that the U.S. Supreme Court decision should be applied retroactively.
Falcon was a troubled 15-year-old high school student whose mother sent her from Leavenworth, Kansas, to Bay County to live with her grandparents. She got drunk and sneaked out of her grandparents’ house in November 1997 to meet up with 18-year-old Clifton Gilchrist. They flagged down a cab, forced the driver to go to a secluded area and then shot him in the head in an attempted robbery, according to court records.
Falcon has since been repeatedly used as an example in the argument over whether child murderers should be locked away for life.
McGill’s attorney is expected to argue the same in a resentencing hearing scheduled for Nov. 6.
