JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colorado — A man who was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole when he was 16 for his role in the brutal sexual assault and stabbing of a 14-year-old girl had his sentence reduced on Thursday.
In 1998 a Jefferson County jury convicted Frank Vigil on a first-degree murder charge as well as kidnapping and assault related to the death of Brandy DuVall.
He was the youngest of seven men arrested and charged in connection with the 1997 torture and sexual assault of DuVall. Her body was found on a bank next to Clear Creek in May of that year. She had been beaten and stabbed multiple times.
Vigil was one of the four suspects charged with the actual killing of DuVall. The three other suspects, identified as David Warren, Maurice Warren and Jacob Casados, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault related to the crime, according to prior 9NEWS reporting.
David Warren was sentenced to 32 years, court records show. Maurice Warren, who is David's brother, was sentenced to 13 years.
Jacob Casados was sentenced to 20 years, court records show
Samuel Quintana pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and agreed to testify against Vigil. He was sentenced to 48 years.
The remaining suspects, Francisco Martinez and Danny Martinez, went to trial. Danny Martinez was convicted in late 1999 on seven counts and Francisco Martinez was found guilty in a separate trial around the same time.
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Vigil was originally sentenced in 1998 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. On Thursday, that sentence was reduced by the court to make Vigil eligible for parole after 40 years minus his earned time.
In a statement afterward, the Jefferson County district attorney said she disagreed with the decision.
“We believe the court’s sentence does not reflect the horrific and unspeakable nature of the assault, torture, and kidnapping 14-year-old Brandi DuVall suffered before she was brutally murdered,” said First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King.
“This was not the outcome that we or those who loved her requested.”
Vigil's resentencing is the result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2012 that found it was unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
That prompted a new Colorado law that required all juvenile lifers be resentenced, making them eligible for parole in as little as about 25 years.
At the time of the Supreme Court decision, there were 48 juveniles in Colorado serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.
None of the other defendants with murder convictions would be eligible for sentence reductions because they were adults at the time of the crime.
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