SAGINAW, Michigan – People who committed murder as youths are receiving another chance at freedom.
They are known as juvenile lifers, and they were originally condemned to life in jail without the chance of parole.
A man who murdered a Saginaw resident in 1984 was freed from jail earlier this year.
Dexter Tolliver is currently 55 years old. When he was freed from a Michigan jail in April, his family moved him to Georgia to begin his new life.
But he’s been in a Georgia prison since October, accused of another brutal crime.
Tolliver was just 15 years old when he was accused of killing 84-year-old Peter Jacobi.
According to court records, Tolliver used to work for Jacobi, but on July 31, 1984, he beat the guy to death following an altercation at Jacobi’s Cumberland Street house in Saginaw.
Tolliver was prosecuted as an adult, and a jury convicted him guilty of murder and sentenced him to life without parole in January 1986.
Tolliver, like several other people convicted of murder as adolescents, was resentenced.
In December 2023, Saginaw County Circuit Court Judge Andre Borrello sentenced Tolliver to 40-60 years in jail. Tolliver was then granted parole in April.
His release was featured in a Michigan State Appellate Defender Office newsletter, which stated that Dexter exemplifies the goal of the defender’s office.
However, Tolliver is now facing rape charges in Marietta, Georgia, where he is accused of sexually assaulting a 66-year-old lady.
According to police records and court documents from Georgia, the woman permitted Tolliver to take boxes into her apartment before accusing him of assaulting her.
Tolliver was arrested, and evidence will be presented before a grand jury.
The Saginaw County Prosecutor’s Office issued the following statement on Tolliver’s arrest in Georgia: “Under the new juvenile lifer law and circumstances of this case, we secured, and the Judge handed down the maximum penalty of 40 to 60 years imprisonment. The parole board could have detained him for an additional 20 years, but they chose to release him.”
We attempted to contact the Michigan Department of Corrections and the Michigan State Appellate Defenders Office for comment, but received no response.