Juvenile Lifer TJ Tremble Who Killed At 14 Will Get Parole Chance After Serving 40 Years

STANDISH, Mich. (AP) — A man who was 14 years old when he killed a sleeping couple and stole their car in Arenac County in 1997 will get a chance to leave prison.

Click here to view related image.

A judge gave T.J. Tremble a new sentence last week, the result of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that struck down automatic life sentences for teens who commit murder.

Tremble, 39, will be eligible for parole after serving at least 40 years in prison.

Judge David Riffel said a psychologist found that Tremble had been rehabilitated and was capable of further improvement, although he declined to resentence him to a 25-year minimum, another option, MLive.com reported.

"These types of cases have immense collateral damage," Riffel said Friday. "There are so many people that are impacted by the defendant's behavior."

Tremble was an eighth-grader in 1997 when he rode his bike to the Au Gres home of Ruth and Peter Stanley and killed them while they slept. He took some change and their car.

"With this resentencing due to a Supreme Court ruling, this is all we could ask for," son Dennis Stanley said. "This is the best it could be for us. Sure, we wish it would be life without parole, but we have to respect the law and we will live with it."