'Daddy's Coming Home': Judge Grants Freedom To Inmate After Mistaken Release
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)- A family in Aurora is waiting for their husband, father and son to return home after a judge granted him freedom-- for good.
Rene Lima-Marin was sentenced to 98 years in prison for armed robbery. He was released early by mistake and spent six years leading a productive life before he was once again sent back to prison to serve the rest of his sentence.
On Tuesday, Jasmine Lima-Marin surprised her sons with the good news, "Guess what I found out today?"
"What?" they asked.
"Daddy's coming home!" she said.
"Today? Today?" they asked.
It's been three years since Lima-Marin was home with his boys. As soon as he learned he would no longer be in prison, he called his wife.
"It was a really, really fast call. He said, 'Did you hear?' And I was like, 'Yeah,' and I could just hear his smile," said Jasmine Lima-Marin.
Judge Carlos A. Samour ordered that Rene Lima-Marin be released from the Colorado Department of Corrections.
"At the end of the day, the Court concludes that it would be utterly unjust to compel Lima-Marin, at this juncture, to serve the rest of his extremely long sentence," Samour wrote in his court order. "The government—not Lima-Marin, his family, the community, and society—should bear the brunt of the consequences of its conscience-shocking deliberate indifference."
A resolution asking Gov. John Hickenlooper to grant clemency to Lima-Marin was unanimously approved on the state Senate floor earlier this month.
Lima-Marin was convicted in 1998 for his role in two armed robberies and sentenced to 98 years in prison.
After a decade of serving time behind bars, Lima-Marin wound up being freed in error. It took the State of Colorado six years to realize that a clerical issue was behind Lima-Marin's early release and he was returned to his cell.
In the years he was free, Lima-Marin reset his life. He married his high school sweetheart, had children and found faith.
"This whole situation enlightened me. I became a man of God," Lima-Marin told CBS4 in a phone interview from prison.
