In 2023, a Massachusetts man was granted parole. But he was first required to spend 18 months in a lower security prison.
He never made it outside prison walls.
Miguel Valentin‘s 2023 parole was rescinded due to “troubling disciplinary reports,” according to the Massachusetts Parole Board.
He went in front of the parole board again on June 17. But in November, the board became split over giving him parole again as three board members voted to grant parole, while three board members voted to deny parole.
“Due to a split vote, parole is denied with a review in 1 year from the date of the hearing,” the board wrote in its Nov. 5 decision.
On Dec. 14, 1992, then 17-year-old Valentin used a sawed-off shotgun to fatally shoot 18-year-old Alexander Rodriguez in Jamaica Plain.
Valentin and his brother were driving to their grandmother’s house when they saw a group of men outside the Jackson MBTA station. Around this time, a rock shattered the back window of their car. Valentin suspected that someone in the group threw the rock and that they were members of a rival gang.
Valentin and his brother went to a friend’s house to get two sawed-off shotguns and went to track down the suspected gang members, according to the parole board.
As 18-year-old Alexander Rodriguez exited a convenience store in Jamaica Plain, Valentin, his brother and a friend approached him. Valentin shot Rodriguez three times, officials said.
Family insisted Rodriguez was not part of a gang, according to a 1992 Boston Globe article.
On Nov. 4, 1993, in Suffolk Superior Court, Valentin pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
He first went in front of the parole board in 2007 but was denied. He had additional parole board hearings in 2013, 2018 and 2021.
Valentin, now 50, has been incarcerated for 33 years.
He will have another chance at parole in a year.
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