‘I had to have hope’: St. Louis man wins parole from 241-year term with help from sentencing judge – By Joel Currier (St Louis Post-Dispatch) / December 20, 2021
ST. LOUIS — Circuit Judge Evelyn Baker believed Bobby Bostic would die within five years of going to prison after she sentenced him in 1997 to 241 years for his role in an armed robbery.
While ordering what could have been effectively a life sentence for Bostic, Baker said, she believed the then-16-year-old would become “another statistic” because of his “dangerous” and “stupid” behavior.
Instead, Bostic, now 42, will be leaving prison next year. He was recently granted parole thanks to a change in Missouri law for juvenile offenders, and help from Baker.
Bostic went to prison for the 1995 robbery of a group of people delivering Christmas presents for the needy in the city’s Botanical Heights neighborhood.
