MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — A man who killed a 4 year-old Vero Beach girl when he was a teenager in 1979, and was sentenced to life in prison, is set to be freed from prison.
Brooks Bellay was 14 years old at the time of the murder of Angel Halstead. He is now 60 years old.
WPTV's Tyler Hatfield was in a Martin County courtroom on Friday morning when Circuit Judge William Roby granted Bellay's release, under new Florida sentencing guidelines for minors. The 2012 Supreme Court decision of Miller v. Alabama held that life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional on the basis of cruel and unusual punishment.
WPTV originally covered this case extensively in 2017, when Bellay tried to get out of prison and had a resentencing hearing, but the judge at that time resentenced him to life in prison.
This time, Bellay’s public defender successfully argued he’s been rehabilitated.
“If there was any sort of violent tendencies in him, it would have been demonstrated," Assistant Public Defender Usha Maharajh said. "With zero referrals in 46 years for any violent conduct whatever, and not a single disciplinary referral in 27 years, even nonviolent, that tells you who his character is.”
However, the State Attorney’s Office wanted to keep Bellay behind bars.
“I think that the justice system has some flaws, to say the least. You know finality and repose in a criminal case is, I think, paramount," Martin County Assistant State Attorney David Lustgarten said. "The courts dragging victims through it all for 40 plus years, it's really absurd.”
Bellay will be released to a structured reentry program in Jacksonville, with one year of GPS monitoring and 15 years probation.
Read more of WPTV's coverage below:
Teenage killer re-sentenced after decades
Region Indian River County
Teen killer to be resentenced four decades later
Region Martin County
