A convicted murderer sentenced to 30 years in prison will walk free after serving less than nine years behind bars for the killing of a 14-year-old girl in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Nia Aisha Owens, 14, was walking to Northwestern High School when she was raped and murdered in 1996. It wasn’t until 13 years later that Matthew Bethea was arrested. He took an Alford plea for second-degree murder but not the sexual assault. He was sentenced to 30 years, all but 15 of that suspended.
The two-decade-old sexual assault and murder still feels raw for Angela Wood. Wood thought Bethea would spend the entire time behind bars but got a letter in the mail two weeks ago stating his scheduled release from prison on March 5, 2019.
Bethea earned
diminution credits for good behavior, which took time off his sentence. Once released, he will have served less than nine years.
“How do you get good behavior if you kill somebody?” Nia’s older brother Darryl Chesley said.
“Thirty years reduced to 15 and then getting out in nine? That’s really a joke,” family friend Ben Abdul-Haqq said.
“It is a huge, grave injustice to the people of this state and to the people of this county and Nia’s family,” Prince George’s County State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy said.
She said the early release is out of her hands but does have plans to go to the state legislature next session to try and make changes to the diminution credit process.
“See if we can reduce the amount of credit that these individuals who are committing very heinous offenses can seek when they are incarcerated,” said Braveboy.
Bethea is scheduled to be released back into Prince George’s County and will be on parole for five years. He will also be ordered to stay away from his victim’s family.
wjla.com
