FLINT, Mich. – A man who was 17 when he was convicted in the fatal 1981 shooting of a taxi driver in Flint is seeking parole with the help of a group that works to free adolescent offenders who have spent decades in prison.
Carlos Jordan, now 57, is scheduled for a Thursday hearing before the Michigan Parole Board. He is serving a life sentence after being convicted in Genesee County of second-degree murder in the December 1981 killing of Stephen Warnemuende, 25.
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Jordan is getting support from the Adolescent Redemption Project, which says on its website that he is a model prisoner who is just a few credits from obtaining a degree in business administration.
The group says early drinking and drug abuse stunted Jordan’s brain development as a child, leaving him to be “heavily influenced by his peers and street culture,” The Flint Journal reported.
Warnemuende was found slumped over the steering wheel of his taxi cab in a Flint high school's parking lot with bullet wounds through the back of his head and his shoulder.
Jordan was sentenced to life in prison in November 1982 after two other teenagers who also rode in Waremuende’s cab testified that Jordan was the triggerman in the shooting. Jordan has denied that.
Prosecutors said Jordan and the two teens had schemed to hold up the Flint Amtrak station but decided instead to rob Warnemuende.
Jordan is also serving two sentences tied to an attempted 1987 prison escape.