MANITOWOC (WTAQ-WLUK) -The man convicted of killing a Manitowoc police officer nearly 20 years ago, won’t be getting out of prison.
Law enforcement officers from several agencies filled a Manitowoc County courtroom Monday, showing their support for a fallen brother nearly 20 years later.
“It’s something that you never forget,” said Cap. Larry Zimney, with the Manitowoc Police Department.
In September 1998, Jason Halda shot and killed officer Dale TenHaken during a traffic stop.
Halda was convicted of first degree homicide a year later, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He was 17 at the time.
In January, Halda’s new team, the Legal Assistance to Institutionalized Persons Project (LAIP) filed a motion asking the court to reconsider Halda’s sentence, and asking for the option of parole.
LAIP argued that since Halda was a teenager at the time, the life sentence violated his constitutional rights.
“There is evidence that children don’t understand and aren’t developmentally at the stage in their brains where they can take in the emotional context and express the emotional context for a crime,” explained Eileen Hirsch, a member of LAIP.
During Monday’s hearing, Judge Mark Rohrer read excerpts from Halda’s original trial, quoting the original judge, Rohrer said at the time Halda did not show any remorse and said he would’ve shot other officers if they had gotten in his way.
Halda’s defense team says that attitude has changed.
“He has as time has gone on come to feel the remorse that he was really just to numb to feel at the time,” said Hirsch.
Halda’s request for resentencing was denied, an outcome Zimney tells WLUK Manitowoc Police Officers are happy with.
“It’s something we didn’t think we’d have to go through again, and to even have the thought that he would be eligible for some type of parole, that was gut wrenching”
Halda will remain behind bars, and will not be eligible for parole. His defense team has not decided if it will appeal the ruling.
