Jesse Tooker never fully believed he would be released from prison.
The now-47-year-old pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 1996 when he was a 17-year-old runaway cat burglar for his part in the fatal stabbing of an elderly woman in Farmington the year before.
But in the three decades he has been locked up, Tooker has undergone a complete transformation, and finally got a chance at freedom under a 2023 law granting the possibility of parole to juveniles sentenced to life in prison. But while he eventually was paroled, the state interpreted the law differently, and ordered him to start serving the rest of his prison time, totaling 22 years.
On Monday, a judge sided with Tooker in a lawsuit filed in First Judicial District Court, ruling the state parole board’s decision went against the law and ordering his release.
“I believed and I had faith, but to be honest, I held a piece back, maybe for self-preservation, because of the disappointments over and over,” Tooker told The New Mexican in a virtual interview from prison Tuesday.
And then, “when I got the news, it was just like a rush, overwhelming, of everything that I’ve been repressing or suppressing,” he added.
The ruling sets a precedent for other inmates who might be eligible for release in the future under the law, known as the Second Chance Bill, as well as for the nine who have already been paroled under the law, said Denali Wilson, mitigation coordinator for (De)Serving Life, a legal nonprofit that has long advocated for implementation of the law.
For months, those people have lived in fear that the state will rearrest them by citing the same interpretation of the law the parole board held Tooker under, even though some have been free for years. Wilson said Monday’s decision enshrined a law ensuring their freedom and the idea that they “are capable of redemption and deserve a chance to live a life outside of prison.”
“We’re celebrating this court decision, the decision to uphold the values that the Legislature enshrined in 2023,” she said.
The New Mexico Adult Parole Board is “currently reviewing the district court’s decision and consulting with legal counsel,” Executive Director Roberta Cohen wrote in a statement, adding the board would not comment on how the decision would affect determinations about parole.
Cohen also declined to offer a timeline on when Tooker will be released, writing the board is coordinating with attorneys and the New Mexico Corrections Department to “ensure compliance with all applicable court directives and administrative procedures.”
“The Board will continue to carry out its statutory responsibilities in accordance with applicable law, court orders, and legal guidance,” she wrote.
Tooker’s saga
Tooker worked hard while behind bars to turn his life around. His achievements include receiving behavioral health treatment, completing a substance abuse class, working on a bachelor’s degree and becoming a ministry mentor, to name a few, according to his petition for parole.
He is effectively unrecognizable from the person who went into prison — a lost teenager who frequently used drugs and alcohol and who murdered someone. Still, Tooker lives with the regret of his actions. In his petition for parole, he wrote, “I can never balance the scales for what I did.”
Tooker was among the first people to be considered for parole under New Mexico’s Second Chance Bill in 2023. He was denied at the time, with the parole board noting it was a “very difficult decision” and encouraging to continue pursuing educational and other opportunities, court filings show.
He tried again last year, and the board finally deemed him fit for parole.
But there was a catch.
Tooker was paroled from his current prison term. But rather than releasing him, the board said he was to begin serving consecutive terms totaling 22 years that he was sentenced to in the same murder case.
That decision was supported by an advisory letter from the New Mexico Department of Justice, which interpreted the Second Chance Bill as applying primarily to an inmate’s eligibility for parole. The agency added that receiving parole does not mean prisoners are to be released from consecutive terms.
“A serious youthful offender granted parole … but who has one or more consecutive sentences, would thereafter remain in the custody of the New Mexico Department of Corrections and under its purview, while also becoming subject to oversight by the Parole Board,” the letter states.
The department did not respond to requests for comment on the judge’s decision made Tuesday and Wednesday.
(De)Serving Life Executive Director Stephen Taylor and other attorneys for Tooker, as well as a sponsor of the original legislation creating the act, objected. They argued the statute makes no distinction between inmates paroled from serving consecutive and concurrent terms, meaning they should all be treated the same when paroled and granted their freedom. Tooker filed a lawsuit against the parole board asking a judge to toss its decision and release him from prison.
A former inmate released under the Second Chance Bill also filed a lawsuit seeking to block the state from using the Justice Department’s letter to send parolees back to prison. Proceedings in that case were delayed while Tooker’s played out, Taylor said.
Now, he’s optimistic the judge’s decision this week will lead to its resolution.
“That’s our hope, that we can resolve it, now that we have some legal guidance from the court on this consecutive time question,” he said.
‘Work on healing’
In an odd way, Tooker said the fight for his parole has brought him and his family together.
His sister, Sarah Htoutou, said the family suffered greatly after the incident that sent Tooker to prison, but the judge’s decision this week has started them back on course.
“When this whole thing happened, we had a lot of sick hearts in the family, but that ruling [Monday] restored the hope,” she said in a Tuesday interview.
Still, Tooker said he has a lot of ground to make up for. He was just a kid when he ran away, and his family really only knows that version of him.
That’s why he says he’s held off on making plans for the future — not just because, as he says, “You make plans and God laughs,” but because his biggest goals are to find a way to give back to his community in any way he can and to soak up as much time as possible with his family.
“We’re going to get to know each other and hear each other’s stories and know each other as adults now and, man, work on healing and work on just loving each other,” he said.
I was in prison with Jesse Tooker in the mid 2000’s. I never knew why he was there, but from how he carried himself and how he treated others there is no way I would’ve known he had taken a life. He was always the reasonable one of my friends, a conscious for his buddies. When my wife told me about him winning his freedom all I could say was AMEN. I KNOW that his new will NEVER be heard or spoken in a negative way. God Bless you Jesse.
Justin Carter.