More than 60 years after being convicted of fatally beating Oakland County child with hammer, killer resentenced to life in prison

A person who killed an Oakland County baby greater than 60 years in the past on the age of 20 was resentenced Friday to life in jail with out the potential of parole.

James Gilbert Gostlin, 83, was convicted of killing 11-year-old Shirley Husted with a claw hammer after breaking into her Novi Township residence on Dec. 20, 1962. Courtroom information present he broke in to steal a gun and a automotive in an try and flee his brother who accused him of sexually abusing a baby.

Shirley was killed whereas coming to the help of her father who was being attacked by Gostlin, his former co-worker at Detroit’s Edgewater Amusement Park. He then kidnapped and sexually assaulted Shirley’s mom earlier than dropping her off after which turning himself in to Dearborn police. He handed a damaged, bloody claw hammer to officers and stated he had simply killed two individuals, believing Wesley Husted was additionally lifeless, court docket information present.

The brand new sentencing complied with the Michigan Supreme Courtroom’s ruling that obligatory life sentences — imposed on Gostlin in 1963 — are unconstitutional for many who had been 20 or youthful after they dedicated first-degree homicide.

Gostlin was sentenced by Oakland County Circuit Decide David Cohen throughout a listening to held by way of Zoom.

The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Workplace stated it’s “reviewing all life sentences with out parole for offenders who had been twenty years of age or youthful and solely asking the courts to think about life sentences in essentially the most egregious instances.”