A 70-year-old Arkansas man who robbed a taco shop with a toy water gun in 1981 has been granted clemency 40 years after he was sentenced to life in prison.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a press release on Thursday he will commute the sentence of Rolf Kaestel, making him eligible for parole.
“The governor has given notice of his intent to commute the sentence of Rolf D. Kaestel, who was convicted in Sebastian County in 1981 for the above offenses, from a total of life in the Arkansas Department of Correction to making him immediately parole eligible,” the press release read.
Kaestel was convicted on a charge of aggravated robbery and sentenced to life in prison in 1981 after he robbed a Fort Smith taco shop of $264. He was armed only with a water pistol.
The man who managed the taco shop and handed Kaestel the money during the robbery has recommended his release. Dennis Schluterman appealed to then-Governor Mike Beebe in a YouTube video on Oct. 29, 2014.
This was Kaestel’s fifth request for clemency. In his latest application, he wrote that he “may yet have a few reasonably energetic and productive years remaining to me in which I may still make a truly substantive contribution to society.”
“I believe that I have demonstrated that I deserve the chance to do so, and I appeal for your consideration and favorable action to allow me to begin a new life,” he wrote. “The ends of justice have been served with the unrelenting four decades of my incarceration to date.”
Kaestel reportedly never violated prison rules during his time as an inmate, and he earned three associate’s degrees while incarcerated.
