Over five decades after a heinous crime that shocked a Pennsylvania community, John Veltre, now 69, has been re-sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of two young children and the brutal attack on their mother in 1973. Veltre, who was 16 at the time of the crime, had his sentence revisited following a U.S. Supreme Court decision mandating that all juveniles serving mandatory life terms have their sentences reviewed. Despite this opportunity for reconsideration, a Westmoreland County Judge concurred with the Office of Attorney General that Veltre's acts were too horrific to grant any form of early release.
Attorney General Dave Sunday remarked on the case, “I am an advocate for second chances when they are appropriate — however, some crimes are just too heinous and harmful to the community to warrant relief.” His office argued, and the court agreed, that Veltre had not taken full responsibility for his actions and remains a threat to society.
The details of the crime are as grisly today as they were in 1973 when Veltre entered the home of a young woman to attack her and end the lives of her children savagely. According to the Office of Attorney General, the children suffered fatal blunt force trauma injuries, and their mother was left for dead. In a statement that reveals the enduring impact of the crime, Attorney General Sunday said, “I cannot fathom acts more violent and vicious than what took place here: a baby and toddler were brutally murdered and a mother raped and beaten, only surviving due to her own determination and strength, not because of any mercy shown by a callous killer who left her to die with her children.”
Senior Deputy Attorney General Alicia Werner most recently handled this post-conviction matter. Her efforts to keep Veltre behind bars highlight a persistent tension between justice for shocking crimes and the evolving legal landscape for juvenile offenders.
