A life prison sentence for a man who was convicted in Jefferson County of murder in 1998 has been reduced by the First Judicial District Court.
Frank Vigil Jr., was among a group of defendants convicted in the rape and stabbing death of then 14-year-old Brandaline Rose DuVall. Vigil was 16 years old at the time.
Vigil, 40, is now parole eligible after 40 years minus earned time, the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. He sentence was reduced on Thursday by the district court.
“We believe the court’s sentence does not reflect the horrific and unspeakable nature of the assault, torture, and kidnapping 14-year-old Brandi DuVall suffered before she was brutally murdered,” said First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King. “This was not the outcome that we or those who loved her requested.”
Duvall, who was a Lincoln High School freshman, was waiting at a bus stop on May 30, 1997, when she accepted a ride from five gang members who said they were inviting her to a party. Instead, they took her to a home where they raped and beat her over the course of three to four hours.
The assailants hooded and handcuffed the victim, driving her up Clear Creek Canyon about a mile west of Golden as she pleaded for her life, according to court records and testimony. Duvall was stabbed 28 times before her body was thrown down an embankment along Clear Creek. Vigil was the youngest of the five defendants who were convicted.
After Vigil’s conviction in January of 1998, Angela Metzger, DuVall’s mother, spoke outside the courtroom.
“This is a win for (Brandi),” Metzger said, according to a Denver Post story at the time. “She was a little girl with a life and dreams. I just don’t want her forgotten.”
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