LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — A Lancaster serving 54 years to life in prison for the 2015 murder of Nicole Mathewson will not receive a new sentence, according to the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office.
Marcus Rutter, 21, was 16 years old when he and an accomplice killed Mathewson during a break-in at her Lancaster home on Dec. 15, 2015.
He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, burglary, robbery, receiving stolen property and access device fraud in 2016, the DA's Office said.
He was originally sentenced to 54 to 109 years in prison, but appealed that sentence to the Pennsylvania Superior Court for a lighter sentence, arguing it was too harsh.
Instead, the Superior Court ruled the original sentence was inappropriate, and Rutter should have received a max term of life in prison for his first-degree murder conviction, the DA’s Office said.
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So in 2019, Lancaster County Judge David Ashworth re-sentenced him to a term of 54 years to life.
Rutter then appealed the new sentence, arguing on appeal that it was a de facto life sentence, and the U.S. Supreme Court's 2012 ruling declared such sentences for juvenile offenders unconstitutional.
But the Superior Court rejected Rutter’s request for relief, finding the sentence ordered is not a life-without-parole term, the DA's Office said.
The state court also rejected Rutter’s claims that his “significant efforts at rehabilitation” were not considered by Ashworth when he ordered the new sentence.
All of Rutter’s arguments are without merit, the state court ruled in an opinion released Monday.
Rutter's accomplice, Thomas Moore, also pleaded guilty in the case and is serving life plus 20 years in prison. Moore was 25 years old at the time of Mathewson's murder.
Ashworth at sentencing called the crimes “violent in the extreme," and called Rutter the “precipitating force,” having watched Mathewson’s North Franklin Street home before it was chosen as a target.
Mathewson was beaten to death inside the house. Her debit card, vehicle and other items were stolen. Rutter took Mathewson’s cellphone and used it to access Facebook – while she was bound and gagged in her home.
