Man Who Was Sentenced to 13 Years in Prison Never Went to Prison After Cops Forgot to Jail Him

When an individual is sentenced to prison, they are often immediately sent to prison.

This was not the case for one man in particular, however, as he was never imprisoned, although he was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

The case of Cornealious Anderson is certainly a surprising story, and one would expect some sort of Shawshank Redemption type a movie.

The Missouri man was convicted and sentenced in 1999 for the armed robbery of a Burger King manager while he was making a bank deposit.

After that, Anderson posted bond and appealed his conviction – the latter of which was denied.

The Missouri man was sentenced to 13 years in prison. (Getty Image Bank)

But while all this was happening, no one ever came to lock him up.

Somehow, it seemed that Anderson had gotten through it, and he began living his life normally, even going so far as to join a church, start a small business, get married and to become a father of four children.

He coached youth football and generally lived an honest life, never making any effort to hide his identity.

But while Anderson was living this somewhat normal life, his original lawyer and almost everyone else involved in the case believed the thief had gone to prison.

However, the Missouri Department of Corrections ultimately discovered that a clerical error meant Anderson never went to prison in the first place.

Anderson had spent what appears to be 13 happy years — the length of his sentence — out of prison, but in 2013, a SWAT team came to his house and arrested him.

The cops simply forgot about Cornealious Anderson. (News4)

Recalling the moment to Jessica Lussenhop, as recounted on NPR's This American Life, Anderson said: “I was sleeping. I was woken up. I was around 6 a.m., woken up by a knock on the door. And it It was an unusual move.

“It was constant hits, you know, hard hits. So I knew something… what's going on?

“So I stood at the top of the stairs for a while. And finally I said, who is it? I'm in my boxers. And they said, marshals. Open it or he's coming down. I opened the door.

“As soon as I opened the door, it was a small army. I mean, there were about eight of them. They had the shields. They had the helmets. They had the AR-15 style machine guns. And they “J I had the street blocked. And I said, hey man, you got the wrong person. And he just looked at me: 'no, you're the right person.'

Anderson was taken to prison, but after nine months his request for release was granted, with Judge Terry Lynn Brown saying his life over the previous 13 years had led him to believe he was a “changed man” .

Featured image credit: News4/John Moore/Getty Images

Topics: Crime, American News