A Missouri man who should have become eligible for release in 2024 is still in prison because the state miscalculated the credit for time he had already served, the Missouri Western District Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
A Jackson County judge sentenced Deandre Pointer in 2023 to 23 years in the Department of Corrections on four counts: two of second-degree murder and two of armed criminal action. The sentences run concurrently. The judge resentenced him after finding that his public defender had abandoned him in a post-conviction case, which Pointer filed after his original sentence in 2005.
Once the resentencing wrapped up, Pointer expected to walk free in about a year, after serving the required 85% of his sentence. But a Missouri Department of Corrections record clerk processed his paperwork and set his projected release date at 2044.
Judge Alok Ahuja wrote in the court’s unanimous opinion that the department misapplied the law on how to calculate his sentence.
“The Missouri Supreme Court has held that, ‘in construing (state law), we are guided by the principle that criminal statutes must be ‘construed strictly against the (s)tate and liberally in favor of the defendant,'” Ahuja wrote.
The 2023 resentencing changed the charge in one count from first- to second-degree murder. It also changed the way the sentences were imposed, from consecutive to concurrent.
“Pointer’s conviction and sentence for first-degree murder on Count 1 must be treated as if they never occurred,” Ahuja wrote.
In a 2025 interview with The Independent, Pointer said he pursued a new sentence because he was a victim of crime, forced to help the perpetrator out of fear for his own safety.
He said at the time that the stress of fighting for release after winning his resentencing has taken a severe toll.
“I never took anxiety meds,” Pointer said. “Never in my life. Now, you know, I have to take anxiety meds just to have a functional day.”
Pointer’s attorney, Kent Gipson, said in an email that Pointer is pleased with the ruling but knows it will not lead to his immediate release. The state can seek a rehearing or ask the Missouri Supreme Court to take the case, and Gipson said he expects the state to challenge the decision.
The Western District ruling overturned a February decision by Cole County Circuit Judge Brian Stumpe, who found the department had calculated the sentence correctly.
“It should have never come to this,” Gipson said. “If the (corrections) officials had done this earlier, it would have likely resulted in my client receiving a parole hearing and an outdate three years ago.”
Police arrested Pointer in June 2004 on one count of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action. A jury convicted him the following year. The court sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder, and to life in prison for second-degree murder and each count of armed criminal action. The court ordered those sentences to run consecutively.
After his 2005 trial, Pointer said, prosecutors offered him a deal of 18 to 20 years in prison if he would testify against the person who committed the killings. Pointer says that person forced him at gunpoint to help dispose of the first body and tied him to a chair during the second murder.
He said he believed he was innocent and refused to admit to a crime he did not commit.
“I told (the prosecutor) I would testify, but I do not want to take the plea for something I did not do,” Pointer said. “I testified, but I didn’t take the plea, because I wanted to keep my appeals open.”
After the resentencing, the department credited Pointer with 6,929 days on the changed first count but only 557 days on the other three.
Ahuja wrote in the opinion that the court found the argument about the calculation mistake enough to decide the case. The court did not address Pointer’s arguments that holding him amounted to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution and that the department violated his due process rights.
The case centered on Pointer’s prison “face sheet,” a document that records his sentence and parole eligibility dates. The department calculates those dates within 90 days of a person’s arrival in prison and recalculates them after resentencing.
After the resentencing, the department tried to limit the credit by arguing that Pointer was still convicted on the first count, even though second-degree murder replaced first-degree murder there.
But Ahuja wrote that the department had no authority to disregard the new sentence.
“Pointer’s June 2023 sentences are not subject to collateral attack in this proceeding,” Ahuja wrote, “and the department had no authority to disregard the sentencing court’s orders.”
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