[April 07, 2013] Biloxi woman's killer serves less than 4 years of 20-year sentence Tweet Apr 07, 2013 (The Sun Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Vincente Munoz spent Christmas Eve tending to the needs of his dying wife and listening to repeated automated phone messages informing him his daughter's killer had been freed, less than four years into a 20-year sentence for manslaughter. "Here I was trying to take care of my wife, who was dying," Munoz said. "And the phone is ringing every two hours well into Christmas Eve morning with an automated message telling us he was being released on such and such date, but the date had already passed. He was already out. "This is the way my wife and I spent our last Christmas together -- listening to a voice telling us they were letting the murderer of our daughter go. This wasn't justice for Nicole. This wasn't justice at all." Victoria Lynn Munoz died not long after learning her daughter's killer had been freed. The Munoz family had waited for 14 years to learn what had happened to their daughter, Biloxi High School senior Genevieve "Nicole" Munoz, who disappeared at age 18 shortly after her parents last saw her buckling her son into a car seat the morning of June 11, 1994. Nicole, they've said, was in good spirits that day, having persuaded the father of her child to go shopping for their baby at Edgewater Mall in Biloxi. It was the baby's father, Michael David Lamb, now 36, who turned out to be her killer. By nightfall, Nicole's parents had started to worry because she didn't come home or call to say she was going to be late. They called Lamb's home and to their astonishment, Lamb and the baby were there but Nicole was not. Nicole's family reported her missing to Biloxi police, who listed Nicole as a possible runaway. The FBI later got involved, but nothing ever came of the investigation. Nicole's family had no doubt something horrible had happened to her. They knew in their hearts she was dead. Nicole's car was found in a distant parking lot at what was then Gulfport-Biloxi Regional Airport, just out of reach of security cameras that could've showed who dropped her car off there the night of her disappearance. Nothing made sense. Nicole's family knew she would never leave her son. They waited and waited for someone to take notice of Nicole's absence. Lamb was eventually arrested on a charge of murder, but later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in April 2009, but served a little more than three years by earning time off his sentence. "Michael Lamb murdered a human being and he essentially got away with it," Nicole's brother Nicholas Munoz said. "This is not just an injustice to our family. It's an injustice to our state. We let a killer go free." Article revives cold case In 2008, the Sun Herald looked into Nicole's disappearance further and interviewed her family. They'd been looking for someone to take an interest in what had happened to Nicole. The Sun Herald's cold case series featured Nicole's story in March 2008. The story noted Nicole was never seen alive after she left to go shopping with Lamb, and that friends suspected he knew what had happened to her. When Nicole's parents picked up the baby that night in 1994, they asked Lamb where Nicole could have gone. He didn't have any answers. They hoped Lamb's mother or siblings would tell them something. They had no answers either, and Vincente and Victoria Munoz drove their grandson home. It was the first of many hard nights over the years. Shortly after the Sun Herald's story on Nicole's disappearance, Biloxi police decided to take a closer look at the case. Cold case investigators Christopher De Back and Mike Brown tracked down Lamb at a car dealership in Peoria, Ill. By then, he had two other children with a girlfriend. Conflicting stories It wasn't long, investigators said, before Lamb was telling them what happened. Lamb knew why they had driven to Illinois to see him and he confessed to killing Nicole. Lamb said he'd shot and killed Nicole after the two argued at his mother's Lakewood Drive home in Biloxi. Lamb said he and Nicole, their son and his mother, Dianne Lamb, were sitting around a kitchen table, where a .38-caliber pistol his mother had just cleaned was sitting. He said he picked up the gun and "it just went off, shooting Nicole in the shoulder." Lamb told a different story later to another of his girlfriends, though the result was the same. Court records show he claimed to that woman, mother of his two other children, he had stabbed Nicole and later disposed of her body. The woman told Biloxi police she had been afraid to tell her story because she had been the victim of physical abuse. The woman said Lamb claimed to have thrown Nicole's body in a Dumpster near a ballfield. Laws allowed early release Lamb pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Nicole's killing. April 9, 2009. A judge sentenced him to the maximum time allowed for manslaughter -- 20 years. "We thought that meant 20 years," Nicholas Munoz said. "This guy is a proven liar. He changed his story multiple times. He blamed his mom. He blamed Nicole. "As for him being released, aside from it being absolutely ridiculous, the guy ruined our family for life. He kept us in limbo for 14 years and the state of Mississippi is saying he's good to get out. This needs to be fixed for every other family this could happen to. It's just not right." By the time he was sentenced, Lamb had spent 205 days in custody. Mississippi Department of Corrections spokeswoman Tara Booth said that time was applied to the time he would serve for his manslaughter conviction. Booth confirmed Lamb was released from prison Dec. 23, 2012. As for his post-release status, Booth said, Lamb is not on probation or parole. Sentence had simply expired Lamb's sentence for manslaughter had simply expired under the state sentencing-computation laws that applied to crimes committed before 1995, when the state enacted a truth-in-sentencing law, Booth said. Lamb had gained trusty status in custody, Booth said, though he wasn't one of the type of trusties allowed to leave prison grounds to work. Still, as a result of the status, Lamb was eligible to earn time off his sentence "at the rate of 30 days for each 30 days served," Booth said. In addition, Lamb earned meritorious time as set out in sentencing laws, meaning more time came off his sentence for completing educational and vocational programs while incarcerated. Booth said MDOC does not decide when to release an inmate -- it follows state sentencing-computation laws that determine when an inmate is eligible for release. In addition, Booth pointed out Lamb was sentenced for a crime committed in 1994, a year before the state passed a "truth in sentencing" law requiring offenders sentenced to jail for certain violent crimes to serve 85 percent of their sentence. Justice for Nicole That MDOC officials followed the law regarding Lamb's release gives little comfort to the Munoz family. De Back and Brown are equally frustrated. "This department worked closely with this family to find justice for Nicole," De Back said. "It's frustrating to know the system, in my opinion, has holes in it. I wouldn't have expected him to get out so soon. You always assume they'll serve 50 percent or 75 percent (of their sentence), not just a little over three years." Brown agreed. "To me, it's very disappointing that you could plead guilty to manslaughter in the death of another and ... serve a little over three years. Drug dealers and burglars serve more time than that, but if you kill somebody you can be out in less than four years. It's ridiculous. I hate it for the family." Dillon Munoz, Nicole's son, refers to his biological father as "my sperm donor." He's spent his life with his grandparents, who adopted him shortly after Nicole's disappearance. When he heard of Lamb's release, he said, "It really made me upset. His early release and the late notification was unacceptable. He should have been in (the state prison at) Parchman for the rest of his life. You never know if he will do something else to someone else's mother or someone else's daughter. "I have so much aggravation toward him. You want him to show remorse for what he did." The Sun Herald was unable to reach Lamb for comment. ___ (c)2013 The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.) Visit The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.) at www.sunherald.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]