GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A man who was a teenager when he killed and beheaded another Grand Rapids-area teen in 1996 has been granted parole, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. 

A Kent County jury in 1997 convicted Federico Luis Cruz of first-degree murder for the April 1996 crime. Kent County Circuit Court Judge Dennis Leiber, who presided over the trial, sentenced Cruz to mandatory life in prison.

That sentence was upended when the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 struck down mandatory life sentences for juveniles. It said life sentences are still an option, but only under the rarest of circumstances.

The Kent County Prosecutor’s Office in 2016 filed motions to impose no parole sentences on 13 defendants serving life terms for murders committed as teens. Prosecutor Chris Becker said Cruz topped the list.

In November 2018, a judge ruled that the “savage butchery’’ of the crime and a history of antisocial behavior precludes Cruz from ever leaving prison.

In August 2023, Cruz was given a shorter prison sentence and an opportunity for release. 

Kent County Judge Mark Trusock said Cruz was mentally ill at the time of the murder and has worked to improve himself while in prison.

Cruz is now 45 years old and has been in prison for about 27 years. Cruz’s projected parole date is March 25, 2025. 

Cruz was 16 when he killed 17-year-old David Crawford, severed his head and recorded himself dissecting the head. Cruz said he did it to please Satan.

Cruz admitted to cutting off Crawford’s head several hours after the killing. “He told detectives he wanted a skull, a real skull to use as a decoration,’’ Becker wrote. “Federico tried to cut out David’s heart after the murder, as well as the spinal cord.’’

Leiber said Cruz committed a litany of offenses as a child, including poisoning a container of milk, arson, theft, sexually inappropriate behavior with relatives and animal torture.

His antisocial behavior leading up to the murder included expulsion from school and a “regrettably lengthy” juvenile court record.

“I feel it is a great risk for this community for you to walk free,” Crawford’s sister, Kathryn Crawford, said. “I will never forgive you for what you took away from our family.”

Cruz has apologized for Crawford’s death. He said he was abused as a child and believed at the time that he could communicate with demons.