PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – One of the men who carried out a carjacking and execution-style slaying at a Rhode Island golf course 24 years ago is seeking to get out of prison, arguing his brain was not fully developed when he took part in the killing.

Samuel Sanchez was 20 years old when he and four other men carjacked 21-year-old Amy Shute and 20-year-old Jason Berguson after they had left a Providence club. The victims were brought to Button Hole Golf Course in Johnston and robbed before being ordered to kneel on the ground and shot to death.

In a motion Sanchez wrote himself and filed with U.S. District Court in Rhode Island on Friday, Sanchez asked the judge to reduce his sentence under a federal law for “extraordinary and compelling reasons.”

Sanchez wrote that studies show “until the age of 25 a person’s brain is still developing and obtaining the needed growth to both understand and make rational decisions.”

“This finding on the brain, does have an impact upon his lack of rational thinking, coupled with the issues he suffered in his upbringing,” Sanchez wrote about himself, later adding he has “truly come to understand his actions and realize that they were senseless, selfish and something that both impacted the families of both Amy Shute and Jason Burgeson, as well as his own family.”

The motion included a letter Sanchez claimed he sent the Shute and Burgeson families, as well as the court, where he apologized for his actions.

“Words cannot express the pain my cowardice and irrational thinking and actions have caused these families,” Sanchez wrote. “I can only hope that with the passage of time that those families and friends can find it in their hearts to forgive me.”

He signed the letter “truly, sincerely, emotionally.”

Sanchez, now 44, is serving a life sentence at a high-security prison in Kentucky.

Burgeson’s sister, Kellie Burgeson Surdis said in an email that Sanchez never sent a letter of apology to the family, “That is a lie.”

“The only thing he is sorry for is that he has a life sentence, and he is tired of being in prison,” Surdis said. “Jason and Amy do not get to appeal the death sentence they were given.”

“I hope the Judge can see through all of this and deny his ridiculous pro se motion,“ she added.

Sanchez’s previous attempt to spring from prison through a mechanism known as compassionate release failed in 2022. Sanchez cited multiple health reasons , including suffering from long COVID. But U.S. District Court Judge William Smith was not persuaded and denied his request.

Another defendant in the case, Raymond Anderson, is awaiting an early release from a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana after the U.S. Sentencing Commission changed its rules , allowing reduced sentences for those who lacked a prior criminal history when the crime was committed. Anderson – who cooperated with prosecutors – had his sentence reduced from 30 to 27 years.

Gregory Floyd, who was the gunman in the murders, was denied an early release in 2020, then died in prison a year later from natural causes.

Harry Burdick is serving a life sentence at a federal prison in Arizona and has also lost his appeal for freedom.

The final man found guilty in the crime, Kenneth Day, has appealed his conviction and is seeking a new trial arguing his counsel was ineffective. A decision on that case is pending. Day is serving a life sentence at the ACI in Cranston.

Tim White ( twhite@wpri.com ) is Target 12 managing editor and chief investigative reporter and host of Newsmakers for 12 News. Connect with him on Twitter and Facebook .

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