By JIM BUTLER

Three 18-year-olds charged last week with five counts each of attempted first-degree murder have likely never heard of Larry McClinton.

Bullets allegedly fired from their guns missed. Those from his didn’t.

McClinton was 18 (young men and guns, contrary to what some say, is not a new combination) when sentenced in 1992 to life plus 30 years after pleading guilty to first-degree and attempted first-degree murder. He was 17 when the crimes were committed.

The same day the trio was charged last week McClinton’s latest request for parole was denied. He is now 50.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 ruled, in a Louisiana case, that juveniles sentenced to life must have a meaningful chance at parole, and that that applied on a retroactive basis.

Defining meaningful is a difficult and subjective task.

Four years earlier the justices ruled judges must consider age and maturity when imposing life without parole sentences.

Rapides D.A. Phillip Terrell has appeared in opposition before the Pardon Board’s Committee on Parole each time McClinton has been on its docket.

Changes in state law last year made parole harder to achieve, particularly for violent offenders, as a new administration responded to what it perceived as public demand.

In April 1991 McClinton killed Angie Hargrove, 21, in her Jeannie Street home in Pineville and attempted to kill her mother, Nedra.

McClinton also lived on that street though it was never established he knew either victim or publicly established what his motive was.

Found mentally capable in August 1992 of standing trial, McClinton two days later pleaded guilty to avoid the possibility of capital punishment.

Earlier in 1992 he also was charged with second-degree murder of Larvell Green. Her body was found in Camp Livingston. That Grant Parish case resulted in a 30-year manslaughter sentence.

A sad footnote – Nedra had earlier lost her older daughter in a car accident.