'We made it': Imprisoned at 15, lifer goes free at 43

DETROIT (AP) — Bobby Hines stepped forward, smiling as he embraced the sister of the man he was convicted of killing.

Locked up for 28 years, he'd long wanted to meet Valencia Warren-Gibbs, to talk with her about that night in 1989 when her older brother, James, was shot after Hines and two others confronted him in a feud over drugs.

At 15, Hines had been condemned to life in prison without parole. Now he was out, a 43-year-old man navigating life in a city he left behind as an eighth-grader. Slowly, he was checking off things he needed to do: He'd already found work, enjoyed a meal in an actual restaurant and learned how to take photos with his new cellphone.

And on this Sunday, 20 days into his freedom, he'd come to sit down with his victim's sister and take responsibility for his role in Warren's death.

"You know why?" he told her, tapping a forefinger on a table for emphasis. "I'm never going to forget what I did."

He would not forget but he could make amends, move on and do his best to make the most of his extraordinary second chance. After nearly three decades behind bars, he was learning what it meant to be Bobby Hines again – older, hopefully wiser, and a stranger to the world of 2017.

"We made it," Hines declared, almost inaudibly, as if he'd just crossed an imaginary finish line.

He walked out of prison at 9 a.m. promptly one September morning, arm-in-arm with his sister, Myra, who beamed, laughed and rested her head on her brother's shoulder as they approached an SUV waiting to whisk him away.