Werts, 23, didn't know that the robbery victim had been fatally shot until his accomplices jumped back inside the car.
The District Attorney's Office offered Werts a plea bargain of eight to 20 years in prison, but he opted for a jury trial and wound up getting convicted of second-degree murder.
That resulted in a mandatory life sentence without parole - the punishment in Pennsylvania state court for first- or second-degree murder. (Some first-degree-murder convictions also can draw death sentences.)
"I was young, ignorant of the law at that time, and I just could not reconcile in my mind how I could be guilty of murder, because I didn't kill anybody - right?" said Werts, now 62.
"So I turned that deal down because I was under the illusion that if I went to trial, I would tell the facts of the case and I would be found guilty of less or I would be found innocent. But I was wrong."
