Rolf Kaestel (1951–2024)

Rolf Kaestel was a penitentiary inmate and advocate for prison reform. A petty criminal before landing in Arkansas, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a small-time robbery in Fort Smith (Sebastian County) in 1981 and was incarcerated until 2021. Kaestel’s case, with its spotlight on injustice surrounding retributive sentencing, became a cause célèbre among prison reformers, backed by such public figures as actress Rose McGowan and CNN commentator Van Jones.

Rolf Kaestel was born in Coburg, Germany, on June 2, 1951. His mother was Anna Maria Kaestel. His German-born stepfather Werner Siegfried Kaestel emigrated to America and joined the U.S. Air Force, fighting in the Korean War. Rolf spent part of his early childhood in an orphanage before his divorced mother married Werner Kaestel and retrieved him from the orphanage. The family then moved to the United States.

Kaestel was a bright but troubled youth. According to Kaestel, he had a stable upbringing and an early life free of drug or alcohol abuse. He nevertheless had an anti-authority streak, saying “no way was society going to ‘assimilate’ me and make me one of its mimics.” He recalled committing his first theft at the age of eleven, when he stole a pack of cigarettes. His crimes soon accelerated. Before he had a driver’s license, he was stealing cars so that he could drive to Alabama to visit a girlfriend. “I stole a lot of cars,” he later remembered. Expelled from school in the seventh grade, Kaestel was given the choice to report to a school for troubled juveniles or live with his mother and stepfather in Europe. He chose Europe.

In Germany, Kaestel quickly returned to his criminal ways, getting into trouble with authorities. At one point, he lived in a “German institution” for eleven months. He tried to join the U.S. Air Force to serve in Germany, but he was told he would have to return to the United States instead. He did so, but once back in America, he left his mother and stepfather in New York and never saw them again.

Kaestel returned to Alabama, where he was arrested for burglary, though rather than serve time, he was allowed to live with the jailer, a veteran who knew him from childhood. Kaestel’s odd new living arrangement did not last. Kaestel spent time in both Alabama and New Mexico, committing crimes and serving time in both states. He was imprisoned for two years in New Mexico for a robbery and was released in 1979.

On the night of February 15, 1981, Kaestel, accompanied by others, robbed a restaurant in Fort Smith. With the aid of one of his accomplices and using a fake but realistic-looking pistol, he stole less than $300 from Señor Bob’s Taco Hut before fleeing. Kaestel said he did not threaten the owner during the robbery, and no one was harmed at any point during the crime and his capture.

Kaestel was picked up by police not long after he stole the money. Fort Smith was experiencing a violent crime wave at the time, and the Fort Smith justice system had little interest in showing leniency toward offenders. Also detrimental to Kaestel was his decision—not helped by his natural anti-authority streak—to act as his own attorney. He did not approve of the public defender, who had Kaestel’s accomplices testify against him in court. The prosecuting attorney was aggressive, and the trial was a heated four-day ordeal. Kaestel was convicted, given a life sentence, and fined $15,000. Jurors were unaware that Kaestel would never be eligible for parole when they convicted him, given that those receiving a life sentence in Arkansas could not be released unless granted clemency by the governor.

Now incarcerated for life, Kaestel proved a model prisoner at Arkansas’s Cummins Unit. He worked at the infirmary, wrote for the Long Line Writer inmate paper, and further studied the law. He kept himself busy as a paralegal and continued to act as his own attorney, writing appeals concerning his case. In 1993, the Arkansas Parole Board said he had been successfully rehabilitated and recommended his release, but Governor Jim Guy Tucker, a Democrat, denied his petition for clemency.

Kaestel became embroiled in the controversy surrounding the Arkansas prison blood plasma program. Interviewed in 1999 for the documentary Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal, Kaestel told filmmaker Kelly Duda that the prison system was beset by “graft, corruption, and money making.” Factor 8 was not released until 2005, but not long after he spoke with Duda, Kaestel was transferred to Utah State Prison in Draper. His removal from Arkansas seemed to be an act of retribution for him speaking out on prison matters.

Kaestel stayed in Draper until 2013, when he was transferred again, this time to Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison. While in Draper, Kaestel had caused little trouble, had continued his paralegal work, and had nearly obtained enough credits for several bachelor’s degrees.

In the early 2000s, Kaestel petitioned Arkansas governor Mike Beebe, also a Democrat, for clemency, but Beebe denied it despite the parole board’s approval. Kaestel had made similar appeals in 1995 and 2003. “I have known Rolf Kaestel for 8 years,” Kelly Duda wrote in 2008, “and if there were ever a successfully rehabilitated man, he is the one.” In the summer of 2021, Kaestel was granted clemency by Republican governor Asa Hutchinson. Kaestel was released on December 14, 2021.

Kaestel enjoyed his freedom for less than three years. He was working as a paralegal in Little Rock for the James Law Firm and living in Sherwood (Pulaski County) at the time of his death on February 25, 2024, from cirrhosis and liver cancer. No funeral was held, and brief local obituaries made no mention of his forty years spent behind bars for stealing less than $300. On December 14, 2024, the third anniversary of Kaestel’s release for prison, a memorial honoring his life and legacy was held at the Arkansas State Capitol; among the speakers were filmmaker Duda, Rep. Vivian Flowers of Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), and Dennis Schluterman, the restaurant employee whom Kaestel had robbed in 1981 and who later advocated for his release.

For additional information:
Briquelet, Kate. “Man Who Got Life for Toy Gun Robbery Will Finally Walk Free Next Month.” Daily Beast, September 27, 2021. https://www.thedailybeast.com/rolf-kaestel-man-who-got-life-for-robbing-taco-shop-with-toy-gun-will-finally-walk-free-in-october (accessed November 10, 2024).

Frazier, Colby. “Invisible Man: Why Is the Utah Prison System Housing Someone Who Robbed an Arkansas Taco Shop 33 Years Ago?” Salt Lake City Weekly, August 27, 2014. https://m.cityweekly.net/utah/invisible-man/Content?oid=2510963&storyPage=2 (accessed November 10, 2024).

Hale-Shelton, Debra. “Man Who Served Decades in Prison for Robbery with Toy Gun Dies.” Arkansas Times, February 26, 2024. https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2024/02/26/man-who-served-decades-in-prison-for-robbery-with-toy-gun-dies (accessed November 10, 2024).

“Kaestel v. State.” Justia US Law, January 18, 1982. https://law.justia.com/cases/arkansas/supreme-court/1982/cr-81-70-0.html (accessed November 10, 2024).

Miano, Lena. “Flowers in LR to Honor Kaestel.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 15, 2024, pp. 1B, 3B. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/dec/14/arkansans-remember-man-whose-life-sentence-for-81/ (accessed December 15, 2024).

Simpson, Stephen. “After Decades in Prison, Arkansas Man Who Robbed Taco Shop with Toy Gun Nearer to Release.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, August 2, 2012. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/aug/02/toy-gun-bandit-nearer-to-release/ (accessed November 10, 2024).

Strain, Milo. “Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal Whistleblower Honored at Capitol Memorial Service.” Arkansas Times, December 17, 2024. https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2024/12/17/arkansas-prison-blood-scandal-whistleblower-honored-at-capitol-memorial-service (accessed December 17, 2024).

Colin Edward Woodward
Richmond, Virginia