Prison
1979 - Arrest & Confinement
Arrested on January 12, 1979, and not released until November 19, 2014 — a continuous term of 35 years, 10 months, and 7 days, from the age of 18 to 54.
I was confined in a cage. Sometimes I was held in a cage within a cage, within a cage.
All were cages I certainly and seriously deserved.
01/1979 - Indicted for Capital Murder
God’s Grace and Mercy are sufficient for anyone and everyone who will simply embrace the Way, the Truth, and the Life — Jesus Christ.
Even within the cage, light found me.
01/1979 - Indicted for Capital Murder
I was indicted for Capital Murder in January 1979 — causing the death of an individual during the course of a robbery.
The State of Texas filed notice of its intent to seek the death penalty.
I was guilty as charged.
After six months of preparing for a capital murder jury trial, I entered a plea agreement to avoid the death sentence.
I pled guilty to the lesser-included offense of murder, before a judge — to escape execution by lethal injection for the offense of capital murder.
07/1979 - Pled Guilty for a Life Sentence
Instead of the death sentence, I was given a life sentence, with parole release possibilities after serving a mandatory 20 calendar years to reach initial parole eligibility.
It was a long road, and I had just turned 19 years old in the county jail.
1980s - Injury, Ignorance & Rage
I entered prison without much education. I had quit school as a junior in high school, a terrible student with an erratic, short attention span.
The year before the crime, I had suffered a major car wreck. My skull was broken into four large pieces and shoved downward upon the brain.
I entered prison dumb as a rock, brain-damaged, and filled with rage.
We fear what we cannot understand, and fear is the root of anger and rage.
1980s, 90s, 2000s - Education & Spiritual Growth
Entering prison, I was just smart enough to realize that I needed to learn how to think correcctly.
I dedicated myself to inward reflection/acknowledgement, and pursued education when and where allowed.
Over the span of three decades I earned the GED, 8 vocational certifications, and three AAS degrees, as well as completing multiple religious courses, cognitive classes, and spiritual programs.
11/19/2014 - Parole Release
On November 19, 2014, after 35 years, 10 months, and 7 days of continuous incarceration, I was paroled and released from prison.
I stepped into the sunlight, free not only from the cage, but from the rage within — freed from my former self.
God’s unrelenting Mercy, and the TDCJ rehabilitative programs, had reborne a lost and foundering soul... and set him free from physical confinement, set him free from himself...
John 8:36 had been realized in my life: If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.