Hector Bravo UNHINGED
Official Hector Bravo Podcast
Hector Bravo UNHINGED
Jojo - From Gang Life to Redemption: A Journey Through Resilience and Hope
Jojo Godinez’s remarkable journey illustrates the powerful transition from a life entrenched in gang violence to one of faith and redemption. He discusses his struggles within the juvenile and prison systems, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and the supportive role of community in achieving transformation.
• Early life in gang culture and environment
• The turning point: serious crimes leading to imprisonment
• Adjusting to life in juvenile and adult incarceration
• The role of faith in personal transformation
• The importance of common sense and respect in prison life
• Life after release and the establishment of "Trapped Families"
• Helping families impacted by incarceration and fostering community
• Redemption as a central theme in Jojo's life and message
Hector Bravo unhinged.
Speaker 2:Chaos is now in session.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to our channel Warriors. We are still growing. Today we have another special guest by the name of Jojo, who just drove all the way down from LA Bro, what's up man, what's up man. How was the drive dude Any?
Speaker 2:traffic, just little spontaneous spots here and there, but it was pretty good. Just some construction going on, but it was all right cool drive you.
Speaker 1:Let me know that you were a lifer at one point, that you actually paroled. That is correct, damn dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so where did you grow up at? I grew up in the city of La Puente, the SGV San Gabriel Valley of LA County, bridgetown, yep, bridgetown.
Speaker 1:Now, were you involved in any gangs when you were growing up there? Yeah, I was involved.
Speaker 2:Well shoot, I was in the mix of gangs my whole life. I officially didn't get jumped into a clique until probably when I was like, I want to say, 13, 14 years old, but prior to that, though, I had always been claiming Puente for a lot of years, just because that's where I was from, that's where all my neighbors were from you know how much percentage?
Speaker 1:would you say your friends and family were part of that gang or culture?
Speaker 2:I would say my friends growing up. I would say probably 90%, damn, yeah, almost all of them. I grew up on a street Hector with almost 25 kids all the same age. It was a regular middle-class community. It wasn't the projects, nothing like that, it was residential homes, but there was a lot of kids my age and you know. We go back to the 70s where kids were running the streets, riding their bikes, playing kickball, not like today. We, you know, we, we didn't want to be inside, we were outside, you know, and when we're outside in the streets, you know, we saw a lot of interaction with the older kids, because I'm talking about like five years years old, six years old, playing in the streets right, and seeing our older brothers and sisters that are already involved in gangs. We saw a lot of fighting, shooting, stabbings, running over of people. So it was, um, it was a part of my life very young, that gang culture how big were rivalries?
Speaker 1:Were all these attacks against rivals or amongst each other? Oh, no, no.
Speaker 2:Oh man, See, when it comes to my neighborhood, it's a pretty big neighborhood with a lot of cliques and during, you know, the 70s, 80s, even 90s, we were at war with each other. Our greatest enemy was within La.
Speaker 1:Puente yeah, I hate to say it like that.
Speaker 2:there's different sections, different sections. So we have we have what, where I grew up, which is considered east side puente, that's like on the east skirts of the city from downtown east side would be us, and then there was the west side, which was a lot of different cliques which were closer to our enemies on that border. So we were surrounded by different neighborhoods but there was really like two specific neighborhoods that we were really really at war with outside of our own cliques. But yeah, though I mean growing up in my neighborhood, if somebody drove by and threw us a pee for Puente, it was kind of still like our hands were on the gun, like what part of Puente were you Really, especially if we didn't recognize them? Yeah, yeah, that's just the way it was.
Speaker 1:You know it's a lot different today, but At that time or in that area were there any racial gang issues?
Speaker 2:Not really. There were some Crips that were later on in the West Covina area, which is the next city like later on in the West Covina area, which is the next city, like kind of north of us, but it wasn't really like a big, you know big factor of us gangbanging against them. But if we ran into them we were definitely going to attack, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So did you eventually find yourself in like juvenile hall or jail? I'm sure you didn't land yourself in the big house right away. Man, yeah, nah.
Speaker 2:I started off in juvenile hall or jail. I'm sure you didn't land yourself in the big house right away, man, yeah, nah, it was. I started off in juvenile hall, um, and it is crazy, hector, because back in the like I'm saying, the late 70s, early 80s I would get in trouble for stealing, for vandalizing, for breaking into private private property and stuff and the cops would literally like take me home, like take me home and watch my dad whip me at the front door.
Speaker 1:Really yeah.
Speaker 2:But after a while they're like you know what man, you've been getting in trouble too much. And then I get put on probation. And then by the age of six, I was on probation, probably from like 13 to 15. And then that's when I hit juvenile hall. And when I hit juvenile hall for the first time it was for actually for my commitment offense in which I got life for, and when you hit juvenile hall for the first time, that was your commitment offense, that was my commitment offense, even though I had prior contacts with with the cops, this time it was like I wasn't going home.
Speaker 2:What was your commitment offense? It was a conspiracy to commit murder and six counts of attempted murder. And then I ended up having um, like some other intimidating witnesses, cases that were attached to it, and I don't mean to laugh, bro.
Speaker 1:You hit me with the six counts of attempted murder, dude. Yeah well, it must have been like a gang injunction type of shit.
Speaker 2:Well, we didn't have gang injunctions at that time, but there was the crowd in which I shot. Oh, they were all running at me, oh, shit and I like shot at them. So all of them were on file. All of them identified me as shooting at their direction and stuff.
Speaker 1:So Now me as shooting in their direction and stuff. So now I don't know how much you're willing to talk about that uh offense or crime, but like uh, was this like a fluke? Was this bound to happen? Was this wrong place, wrong time?
Speaker 2:I'm gonna say, wrong place, wrong time, but but very common I would say like that, that's cool.
Speaker 2:So my story in a nutshellector on that situation was I was in my neighborhood kicking back waiting for some girls. We're kicking back in the garage, you know me and a couple of homies kicking back. Two other homies rode up in a stolen truck. They were like, hey, what are you doing? I said I'm just chilling man waiting for these broads to show up. And they were like, well, go with us real quick, go pick up these other bros. And I said where at? And they told me the high school. And I was like, oh man, I already knew that's in my enemy's neighborhood. Okay, and I'm not messing with them. Girls, I'm already waiting for these other girls. Yeah, uh, but because they're my homies, they're going over there. Good chances are we might get into something. So I'm like all right, you know, let me god. Honest truth, though i't have no, I didn't have even a knife on me. If anything, I was thinking we'll just throw some blows or something. I didn't have a gun on me, nothing. I wasn't going over there with the intentions to gangbang, but I knew there was a possibility that we may bump into something. We're on school grounds. I'm not thinking any of them kids are taking, they might have a knife on them. I'm not thinking, no, guns, a knife on them. I'm not thinking no gun. So I'm like, okay, whatever, you know what I mean. Um, so I jump in, jump in the back seat. My two homies are going. We're just going like nothing. I said, hey, you fools, better bring me right back, though I want to come right back because I'm waiting for them.
Speaker 2:Girls, we go to the high school. It's about two o'clock. They're getting out of school two o'clock in the afternoon. Um, we pick up two girls. Since it was a homie that was sitting shotgun, that was his interaction I went to the front. Now, he went to the back with these two girls. Right, as we're driving off the school ground, everything was cool, we didn't see nobody. Everything was cool. We got the girls. Bam, let's head back.
Speaker 2:So, as we're coming back out, though, we got to cut on the street, because to get into a school parking lot, you go in one way, and then you got to exit another way just to avoid all that traffic collision. Right, yeah, but in order to go that way, we have to go slightly through our enemy's neighborhood, and as soon as we were coming out, the homie that was driving. He tells me, yeah, the other day we chased some fools right here and I was like, is that right? We're at. He said, matter of fact, right there where the garage doors open. And I said, is that right? So as we're going by, hector, I look in. I said oh damn, there, they are right there. And um, there was a bunch of them and it looked like they were working on the driveway or something, because it looked like asphalt, like you know the big old chunks of like tar, you know the asphalt. It looks like there were some right there in the front yard and stuff.
Speaker 2:So we're driving by, I'm throwing up the neighborhood and stuff, and they start throwing up their neighborhood neighborhood, start flipping out, you know, just disrespecting all that stuff, and they start running out and I seen them starting grabbing like shovels and ice picks and stuff. And I tell my homeboy man, like jam fool, you know, like take off. So he goes to the corner, he makes a U-turn and when we're right there at the U-turn, the homie in the back says open up the glove compartment. Yeah, yeah, yeah, big old 357s inside the glove compartment. Wasn't mine, didn't even know it was there. I grab it though, you know and um.
Speaker 2:So my intentions were just to like kind of flash it at them, like, hey, like we spared you. You know what I mean. Like it's broad daylight, I have two girls in the car, my homies. They start running though. They start running at us and I'm like, come on, boy, like he coming, I tell my homie man, just run them over, for like they're all in the street, like we're in a stolen truck, we're in a forerunner, a toyota forerunner, and I'm telling my homeboy, just run them over. And, uh, my home in the back's, like blast, blast them, like blast them. So I'm like it happened so fast where I got out the truck and they were still running. I'm like, come here fool they were far.
Speaker 2:I got out the truck and they were still running in the middle of the street and they were throwing pieces of that asphalt. And it was like coming kind of close to the car and stuff. Already they were still a distance. So I just picked up the gun and I outed up and I shot at him three times. I think it was like three times, Like bah, bah and I was like what fool you?
Speaker 2:know what I mean. And I just jumped back in the car and I told the homie, like jam, fool, like let's jam, and I wasn't even really thinking of it as anything. So when we jam, I tell my homeboy like other side of the hill, so I tell them hey, just drop me off at the pad man, get rid of these girls, get rid of this truck man. You know, just go do what you got to do, because there was this spot where we used to like burn the trucks, and you know all our stolen cars.
Speaker 1:Real quick, man. I heard you mention stolen car like if it was nothing. Man, was that a common thing? It was common thing. It was on our block.
Speaker 2:Stolen, freaking vehicles on our block in the 80s we had at least three, four stolen cars just what was the? Technique back then, the hot wiring, no, no, the technique was dent pulling the dead. Yeah, so a dent puller, just screw it into the ignition and we used to just bang it out. Boom and and forerunner toyota forerunners were like the easiest, they were like you could ram cars with it, you could run over people with them.
Speaker 1:It's like grand theft auto bro. You were living grand theft auto man, the video game at times, you know I mean at times.
Speaker 2:Um. So yeah, that's what happened. I end up going home, I go and I shower, I do all the techniques that we thought we we knew being streetwise, go home and put bleach on our hands. Well, you know, at that time I'm putting bleach on me. I think I even urinated on my hands, you know, because we knew already from prior incidents the cops would get us and take us in after a shooting and they would do the swabs on us and put our hands under the purple light and if they see gunpowder, they kind of kind of attach it to us, but back then there wasn't ring doorbells like there is now.
Speaker 1:No so how would people get caught up like witnesses or or the other witnesses?
Speaker 2:identification. Most of the time it's identifying us, you know, in lineups and whatnot. So, um, of course, all of us. We already had our pictures in the gang file and stuff, so it's easy to bring the witnesses the station. Yeah, it was the guys from puente. Okay, here's the active gang members right now. Do you recognize any of them? And that's what it? That was part of it.
Speaker 2:The story twists a little bit, though, because homeboy in the back seat, the one that told me about the gun, yeah, ends up turning state against me, of course so I mean, they really didn't need any other witnesses besides him, but he ended up turning against me, and this was a homie that had barely like moved into the neighborhood too.
Speaker 1:Man, Did he turn on you? Because they jammed him up first and they were putting the heat on him.
Speaker 2:Well, remember, they dropped me off, they took off. They were supposed to get rid of the car. You know um, get rid of the girls, not, not, not get rid of them like that, but just go drop them off, take them home, whatever, right?
Speaker 2:um, but what happened is they end up cruising around in the stolen car right after the shooting. They end up getting into a high-speed chase, they crash holy shit, one of the girls and the guy in the back got got caught. I find out about all this because I go back to my neighborhood later on in the evening. Remember it was at two o'clock when it happened, so I go back to my neighborhood about six o'clock, seven o'clock. This was in january of 89. It's already dark, um, and we're right by the police, but sheriff's station I should say right by the sheriff's station and we seen a gang of sheriffs just rolling and we had police scannersanners and we're listening.
Speaker 1:We're like where are?
Speaker 2:they going, where are they going? And they were like, nah, they're going to the other side of town or whatever. So I told the homies like, hey, this is what happened earlier, you know, beyond lookout, you know we didn't have cell phones to call everybody. So I had to get there later on and all sweaty and dirty, I was like what happened? He's wearing a high-speed chase man and he starts telling me hey, homeboy got busted. I think one of the girls was with him too. I was like, oh shoot, I wasn't worried about the home, I was worried about the girl, you know yeah, but then again, I'm like the girl didn't even know me.
Speaker 2:I didn't even know her. So I'm thinking she don't know my name but she could identify me. That's the, that's you know the thing. But I didn't know her.
Speaker 1:I've never seen her before but even then you probably still, like you said, didn't think it was a big deal. You just popped a couple shots and, yeah, I didn't think anything of it.
Speaker 2:So come to find out, I go home. I actually go home. When my homie said he got buzzed I I went home and I packed a backpack. I told my mom hey, mom, I'm gonna have to head out for a few days. Um, I'll call you later. You know, I gotta go, though. And she's like where are you going? I said I'll call you later, I gotta go.
Speaker 2:Something happened, um, but before I took off, though, I called my homeboy, the one that got caught. I said what happened? He said they got me for GTA. I said GTA, only that's it. And he's like yeah, that's it. And I said what about the girl? He said nah, she wasn't there. And I was like what do you mean? She wasn't there. Homeboy already told me that she was with you guys still, and he's all nah, but she didn't say GTA. I'm like okay, maybe it was just GTA. I went to the girl's house, though, and I started jamming her up. I found out where she lived. I went over there. I said hey, let me talk to you. I said what did the cops tell you? You know what they say. She said they were just asking me who was in the truck, and I just told her my boyfriend.
Speaker 1:Wait a minute. Didn't you tell me you got it for intimidating a witness? Was that it right there? No, that's not it Okay.
Speaker 2:I was already busted when they actually added them charges. So I'll tell you so. Anyways, she said she didn't say nothing. She just said that her boyfriend was dropping her off. I guess they had dropped her off and the cops pulled up right behind them when she was already outside of the car. And then when he got busted he was saying, like how do you know that, well, that's my boyfriend or whatever, but he, she didn't know anybody else. She said so I'm like OK, so I kind of just shined it on.
Speaker 2:I was still in the neighborhood for the next couple of weeks and then I remember I was sick in bed one morning. I didn't go to school, I was going to continuation school at that time and I heard all the dogs barking All at that time. And I heard all the dogs barking. All my neighbors have dogs and they're all barking. So I peek out the blind and I see nothing but sheriffs right there. So I go to the back door and I see them lined up on my wall with guns and stuff and I'm like, um, I didn't know what to do. I just went back to my bed, jumped in bed. I was like I'm done, you know whatever.
Speaker 2:So they end up banging on the door. My sister opens the door for them. They come in and they start telling me that I was being arrested for 187. I was like what? I was like man, you tripping, and the whole time I'm just like my mouth, I don't know what they're talking about. You know, I'm just holding my mug.
Speaker 2:And then when I get to the sheriff's station I see my homeboy. My homeboy was there, not the one that was in the back, the homie that was driving, and he was like what's up. And I was like what's up. And so I'm looking for the other homie. He's not there. And they tell us yeah, is there anything you want to tell us about? You know that incident. You know, three weeks ago. And I said what incident? I don't know what you're talking about, I'm playing stupid, I don't. When you're being tried as an adult, you got to go through all these fitness hearings and everything and you have to. It's just a long process. So finally they're saying, okay, we're going to start pretrial, but the thing is they can't bond you over to superior courts on hearsay and what I mean by hearsay. Up into this time, all the witnesses had said it wasn't me, all them guys. When it came time to testify, all of them said it wasn't me.
Speaker 1:Did they interrogate you in an interrogation room? Yeah yeah, how was that? Was it a long process? Because I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos lately where they interrogate the shit out of people. Did you ever think about getting lawyering up?
Speaker 2:I did but not at that point. But I already knew I had already been busted. They had already picked us up many a time. I already knew Just shut up, I don't know nothing. I mean, I don't know anything, and they even try to tell you too, like, yeah, you know, he's telling on you already.
Speaker 1:I get it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know this is your chance, you know. Do you want to tell on him first before? I'm like man, I don't know what you're saying. You know what I'm saying. Like many of times they had picked us up, just raid the whole neighborhood, take us all in and try to fish for information, just go with the plan Like we don't know nothing. Right, you know.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, I went through that interrogation. I wasn't scared or nothing, I really wasn't. You know what I mean. And next thing I know, that's when I go to juvenile hall. And when I went to juvenile hall for the first time, I already had an indication of what it would be like and it was crazy because as soon as I walk in, everybody's throwing in their neighborhoods and stuff. And Los Padrinos is a juvenile hall I went to. So LA County has three different juvenile halls. We have Los Padrinos, we have Central, which is Eastlake, and then we have Sylmar for, like San Fernando Valley, but all the SGV Harbor area, south Central Compton, all of them areas go to Los padrinos. So almost all them gangs are right there probably the worst one.
Speaker 2:Then I mean, um, it's the. I would say it's the most mixed race one because, like, when you go to the central, you got nothing but boyle heights. East ala is mainly all rasa, you know. I mean, there's blacks and a couple of whites, but majority, that's what it is, you know. But in, in lp, we got a lot of blacks, a lot of mexicans, you know, a little bit of whites.
Speaker 2:But uh, as soon as I got there, I got jumped by two of my enemies. I didn't even have a chance. I went into my. They gave me my, my, my blanket and my pillow and whatnot and they said, yeah, go make up your bed. As soon as I went in there, they had already rushed me. Was it a dorm setting? No, no, it was rooms, rooms, yeah, it was. Uh, I think I was in a single yeah at that time. No single man south. Yeah, it was just a single man bunk, wow, yeah. And I had my back the wall, there's a window, there's a bunk, and then there's the door. And I heard the door open when I turned back. They just came in rushing me because as soon as I was walking in and everybody's jamming you in like from the door. There's one door when you first come in and then everybody's right there in a day room and then the rooms are off to the side right. So as soon as you're walking to that day room they're like where you from man yeah Like puente, boom boom.
Speaker 2:They're like all right, all right, boom, boom, boom. I didn't know who was there. You know what I'm saying. Next thing I know I'm getting lumped up a little bit.
Speaker 1:And how long were you in juvenile hall for? I ended up staying in juvenile for a year fighting my case.
Speaker 2:And at what point did you realize the severity of the matter? I think when my attorney started telling me like they're like you know what, if we could keep you in juvenile, then you'll probably end up with like, like a juvenile life where you get out at 25. But there's always a possibility, though they may, you know, if you get tried as an adult, then that might be out the window. And I said so what am I looking at as an adult? And he was like you're looking at life, for the conspiracy, that's life by itself, and the attempt at murders is also life. And the reason why they got the conspiracy though, after I told you I was just kicking it and they came and picked me up right in order to in order to, um, prove a conspiracy, you had to have, like, map timed accounts, like you had to have certain things planning it, what's?
Speaker 1:the difference between conspiracy and first degree isn't first degree premeditated. What's the difference? It all depends first degree Isn't first degree premeditated. What's the difference between premeditated and conspiracy? It all depends on the circumstances of your crime.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but because my crime partner opened his mouth and said that we had planned to go look for somebody then that's how they attached it to me.
Speaker 2:But there was never no proof other than his word and I ended up getting that overturned in the appellate courts because they have what's called overacts. They have to have these overacts to prove, uh, the conspiracy, like I said they had to have, like nowadays it would be a text message, it would be pictures, you know, monitoring a house or something you know, but they didn't have nothing besides his word. Damn, yeah. So and the intimidation came in right after I got busted, my homeboys went and shot up the other homies house, so that came back on me. How did that come back on you, they said. They said that I'm the one that ordered it. I'm like, yeah, it was crazy.
Speaker 2:And the intimidating witnesses came in through homeboys that were in the courtroom, that were talking crazy to the witnesses, and I'm like I'm up here with talking crazy to the witnesses and I, I'm like I'm up here with the da, the attorneys and everyone else how, how am I intimidating them, right? Yeah, so, yeah, they were. Just they were back then, though, in 89 man, they were trying to railroad all those gang members.
Speaker 1:They were making an example, they were making examples out of all of us. Well, you said the 89, 90,. There was that big boom of prisons being built in the early 90s. I'm starting to freaking observe how the government operates, man. It's like they'll give up the house and let everything go wild and then they'll just crack down. It's weird what they do.
Speaker 2:I shared this on another podcast and man people twisted, especially the host on another podcast, and man people twist, especially the the host. I'm not going to say which one, but I had said that during during that time, like drive-bys were the given? There was no, there was no rules. There was no rules to gangbanging. For the most part, I mean there's like common sense. And then there was like gangbang is gangbanging. You know, I mean it's just barbaric. You know the tactics and um, I had said that, um, at that time, at that time in my life, my house was always being shot up. I had little nieces, little nephews in there and I had shared how, like yeah, I didn't care who was, you know if you were my enemy and I knew where you were and I wanted you like you did something.
Speaker 2:It was, I was gonna come and I didn't care who was in your house, you know, I mean I was gonna try to, um, you know, make my and I was like 14 at the time, by the way very stupid, very just running amok, you know. But yes, this was during the 80s when all this happened it wasn't later on is when rules started being implemented in neighborhoods on right and wrongs. You know what I'm saying. But yeah, there was a lot of stuff going on. So there was a lot of homies being picked up for murders, attempted murders, home invasions, and yeah, it was crazy. And when I got to Juvenile Hall Los Padrinos, I probably had like 20, 25 homies there with me from the streets that I knew, you know, for like violent crimes.
Speaker 1:How was your adjustment to being in confinement? How did you like being in a cell? Did you get claustrophobia? Did you miss the luxuries of being able to go to the store and buy some chips or soda? I didn't. To tell you the truth, I didn't. I was okay, you were good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I was good. I mean, I prefer to like being myself. I mean, I I used to like to go out and play ball, right, I didn't mention that, but throughout all my childhood I played ball. I played baseball, you know. I played football, pop warner, little league. Uh, I did some kickboxing. I played basketball. That was my thing. I was very athletic. You know, that's one thing about my dad. My dad always had me in sports, you know, and a lot of my friends would play sports, you know. So, so when I got to juvenile hall, that's what I, that was my go-to even in prison, that was my.
Speaker 2:Anybody that knows me throughout prison, oh yeah, that was always on the handball court. I was always playing basketball, playing softball. That that's the way I did time. And in juvenile hall, that's what I was doing too. You know, besides fighting, all the time, were there a lot of fights going on. It was a lot of fights all the time. You know, that's what's crazy is juvenile hall. You're in there gang banging to the fullest, and then you go to county jail and now there's no more gangbanging, right? And then, for me, I end up in YA, where it's even more extreme gangbanging.
Speaker 1:So you went from juvenile hall to county jail, to YA.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to CDC yeah.
Speaker 1:That was your path.
Speaker 2:That was my path.
Speaker 1:yeah, holy shit, dude. Yeah. So, as you're going up that trajectory, are you starting to notice rules? Are you starting to notice the reglas?
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I first got to Juvenile Hall, you know, it was just all about my neighborhood, all about Puente. Then when I got there, it was still all about Puente, but now there was like the SGV car. You know, because out on the streets we got along with certain neighborhoods like Azusa and Flores. They were like our, our, they were like other big neighborhoods, but we were cool with them and we kind of had the, the mutual enemies too, you know yeah so it was kind of like we had each other's backs in there.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm saying if we had an enemy and we really want, I mean of course we're going to get on one-on-one, but then eventually, eventually, if he's still running his mouth, we'll probably just jump him and try to get him to roll it up or something. But yeah, it was juvenile, but I never felt fearful of my life in juvenile hall, like I was going to get killed, like on the streets, you know, because there was no guns, and I got stabbed a couple times with pencils but it was kind of like. You know just gave me a shot for an infection. I think they gave me a technique shot, but that was it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:They used some tweezer one time to pull it out, pull out the lead, but I never felt like I was going to die or nothing like that. You know what I mean. But I always, like, when I would fight in there, I would like protect my face, because I used to think they were going to try to stab me in the eye or something. So I would, you know, I would be and and I had a lot of experience. I mean, my nickname was boxer, so I I was always fighting in the streets prior to juvenile hall, so going in there and fighting it wasn't really a big deal to me. So during this process.
Speaker 1:At what point did, uh you stop fighting the case, or was the case over with so?
Speaker 2:let me tell you this. So, juvenile hall, I said I was in there for a year. I went through my fitness hearing as a juvenile and they ended up trying me as an adult. So we went to adult court. This is where the preliminaries and everything that was going on, where they couldn't present a physical witness to testify against me All them guys I already had the paperwork on them.
Speaker 2:They all said it was me on paperwork. They did, I have that, yeah, I still have that, yeah. But in court, though, they all changed their statements. No, that wasn't him. I don't remember him looking like that. So I'm like, okay, I'm not knowing that, even though I already seen the paperwork and they already said what they said. I said is it still going to affect? I didn't know. This was my first time going through this process of a trial like this, you know, and so, after all of them testified, they called my crime partner, but he never showed up. What I ended up finding out, though? He, by the way, though me and the driver were facing the life sentences, right, the guy in the backseat that got the girls, the one that told me about the gun he took a year of probation for gang terrorism.
Speaker 2:They offered him a deal a year of gang terrorism in order to testify against me and my crime partner.
Speaker 1:Now, was that your homie or was this a random?
Speaker 2:dude, he was from my homie. He's originally from LA, from Huntington.
Speaker 1:Park. Oh, you said he was new to the area.
Speaker 2:He was new to that neighborhood, but he was already gang-related, though. He came from LA gang-related, and it's kind of weird. I could honestly say he's probably the only hom only home. But he was down, though, and he was fighting with our enemies. He would be right there with us and, uh, enemies started shooting at him too. So we're like man, you might as well be from the neighborhood, they're shooting at you, you're fighting, you're like, you're right with us. And he was like all right, boom. So he got jumped in the neighborhood. Not long after that, we get busted. Yeah, so anyways, he doesn't come to court. Hector, they had to release us. We got released. No way, we got released.
Speaker 1:No way.
Speaker 2:We're going to adult court from juvenile hall. At this time we're in central juvenile now. When they tried to send us as adult, they took us out of Los Padrinos and took us to central Eastlake juvenile hall. That's where they took us when we were going to adult court, right? So we went back and they released us and what happened is we had what's called a DA reject. It's not like we were acquitted.
Speaker 2:It's not like they just kicked it out, it was a DA reject because of lack of evidence. So me and my home, we get out and we go right back to the streets, we go right back to the neighborhood, you know, and everybody's happy.
Speaker 2:They throw us a big old party, just like the movies. We're home, we think we're veteranos. Now we're barely we're. I think my homeboy had turned 17 in there. I'm still 16. And we think we're all this stuff. You know, there's all kinds of new homies in the neighborhood, new homegirls in the neighborhood from that year. A lot of things happened. So when we got out we found ourselves right back in the mix. Homies were telling us what's been going on.
Speaker 2:Homie gives me a brand new nine millimeter and tells me yeah, you know this for you, you know, and, um, I get the whole wardrobe back over again, the khakis and the van davisesises and just the whole gang attire right. And during this time, though, I'm talking to my mom and my dad I come from a good home, by the way, hector, I do. I come from a really good home, my mom and dad. My dad was a Marine, a Vietnam veteran. He grew up in the Liso Village in the projects of east la uh, a gang member, but the marine saved his life. That's what he would always tell me. The marine saved my life and gave me a whole different vision of life.
Speaker 1:Would he ever try to encourage you to join the military?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, I mean since I was a kid. I mean since I was a kid I played um, played soldier or whatnot you know, pretending like I was in vietnam. Because my dad had all these photo albums and it's some crazy stuff I'm talking about. My dad had pictures of him wearing um necklaces with earlobe, with ears on them and stuff, and yeah, my dad suffered ptsd. So bad, hector, but I love my dad. He was an alcoholic. He's a hard worker, though. He was a functioning alcoholic because he was a steel worker, um, and he went to work every morning, like I want to say, like 5, 6 o'clock in the morning, he would go to work and he would come home with a 12-pack, 6-pack, whatever, a box of beer and he would pound. My mom would feed him in the room with the old-fashioned TV trays.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, sometimes the little tv dinners, the aluminum, you know I mean he would eat, drink, pass out and do it all again the next day. You know. But my dad was very disciplined. My room was had to be immaculate at all times. It was like, I mean, he was a sergeant and he would come in with his literally it seemed like white gloves checking for dust, didn't allow me to have trash in my trash can. I'm like why do I have a trash can if I can't have trash in there? You know, like dump it out. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:And my bed had to be made perfect Every day. He would do like an inspection of my room. You know what I mean. And it gave me a lot of pride because I know I grew up like that, so it wasn't like a big thing by the time I was, you know, five, six years old. You know, um, I had, I had house tours that I had to do. I had to rake my front yard before we had all these uh uh gardeners, these landscapers. I had to do all the landscaping when he would drink.
Speaker 1:Would he ever tell stories, or would he tell stories?
Speaker 2:slip. My dad was a marine my whole life, whenever he had the chance to share stories with somebody, because you know a marine. They say once a marine, always a marine you know, I mean there's that brotherhood where they don't let go of it.
Speaker 2:And, um, yeah, my dad, I mean and I know some veterans that don't like to see any of these war movies my dad stood with the military channel on. My dad, I mean, and he had like hearing problems, so his tv was always like so you just hear boom, boom. You know, yeah, dude, yeah that was my dad, though, man, and I remember being so young.
Speaker 2:I think it was a movie in the 70s apocalypse now yeah seen apocalypse now, like over and over again, and my dad would tell he would be navigating the story, uh, telling me about the canuck helicopters and the hueys, and telling about you know the foxholes, and telling me, and you could see the passion when he, when he shares, you know, I mean, and I grew up watching, looking at these photo albums, and all my uncles were in vietnam too, in different branches. I had all my uncles were in Vietnam too, in different branches. I had one uncle, two uncles in the Army and one in the Navy, and then my dad was a Marine, all brothers and I have other cousins and all my family. So, yeah, I always wanted to be a Marine. I couldn't wait to get out of school to be a Marine.
Speaker 1:So did he ever get to the point where he like just gave up trying to keep you in line?
Speaker 2:yeah, later on, later on, he did. My dad was very disciplinary, by the way, too. I mean, I never felt I was abused by my dad. Yeah, yeah, but I know I mean today many would consider it because I mean, my dad threw me through drywall. I mean, damn, my dad done, you know, smack me quite often.
Speaker 2:You know, um, in my house there was no mistakes. If I did something wrong, it was on purpose. In my dad's eyes, there was no mistakes. If I dropped a glass of milk, broke the glass, I did that on purpose. You know, if I broke the window outside playing bass harder, I did that on purpose and I was going to be hit for it. You know, I mean, but my dad would hit me. But then he would talk to me like, don't break the window, no more, don't be more careful with the milk. You know different things like that. And and uh, I, you know, over the years I have given a lot of credit to my dad for a lot of my anger, my animosity and everything towards him, because my dad didn't allow me to express, um, my feelings as far as it was like a weakness.
Speaker 2:It was like if I came home bleeding when I fell off my bike I'm bleeding from my arm just dripping. Heck, they're dripping and I'm crying. I'm probably about six years old.
Speaker 2:I'm crying, you know yeah and and he grabbed me, shoved a rag in my mouth, told me like, like, take the pain, like you're right, you're not going to die. Bring it over here, put me over a sink, cleaned it up, threw some peroxide or alcohol on it, put a, put a gauze on me and said you're fine, go play. You know, I mean, and it never failed. It never failed. Every time I hurt myself and I would cry stop being a little girl, man up, you know you're not dying, you know. And I learned to suppress them feelings later on and when I would gangbang, I would, I I carried that suppression, you know, I mean, and it was kind of like, um, I don't want, I don't want to over exaggerate and feel like I didn't, I wasn't human, but I, like, I didn't care for my victims no, I get it.
Speaker 1:Um, did you ever become enraged, or yeah, or you or utilize rage to fuel that fire I did.
Speaker 2:There was many a times, like I said, I was fighting in the streets a lot and there was times when I would catch myself blacking out, depending on the situation, like sometimes if I just got into an argument with my dad and I was like man, I can't wait to get older and stronger, because my dad was always like that man's man. You know what I'm saying where I mean he was tough, you know, and I knew I couldn't stand up to my dad and and I reverenced my dad. You know I never cussed at my dad, I never raised a hand at my dad, uh, but when I was out on the street so I pretend some of my victims were my dad, I'll be like, yeah, so you were.
Speaker 1:You were let go of juvenile hall, but you eventually went back into the system.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so let me tell you when they let me out. I told you, I went back to the streets and I started that whole thing about my dad and my mom being good people and I had told my mom, mom, I'm going to do good for you this time. You know, like I'm going to do good, I promise you. You know what I'm saying. Like I'm gonna go back to school, I'm gonna. You know, I'm gonna get my gd. Because she knew I wanted to be a marine.
Speaker 2:I had already started working out with one of my recruiters that was right there in my neighborhood. Uh, he was a. He was an asian dude, the chinese. His name was sergeant lee and I would come to camp penultim with them. Yeah, I'd come to mcrd with him. Um, the parade field over there.
Speaker 2:I started seeing that when I was young. You know what I mean and so like the values and everything of a marine. It was like my dad was instilling all of that in me young, about honor, respect, you know, and all of this stuff, man, like I lived up to. But I put it into my gang culture, right and um, so, yeah, so I tell my mom all that stuff. But it seemed like the neighborhood just kept getting a grip on me, a grip on me. But during that time I got with one of my homegirls Right, and she was, she was just like me, she was a gangbanger, she was, you know, there wasn't really I wouldn't say no shock, but she had a lot of influence among the homegirls, you know what I'm saying. And she was down for hers and I kind of like took a liking or and I was like kind of like took a liking to her and I was like kind of just messing with her for a little bit and we started getting serious and we started talking about starting a family.
Speaker 2:And I'm 17 at this time. Now I'm 17, and right after I got out I think it was a month late, november, december, like two months I got out in November, remember, I got, but in January, then November, I got out, so almost a year, and then in January I turned 17 and we started talking like like grown-up, talk man. Like I told her man, like we need to get out of here. A lot of my homies my age were starting to die, getting washed up, and I told my wife like I told her she's my wife now, but at the time she was my girlfriend. I told her, man, something needs to change, you know, I mean, and uh, it wasn't long, I got her pregnant, hector, and I told, I told my mom and my dad.
Speaker 2:My mom and dad were excited, they were like well, that's cool, you know, and my dad had that father talk with me. He's like so you're going to keep playing these games, you're going to man up, you're going to be a father to your son or are we going to have to raise him? You know, you're going to die in these streets, in these streets. And I was like, nah, dad, I'm gonna get a job, I'm gonna do good. Man, we're already talking about getting an apartment and stuff. And um, he said, yeah, all that drug money you got, you should put it away and, you know, do something with it and stuff. And I told him I am dad for real. It's like I'm gonna do good and and that was my real righteous intention to do good, yeah, I did get a job.
Speaker 2:Well, the first job I got, it was kind of like a fluke because it was right in my neighborhood. It was a brand new pizza place and I know when my homeboys see this they're going to start laughing because it was called Double Deal Pizza. It was right in my neighborhood and there was grand opening, balloons and everything. I said I'm going to go in there and ask them. You know, I want to get hired and stuff. So I go in there and I'm talking to they're Indian, they're from India, right, the Indian owners.
Speaker 2:And I was like, hey, man, you guys hiring. And he's looking at me and I was like, yeah, I need a job, man, I really need a job. And he said are them your friends? All my homeboys were right there in the front, probably maybe like a good 15, 20 homies. He said if we hire you, will my store be protected? Because the other day we got robbed and we're not even open. And we got robbed and I said, um, yeah. I said yeah, if I'm here, everything will be cool. Man, this is my neighborhood right here. And he said well, do you think you could get our money back? It was like probably, like like 300. But I said I don't know about that, I don't know who robbed you. You know what I'm saying. And I ended up getting that job man and they let me do deliveries right.
Speaker 2:I was doing deliveries in my mom's car, which was marked it was hot. It was a 79 orange Pinot. It was hotter than a firecracker in my neighborhood at that time. I mean that thing had bullet holes in it and everything and I was driving. I was driving it delivering pizzas, but I told the owner we had a map right there in the store. I told him this is the only area I could deliver Anything else. You need to send someone out. He said, all right, let's do it. So I started working there legit Minimum wage I think it was $4.25, where they were starting me at $4.25.
Speaker 2:And I started working, started saving my money. We're going to be having a baby, right, I think I want to say she got like January, january, yeah, I think it was January. She got pregnant. We got married in April. We had a shotgun marriage. Our parents had a sign for us. We were underage, we were both 17.
Speaker 2:And all my always, a lot of my always. We all went to las vegas and had one of them, quick little las vegas weddings. And uh, came back and, um, my homies are happy for me. They're like that's cool fool, you know what I'm saying. And and um, I was working, doing good, I had moved out of my neighborhood, I I went to my sister's house, which was just a few cities over in El Monte, and I ended up going home in July Remember we got married in April.
Speaker 2:In July I went back to the neighborhood, to my mom's house, and me and my brother, one of my homies I call him my brother, though, my homie Flaco we walked to the St Levin right there in the neighborhood and when we came out there was a sheriff that was pulling in and put the light on us, told us put our hands on the car and stuff. And I didn't have no reason to run or nothing. I'm working, I'm legit, I had my, my right, I had a driver's license. I just got my driver's license. I was like here, you know, like what's up? They're like where you guys you know coming from. We're like you've seen us walking out of 7-eleven. What do? What do you mean? Where we come from? What are you guys up to? Blah, blah, blah. I'm like nothing, man, you know, let me see your ID cards. Give them our ID cards. They sat us on the curb right there, had all our stuff on the cop car and there was two of them. So the guy's talking to us.
Speaker 2:The other guy took our IDs running, got a warrant for your arrest and I was like man, so come to find out. I'm in the substation and they it's like two o'clock in the morning they wake me up and they said, yeah, come out here. And I go out and it's a gang unit, gang units right there and they're're like what's up, jojo, how you doing, man? I heard you heard you having a baby. I heard you got married. I heard you're doing good. I said, man, if you heard all that, why are you messing with me? For you know, remember I told you earlier they had a habit of picking us up and just trying to fish information. Yeah, so I'm like why are you messing with me? For, man, come on, if you know I'm doing good, why mess with me? They're like this ain't even on us. I was like what do you mean? It's not on you, who's it on?
Speaker 2:Then they were like the district attorney from pomona court refiled on you, refiled on me. I said what do you mean refiled on me? They're like yeah, that case from two years ago. By now that was 89, all the 90 I was out, it was already almost. They refollowed on me. They reopened that same case on me, damn dude. So here I am repeating the process my wife's pregnant, married, her doing good.
Speaker 2:And now, even though I was 17 at that time I didn't know this, but once you're tried as an adult, every time you're arrested after that it's automatic You're an adult. So, at 17 years old, they're taking me to LA County jail. And once I found out what it was for, though, I was like man, they're just messing with me. Man, I already beat that case. I'm thinking I beat that case. So I ended up getting an attorney. I tell him it's actually in the juvenile case.
Speaker 2:In the two years ago I had got this attorney a paid attorney. My family got me an attorney, so we called him. He said yeah, they're filing the same charges, everything's exactly the same. And I was like what? So he said yeah, we're going to put in a motion for discovery. We want to find out what's going on here, blah, blah, blah. And he said everything looks the same. He said I would suggest us having a speeding trial. Speeding trial means you have to start picking jury within 90 days. You have to. That's your civil right to have a speeding trial. So that's what I said, let's have it, I'm calculating, man, I still might be able to make this delivery of my, my baby, yeah and um.
Speaker 2:So when I got to county jail, I was trying to like lay low profile at this time because I'm thinking I'm going home Right. And even my homeboys, my older homies that were there, they were telling me, yeah, just, you know, it's a lot different here. You know you don't got a gang bang, you don't got to do none of this stupid stuff, you don't got to raise your hand, just be cool. You know, if something happens, do what you got to do, but just be cool, don't be stupid. You know what I mean, like, and I was like all right. So that's the way I was trying to do my time, you know, trying to, within them 90 days, to try to like just keep my nose clean, not to pick up nothing new and and hopefully get out on this case again. So that's what I'm doing. I'm kind of laying low. You know what I'm saying, just kind of just going through the motions of things.
Speaker 2:What happens, hector, is we start trial, right, start trial. We pick the jury, everything. Them same witnesses I told you from before they got on the stand said it wasn't me that girl that I told you that was in the car. She pled the fifth. Remember, I told you we picked up two girls. One of the girls had got dropped off so she never got caught up in none of this. The cops didn't know about her, nobody knew about her. It was just the one girl. So she ends up pleading the fifth in court because she was in there. She had that right to plead the fifth, not to say anything. So she pled the fifth, but on paperwork I still had her testimony as well.
Speaker 2:So everything's looking just like it did the last time. So I'm like all right, I'm cool. You know, every day I'm going back telling the homies yeah, everything's looking good. They're like you're going home, fool, you're going home. You're going home and I'm like shoot, I sure hope so, you know. And all along my wife's getting bigger, bigger, getting ready to deliver this baby. And, um, the last witness is my actual crime partner. He shows up this time. Last time I didn't know this, but he ended up fleeing to Mexico for a while and then when he came back he got busted and when they ran his name he had a warrant for not showing up on that gang terrorism, probation violation for not testifying.
Speaker 2:He left on that. That's weird, yeah, he left on it and when they arrested him his name came back as hey, this dude had probation, he was supposed to testify. He never did anything, he left. But this time he comes in and when he comes in he just spills his guts Handsome, I would say. He started talking about other stuff that I wasn't even arrested for, for where they end up booking me again. No, when I got back to the county jail, they were booking me on other charges that he brought up during the trial were.
Speaker 1:You were in the courtroom when this dude singing like a canary what was going through? The green?
Speaker 2:jacket, so at first I didn't think he was coming though, and then I saw the sheriff jackets they were. They were green with yellow right and I see two of them come in and then I look and he's behind them.
Speaker 1:So he was incarcerated as well. He was, he was, he was coming from the outside.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, cool. So he comes in with like five sheriffs, yeah, and when he's walking in he's mad dogging me, like I'm snitching on, he's mad dogging me. And he gets up on that stand and he starts saying everything and some and what were you thinking?
Speaker 1:Oh, man, you didn't have to say all that. I'm like, I'm washed up as soon as I heard him say the first thing. I was like. Then, when I started hearing him, say other things.
Speaker 2:I'm looking and I'm like, oh my goodness. And this time, hector, though, look at the whole juvenile time. Remember the driver he, look at the whole juvenile time. Remember the driver. He was with me. We would go handcuffed together this time around. When they rearrested me at that 7-Eleven, instead of calling home, I called his mom. I called his mom and tell her hey, they're looking for us. Oh, you gave him the heads up. He jammed Okay, I'm now facing trial by myself, by myself. I'm in there by myself, and when he comes in, the witness, I'm looking at him like I don't believe this and I'm thinking he's going up there and I'm like he ain't gonna say nothing. He ain't gonna say nothing. And then he just started. He literally like started crying, talking about why he's testifying against me. And the whole reason why they're saying that he's testifying against me is because I put a hit on his family. Remember, I told you they did the drive-by afterwards on his house, but by that time the whole neighborhood knew that he, that he already had, we had paperwork on him.
Speaker 2:So the whole neighborhood was already aware, you know, it didn't take me to tell them to go do something. He did a no-no yeah so here he is, he's crying on the stage, on the, on the stand, and I'm like I'm done, I'm done. And that day, when I go back into the court, into the holding tank, I go back into the holding tank. I'm finding out, I'm finding out my son's being born.
Speaker 2:Oh shit, dude, yeah, my son's being born on that day and I told my wife, I told my family I'm like I'm, but I I knew at that point it was I was done. So I ended up coming back for sentencing and, um yeah, they, they gave me the max they gave me. I ended up getting 30 to life for the 32 life, 30 to life for the conspiracy and the attempted murders and the intimidating witnesses. I got like a bow-legged 13 years. I got the gang enhancement, which was 15 years. Then they gave me a five-year enhancement for the gun. I was like dang.
Speaker 1:And what year was this? 91, 92 already, this was 91. 91? This was 91. Dude.
Speaker 2:So when you touched down.
Speaker 1:From 89, 90,. This was 91. Where'd you go to reception for state prison? State prison.
Speaker 2:So I ended up going through Y first when I went to prison. I ended up because I left YTS. Yeah, all right, I left YTS under investigation and it's crazy. It's crazy, hector, because we were already on lockdown when this counselor got killed. The whole institution was on lockdown for something else, right, I was what was called a critical worker.
Speaker 2:I was working well in the joint. It's called um inmate day labor, idl inmate day labor they're like, they're the ones that get paid minimum wage. They get paid good money, right. So in ya, I had a job that was similar to that. I was working fora company outside which is contracted with the youth authority. So even though we were locked down, they still had a contract to produce.
Speaker 2:Ok, so me and like five other dudes were out there working during this lockdown. Of course we had escort, everything like that, but we're working. But because this cop got killed in an unknown way they didn't know how she got killed they found her body in a dumpster outside of the jail. So when she goes in, when you go into the institution, when you're coming to work, that day, when she came to work, she grabs these ring keys called chips or whatever that identify. These are what she's checked out, her alarm, whatever she gets to work that day. Well, she never turned them back in At the end of her shift. She never checked out. So they're looking for her. Where is she at? They couldn't find her in the institution and what was crazy about it? We were on lockdown. We were on lockdown already, which I said right, but now they're coming to the buildings with dogs who killed her a ward.
Speaker 1:It was a ward. So I'm familiar with this story. Not the details, but I remember kind of yeah, dude.
Speaker 2:So what ended up happening is that? So let me just tell you this when we were on lockdown and they started coming to our rooms and normally they would come in and, depending on what they're looking for, if somebody was fighting and they got away, they would look at our knuckles.
Speaker 2:They would take off our shirts and stuff, look at our body. But they didn't do none of that. They told us to step out of the room. They came in with some rooms they had dogs, some they didn't and they just looked under our beds and they looked in our lockers and that was it.
Speaker 1:They're looking for a person.
Speaker 2:And I said that. I said, hey, they're looking for somebody, and we saw the cops on the roofs from the building across from us. We could see out ourselves and we could see them on the roofs. I said somebody escaped. That's why they're looking, that's why they have the door. They're like, hey, put it on Channel 7 News, put it on Channel 7 News. We're like what's going on? They were like, look, we're on TV, the institution on TV. Helicopter news, helicopters flying and they're sharing the story that youth counselor such and such is missing.
Speaker 1:That's so weird, dude, that they would fly it to the news so fast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I mean well it, this was like the second day. Oh, the second day, holy shit day. Yeah, so I guess after that shift and she didn't come out, they're like did she leave without doing the chip? So they were trying to contact her, but it was the next day when they started searching well, it's because there's a whole process of staff accountability.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and for that reason, in case, somebody's fucking dead in a dumpster. So what? What ended up happening?
Speaker 2:that's what it was though that's what they believe, because they found her in pomona, at the waste, at the, at the, the sanitation waste. Oh, they didn't find her within the, they didn't find her within the institution. They found her out then how?
Speaker 1:was it that a ward was able to kill her? He, he paroled or he escaped?
Speaker 2:no no, this is. This is what this is, the rumors of it and during us being investigated, this is kind of the pieces we put together. Is that the war that they were saying was a part of it? Right, he had scratches on. They found dna on her. They said that he had sexually assaulted her first and then got her keys, because the trash cans have locks Right and in YA it's like there's a ramp and then there's the kitchen right there and you go out that ramp and you throw away the trash. Yeah, they believe that he shoved her in the trash bag and carried her out to the dumpster, locked it and went back, and then the trash truck came and took her out to the dumpster, locked it and went back.
Speaker 1:And then the trash truck came and took her and took her out. No way, dude, wow, man, that is wild dude. Yeah. So then they went back and they gaffled him up wherever he was at in there.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, so all of us were on lockdown already. They didn't gaffle him down right away, yeah, right away they didn't. So they had us all on lockdown. Next thing I know we're being investigated and at that same time, oh, that's why we're on lockdown, because they were already getting rid of the M numbers.
Speaker 2:And the story is and I don't know how true any of this is it's all hearsay as far as I know. But they were saying that the ward was having an intimate relationship with that counselor and now that he was getting ready to leave, she had told him that I'm not going to follow you. You know, like this is done, like our little time of playing is done, you know, I'm not, I'm married, I'm not going to follow you to the next institution, it's done. Oh, and that like flip them out or something like that's what caused him to wig out and end up taking her out. You know, and yeah, so anyways they come and they start taking all the lifers first. Then they start taking all the M numbers, which were adult commitments, anybody that could go to CDC. They took them Right by bus. By bus they were bringing CDC buses right onto the YA institution, right down the unit. So there's like A and B, c and D, e and F, g and H. They were bringing the buses right to the unit and loading up these buses. Yeah Right, so I'm thinking everybody is still going.
Speaker 2:I know I'm a lifer, I'm already seeing other people go and I'm thinking, you know they're like, okay, they were taking like maybe 10 and then a little bit later on in the evening they'll take another 10. They were just taking them out 10, 10, whatever, whatever right. And come to find out they were taking them to Tehachapi, wasco, delano, chino, all these different places. And I'm like, I'm like yelling down the hallway, like who's left, like who else is here besides me? Everybody was gone. And here I am, like what are they doing with me? Why are they holding me up? And I, at this point in time, I had no idea that I'm under investigation for that murder. Remember, I was out, not only me, but the kitchen workers were also under investigation. Anybody that had access to them trash.
Speaker 1:You were under investigation for that murder, for that murder shit, dude, not even knowing it's so fucking weird I didn't even live on the unit with her.
Speaker 2:That's so weird, dude, didn't?
Speaker 2:I lived upstairs yeah she was downstairs in C&D. I was up in G&H at the time and then they moved me to the other side, from G&H to E&F. And when I got there, that's where the kitchen workers the other kitchen workers that I knew that were lifers and they're like what's up, you're still here too. I was like, yeah, what's up, why are? Why are we still here? Yeah, so the next day they tell us all right, you guys are leaving. Now.
Speaker 2:They stripped us down to our shower shoes and boxers and they came and tied us up. They they tied us up with the box around the waist down to the ankles, yeah, and they put us in a van. There was like five of us and we're like what the heck Still don't even know. We're under investigation. We thought we were just still going. We didn't know if that's the way they were transporting everybody else. I was like, dang man, we can't even get a jumpsuit. Like, where are we going? They're like, oh yeah, you're only taking a two-minute drive. Like you don't need no jumpsuit. When you get there, you'll get a new jumpsuit. So they going to chino prison. So we're going to central um prison, to chino.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when we get to chino, they're escorting us and, um, they start telling us that, yeah, you guys are going to palm hall until the investigation is resolved. So, weird, dude. And I'm like palm hall, like where's palm hall? Like I don't know nothing. This is my first time in prison.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when we get to palm hall, one of the officers the guards comes and tells us listen, I'm going to give you a word of advice Don't talk to anybody, don't look at nobody. They'll get at you. And we're like what you know? Like what are you talking about? And they're telling us yeah, you know, just, this is our first time in prison. This is our first time in prison. This is our first experience. Right, we're still in our shower shoes. They didn't give us no jumpsuit. We're in our shower shoes and boxers and they're walking us in and there's three tiers and the first two tiers look normal, with bars and clothes hanging. And it wasn't what I was expecting. It was like the movies. They start whistling at us catcalling fish on the line. Man, that tall one looks sexy.
Speaker 1:They did or they didn't. They did, oh they did. They're clowning us.
Speaker 2:They're like oh, put him with me. Hey, that second one right there, put him with me. I want him and we're tripping, we didn't know. Then they take. They take us up to the third tier, which looked a lot different. The bottom, remember, they're just regular bars. When we get to the top, they're bars but they're cages, it's just all cages. The whole third tier is all cages and it's quiet. So I thought we were the only ones going up there.
Speaker 2:I didn't even know that there was anybody else in there. They put us in the in, like in the, the four back cells, like closest to the to the stair, to the staircase, and right after that the cop had, you know, once they took our things off, they're like, yeah, somebody will get at you in a bit. And we're like who's gonna get us the cops? Who, whatever, whatever? And then next thing I know one of the neighbors banging on the wall. He said, hey, homie, um, get this line. And so he sends over a fishing line and stuff. And it's a little kite. He's asking us you know, let us see your lockup orders where you're coming from, this and that. And I'm like lockup orders. They didn't even give us nothing. We don't even have nothing. We're just in our boxers. We don't got no property, we don't got no tube, we don't have nothing. We're stripped, literally our boxers and shower shoes, that was it. And I'm telling them back. I'm like I don't got nothing to write with or nothing. I'm like, hey, like I don't have nothing to write with. I'm like talking loud, I don't got no paperwork. And all of a sudden the guys from underneath are yelling up don't give them your paperwork, they're gonna kill you, don't give them your. And I'm like what the heck? So the homies like kind of um, he's like, hey, he said, all right, let me pull that line back or whatever. So he starts telling, he starts writing me.
Speaker 2:Little kai's telling me, hey, the first and second tier, they're all pc, don't listen to them, you know. I mean I'm like what the heck? You know like that many p why we're not used to seeing a whole, that many pieces, I mean, why we don't see no pieces. And even in the county jail I don't remember seeing any pieces. And here there's two tiers. So he's giving us a rundown and stuff. And next thing I know is they're taking us downstairs in the morning, they put us in the little dog cages and they're telling us, yeah, you guys need to go get an X-ray and this and that. And we're like, all right, whatever you know. And then, when we're in the cages, at this time, hector too, let me let me bring this to light that at this point in time I had a spiritual awakening where I'm Christian, I'm a Christian homie, I had an encounter with God.
Speaker 1:I gave my life to the Lord At the time that you were in Palm Hall.
Speaker 2:Palm Hall. I'm Christian. Throughout all my YTS time I was Christian as well. I had found the Lord, believe it or not. After that county jail experience, after sentencing, all that stuff, is when I had a moment of clarity where God grabbed a hold of my life. That's a whole other story to solve, bro, because it was like I didn't know what was going on. I had no previous encounters like what I did that time. I didn't know what I was facing to make a decision Like I didn't even know what kind of decision I was making when I gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ. I didn't even know what kind of decision I was making when I gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:No-transcript. Let my hair grow out, everything. When I went back that evening, I shaved my head, right, and I said you know what it's on. Like I knew, I knew, I knew I was done After that testimony. Right there, I was done. Yeah, even the next day when I went, you know to, not was it the next day or whatever? No, no, no, no. I didn't even go back the next day. I was waiting to catch the chain for a documentation. 90-day observation in YA. Now, right, and I had shaved my head and I started raising my hand Everything that I was told not to do in the beginning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and here I am now, so what was the purpose of the x-ray in Chino? In Chino.
Speaker 2:I don't know. We had to see the medical doctor. We hadn't been classified, nothing, remember. They just brung us straight from YA to over there.
Speaker 1:So did they ever interview you? Who the cops ISU?
Speaker 2:No, no, it had nothing to do with ISU. It had everything to do with Chino Police Department. Chino Police Department.
Speaker 1:Holy shit.
Speaker 2:Did the Homicide Detectives department, police department homicide detective ever interview? They? They did come to talk to us, yeah, and I told him I didn't even know who the lady was. I said I don't even know. I I didn't live on that unit though, right. So let me tell you how.
Speaker 2:I thought originally that I was getting caught up in that mix because I was working right when all of that happened. Maybe they thought I had access to the trash can or whatever. Um, so all along I thought that right. But come to find out they were thinking that I may have heard something, because supposedly everything that happened the battle between him and her, the sexual assault or any of that stuff that happened happened in the cell right below me.
Speaker 2:Because when they started asking me, yeah, did you hear anything in the vents or whatever like that I was like during lockdown, everything was loud, everybody was clowning. It was like I heard a lot of things throughout all the vents, because them vents don't only go down. You hear ball, you hear your neighbors. I said I I didn't hear any woman screaming, if that's what you're asking. But yeah, though, when we were over there, chino PD came and talked to us, but they just asked us, like what I just said, you know what I mean and that was it. But they kept us under investigation for quite a while you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So after, that.
Speaker 2:Did you touch down at corcoran? I know, while I end up going to donovan, I end up going to a few other places before that time. But while I was in palm hall though it was an experience though, because I was on management role, which I didn't know what management was at that time. That wasn't a part of our language in ya, I never heard of indeterminate shoe programs, right, I didn't hear of people possibly having you know 300 points. You know what I mean. Like that's ridiculous points. You know what I mean? Like that is crazy.
Speaker 2:I didn't know what it meant to be classified. We didn't know nothing about prison. We were just from that van to that cell. So they started taking us down. We had to do I think we were doing x-rays for TB testing or something, because I guess we needed that we ended up seeing a medical doctor, then we went to classification and then that's when they I didn't even know what close B was. They were like, yeah, you're going to be close B. I didn't know what that meant. They were like right now, you're max A custody, we're going to release you from max a to close b. Yeah, uh, not realizing close b, man, at four o'clock your program was over, you know, um, but yeah, I ended up being closed b I from there, uh, standing, and I'm you know what I'm grateful to this day that I did go that when we first got there, when we were in the dog cages, there was a homie next to us and, uh, he was on management with.
Speaker 2:So he was talking to us, you know. He said, yeah, I'm cool, you can talk to me, I'm on management, you know what I mean. And he started telling us yeah, I don't think the homies are going to want you on the yard with us because you guys are Christian, nothing against you. Just, I don't think. What do I say? Shoot, I'm going to go to the yard anyway. You know what am I supposed to say? We're like all right, whatever.
Speaker 2:So I ended up getting in the kayak and the homies were like, yeah, go to yard. You know, at Unlock tomorrow, you know when they come, go. So I went to yard and they asked me and the other guys from YA if we would, you know, for you, just work out. I had no idea what that workout was going to be like. Right, I didn't know that we were going to have to stand in cadence. I didn't know we were going to have to sound off the way we had to sound off on that yard. I didn't man, I didn't know we were going to work out for two hours straight were you able to complete the workout the first.
Speaker 2:At first I couldn't actually. I threw up. They told me get off the go over there to the side and throw up. I was like, because we were on lockdown all that time just sitting around, we weren't working out in y. That was unheard of, dude. Yeah, you know up and downs.
Speaker 2:You know when we got there and it was august when we got transferred, by the way, you know and it's crazy because we were there when tupac got killed we were there in in palm hall when he got killed, because I forgot I think they were passing out laundry or something in the morning and we were asking, hey, what happened with the tyson fight? You're like, oh, yeah, he won, but guess what? We're like what? Tupac got killed. We're like tupac got killed, like what? Yeah, after he was there at the fight, after he got killed in vegas, we're like what? So, yeah, I was there when I was there in the hole. So whenever I think think of Tupac getting killed, I remember I was back there in the hole, but yeah. But I was grateful though, because we went out there, started working out, met a lot of cool dudes. It was crazy too. My first real like prison violence was right there, the guy that was running the whole thing right there they stabbed them good man, and that was in an ad seg yard on the yard.
Speaker 2:Was that a group yard? Yes, well, it was everyone from the third tier.
Speaker 1:It was management, it was all but the group yard, because now what they have I mean, yeah, yeah, that's what, that's what the group yard is now what they have is the individual dog cages oh no, no, we had a.
Speaker 2:No, we had a group.
Speaker 1:Yeah the group yard. Yeah, that was, that was a good.
Speaker 2:And then you seen a dude get stabbed right there, the main guy. Well, he didn't get stabbed, actually, he got sliced up. They sliced them up pretty, but there was a lot of blood. I didn't know what happened when they, when they did it, when they, when the yard went down everything. We're on the floor and they, um, you know, they asked for victim, can you stand up? You know? And, um, he stood up and he walked off.
Speaker 1:What was he hit On the face?
Speaker 2:On the face, the neck, fuck, and then, when we were going the trippy part about it, though, is when we were going back everybody was telling him, like you know, like that's right, homie, like stay down, whatever, whatever, and I'm like. And then the next day in the yard, you know, I had learned a long time ago not to ask questions. You know, if it doesn't apply to me, don't ask questions. I learned to turn my head the other way. I wasn't one of them. Ones, like you know, somebody's gonna get hit. Let me keep an eye out, for no, you go the other way, you know, because I already knew from previous experiences. You know, if you're around the facility, around the vicinity of something, oh yeah, yeah, now you've seen something now you're, you're, yeah you're Now, you're in that conversation.
Speaker 2:Who was there when it happened? Who's seen it? Who knew something? So I already knew not to say anything, so I wasn't really asking nothing about him. But it came up and I said like why did that happen? You know what I mean? And they're like nah, he's still good. He was in CRC, he did something he wasn't supposed to. They said he was still good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were like he's still good. Even though they were hitting him in the face. What's up with that?
Speaker 2:They were like what they told me at that time. That was just a checking. That was a checking and that was like reality to me, hit like dang, that was just a checking and they all right, you know, it's up to him which way he goes from here. And I was like dang, you know, I mean, and this was like the dude that was sounding off the, the whole routine and everything, but is there any other violent encounters that you can remember right there in that time in?
Speaker 1:in general? Oh yeah, I saw a lot of dudes get blasted.
Speaker 2:You know, I saw the gunner shoot probably like three different people during my time in prison. Um, yeah, I've seen seen a lot of different things, but I could tell you this much though prison was not as violent as the youth authority, it was a long shot, not even close.
Speaker 2:I mean, we had the helicopter air vacuum wards almost every week from internal bleeding wounds, because in YA we had trade shops. We had metal shop, welding shop, we had masonry carpentry, we had, you know, screwdrivers and man, I seen a guy when I first got there in YA this was like in the beginning I'm going to say maybe late 91, early 92, this guy stabbed this dude from the back with a piece of rebar from the back. It came out through the front of him like like straight gladiator, gladiator movie and I'm like what the heck, like dang. That was like my first incident. Then, later on, I saw guys get like locked up with um, with battery we called it battery packing in. Ya, yeah, dude's eye was like hanging out of his socket and stuff and I seen dudes get stabbed with with a saw, with an actual wood saw. Yeah, I saw him get like like sliced with it. It was crazy Like why, though, that helicopter was always landing bro?
Speaker 1:So when you landed in Corcoran, was it the shoe or was it a mainline?
Speaker 2:No, always landing, bro. So when you landed in corcoran, was it the shoe or was it a mainline? No, no, it was mainline. Yeah, when I left donovan, when I left donovan, um, the new corcoran, this was like 97, it was barely, it was really barely opening. I think it was the substance abuse yards that opened up first, and that's when iron man was there, robert downey jr, sad if yeah, that was like the big high. Robert downey jr was there and sh Downey Jr Sadef. Yeah, that was like the big hype.
Speaker 2:Robert Downey Jr was there and Sharon Stone was in the visiting room with the visitors and then they started opening up like C-Yard, which was the four-yard, then A and B-Yard were level two yards that were barely opening.
Speaker 1:Then I think D-Yard was a level three that was opening Because you know, sade, sad F that has hey guys, consider becoming a patron, where you will get first exclusive dibs on the video before it airs to the public and you'll get to ask this guest special questions that you have in mind. So that's also another way to support the channel. Thank you, guys. Appreciate all of you. Keep pushing forward. Make sure you hit that link in description below.
Speaker 2:And then a and B yard was barely opening when I got there, which was level two yards and my points had dropped. I was in donovan on an override, level three override, and when I got over there, um, I was a level two. So I went to b yard and b yard the paint they hadn't even painted the buildings yet, they, it was that. I mean, I want to say I was probably like the fourth bus there and when I got there, for it being a level two, that yard was crazy. I mean, I've never opened up a prison, but to open up that yard in a sense where, um, everything was brand new all the sheets, all the pillowcases, all the blues so everybody was fighting for their territory and yes, exactly so we have the southsiders, the northerns.
Speaker 2:We had bulldogs on that yard. Uh, we had the whites, the others, all of that, the blacks of course, and everybody was trying to figure out who was going to dominate. What you know. I mean, yeah, they had, they only had two different sets of bar work. So of course, one was going to be south side, one was going to be Southsiders, one was going to be Black, southsiders and whites, other ones, blacks and Northerns, and then the Bulldogs kind of just fit in, kind of with us. They were kind of like, cool with us at the time, and when I say us, I mean the Southsiders. They were cool with the Southsiders. And yeah, man, but right there, there was so much tension jumping off right there and it was crazy.
Speaker 2:I think I mentioned to you I had a homeboy named Buddha who was a semi-pro boxer and he was all over the newspapers that he was like one of the contenders to box Tyson at that time and Tyson was already up there. But this guy was a regular Mexican, but he looked like a big old hawaiian simone type of dude. And this dude was a drunk and man. This homeboy, it was one of my own boys from puente, and that fool was in there beating up the northerns left and right, causing more and more problems, and then the homies wanted to get rid of him. They came and told me and a couple of my other homies from puente, like, hey, man, your homie keeps on steering up too much problem, and remember he was a boxer. So they started ended up trying to regulate. We're like, hey, that's on you guys. You know what I mean. You guys want him off the yard. You're going to have to deal with him.
Speaker 2:So they tried to send some homies over there and Buddha was lighting them up. Left and right, I mean, groups of homies were going over there and Buddha was just lighting them up, and in the process, buda's lighting up everybody, though, yeah, and finally me and another homie from Puente just told Buda like Buda, just go, fool. Like they're not asking you to lock it up, they're just saying just go and tell him that you need to go somewhere else. Man, they're trying to. Just, they just wanted him to leave. You know what I mean. And I was like, well, shoot, man, it kind of sounds like you're telling him to lock it up. You know what I mean. They were like, nah, he could just tell him to go to another yard.
Speaker 1:So you had got hit with that 30 to life. At what point did you end up appealing it to be able to get it? I did.
Speaker 2:Actually, in 94, I was in YA and I went back on my first appeal. I ended up going back and being resentenced to 25 to life, to 25 to life, and it doesn't sound like much. But the conspiracy got dropped first. Yeah, it didn't sound like any better at all. Yeah, it didn't sound better at all. So I got the conspiracy case dropped. First, like I said earlier, they didn't have enough evidence on the overacts. They never presented no overacts, which they needed. Yeah. And then, two years later, I got the gang enhancement dropped because they messed up on that one.
Speaker 2:Wow, because they used crimes after my crime. Right, because you remember, I had that two-year gap. So what happened is they used crimes after the fact. If they would have just used crimes prior to my case, the enhancement would have stuck, but because they used crimes after it, the appellate court said you can't use them. Though, who was able to identify that? Your lawyer, the appellate courts, well, my lawyer, I well, I think my lawyer appealed every decision, I think, um, and when the appellate courts went through it, it came back in my favor. Yeah, so when that happened, I ended up with life plus five years for the gang enhancement. No, the gun use. I mean the gun enhancement Life plus five.
Speaker 1:What gave you the L? The conspiracy to commit murder, the attempted murders, the attempted murders. Six counts, six counts.
Speaker 2:That's what was carrying the life term. Yeah, man, and at that time I didn't think I was ever going home.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Because no life was going home.
Speaker 1:So you went from 30 years to live, 25 years to live, then life with five Yup, yup. And then what ended up happening?
Speaker 2:2003, during the recall of Gray Davis, which was the governor at that time. Arnold Schwarzenegger ended up becoming governor when he was getting recalled. During that time, during, like the early 2000s, it was all over the newspaper. They wanted to dismantle the board. They really wanted to dismantle the board.
Speaker 2:Greg davis was being recalled, and here I am going in front of um, in front of the board of prison terms, and when I went in I the first time, I went in for an actual suitability hearing, because every three years, lifers go to what's called. What are they called? Not suitability hearings, they're called, oh, documentation hearings. They just want to document where you're at right now. That's it, though, but it's never no deliberation on whether or not you're suitable for parole According to the matrix. None of that happens until years later, right? So here I am, though, because I got everything dropped and my matrix is coming up where they're like yeah, you're now eligible for parole if found suitable. So my first year, they told me no, due to the seriousness of my case. Blah, blah, blah. We're giving you a three-year denial in 2000. When I go back in 2003, they find me suitable, they find me suitable what?
Speaker 1:but in 2003, man, the dudes were not getting action, not like now not like now or not, like uh, 10 years ago? So was that that had to have been a rare case?
Speaker 2:right, it was a rare case very rare, so rare that they didn't even know how to parole me when that time came. I can see that, but what happened, though, is that, when I got suitable by the commissioners of the the governor's commissioners right, they stamped it just like in the movies yeah, granted, granted, parole.
Speaker 1:That's what it said on the why were you the exception? This at that time? What did they did? They were the board members. Like in favor of this, your story three years later I had, by that time time.
Speaker 2:I ended up leaving b yard and I went to f yard, which was the substance abuse yard. They were paying for our colleges. They were paying minimum wage. They were paying us to be at the yard. They were paying for our colleges. They were paying minimum wage. They were paying us to be residential, live-in drug and alcohol counselors Okay, cool. So they were paying for our college and everything.
Speaker 2:And I got involved in that. I was one of the lifers, because there was only a few lifers that were being chosen to do that and that agency. Well, what ends up happening? The governor ends up denying my parole. He snatched my date. He's like nope, you're not going nowhere.
Speaker 2:So I got what was called an embankment hearing, where it went before all the commissioners in Sacramento. All seven commissioners had to do a vote in my favor if I was to be paroled. This happened August 13th of 2003. I wasn't allowed to go to that hearing, but I could have character witnesses go on my part on my behalf, okay. So what happened is the walden house which was overseeing that facility at that time, yeah, based out of san francisco. They got attorneys for me, they got psychologists for me. They got all kinds of people to fight. They told me we're going to fight the governor for you. Who they did you a solid man. They did very much. So I mean I love them to this day.
Speaker 2:I mean they're, we're a family put it like that, we are and what happens is, um, they were up there later into the evening that night. That night about 9 30 at nighttime. We're already, yards closed, everything's happening. It's august, right, hot as heck in corcoran. They call me over the intercom Go Dines, report to the program office. I'm like everybody's looking at me.
Speaker 2:What the Nobody goes to the program office. You know what I mean. I'm like what do they want me for? Why I need to go. I'm like resisting. I'm telling them like there's nothing for me at the office, right and right away. Somebody's like man, jojo. They were like think somebody died. And I was like man, because I remember before my mom died while I was in custody, yeah, and it was kind of you know. So I'm like dang. Now that you bring it up, you know what I mean. I'm like shoot. So I'm walking across the yard. You know everybody's just looking and stuff and everybody's thinking like dang, everybody knew me. I was cool with everybody.
Speaker 2:So when I go, and they knew Everybody was kind of already knowing that I was having that hearing take place that I wasn't able to go to earlier in the day. So I was like, but I wasn't even thinking nothing about that. I was thinking, man, am I getting bad news right now? So when I get there, my counselor is there, my CC1 is there and he's all sweaty. He's a white boy and he's all red in the face, sweating, and I'm like what the heck? What are you doing here right now? He said you need to sign these papers, you need to sign these parole plans right now. You're going home in the morning and I'm like like what the heck? I said, are you serious?
Speaker 2:And while I'm there in the program office, the warden calls and they give me the phone and the warden's like congratulating me and telling me man, you know you, you worked hard to to get this opportunity. He said I'm telling you that there might be some red flags because you're the first to go home from this facility. And I'm like what the heck like, is this real? Did it feel surreal? It did like. It did like a dream. It like what the heck Like, is this real? Did it feel surreal? It did, it did Like a dream.
Speaker 1:It was like what the heck?
Speaker 2:I was like none of this makes sense. You know what I mean. I'm looking at my counselor and he's sweating and he's nervous, like they're putting the pressure on him to fill up. They didn't know what parole office I was going to. They didn't know the address I would go to. They didn't know nothing.
Speaker 1:Have you ever made anybody with a similar story from that time frame? Never. Yeah, dude, that's what I'm saying. That's a rare occasion that they were extremely rare. Dude, we're not paroling yeah lifers were not going home.
Speaker 2:They weren't going home in 2003 yeah, and, and I didn't even know what was going on in the bank mini hearing. I didn't know the process of that, you know what I mean? I didn't know, but supposedly they found I mean it is, they found me suitable.
Speaker 1:So you were not even mentally prepared to go home. I mean, you had gotten the training to be a drug and alcohol counselor, but I mean, as far as you going to the streets, you probably, mine probably was not there.
Speaker 2:It wasn't thinking I was going home. You know what I mean? Because I didn't see nobody go home.
Speaker 1:So did you go back to the yard and tell the homies like, hey, I'm going home? I did, I went back.
Speaker 2:I told them they were on lockdown already, though they were already in their cells.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they started banging on the door. They were all excited for me. They were all happy Shoot your TV, shoot your. I just grabbed my pictures, all my legal paperwork and that was it. I left everything, my hot pot my stingers, everything I left, my clothes, any extra stuff here, it's all yours right. My Super 3, here you go.
Speaker 2:Everything's right here. And that next morning it was crazy because they came and they took out there was like two other guys that were leaving that day, right, and what happened is they? They didn't call my name and everybody's like hey what about Jojo man, what's up?
Speaker 2:And they were telling me like, uh, they were like, yeah, he didn't get, like they didn't call for your release. You know what I mean. So, anyways, as the day went on, that program, that drug program, ceremony, going home, so they set it all up and I'm like, oh man, like they're setting me up, man. So in the middle of that little ceremony, the, the ceo at the, at the, at the desk, called my name over the intercom and they take me. And there was other people in the building at the time that weren't supposed to be in there, that were just wanting to say their goodbyes. And when I walked out of that building, man, it was like a movie. I had northerns, blacks, whites, all the homies from down south. They were all lined up giving me hugs and they were telling me, man, you deserve it.
Speaker 2:Fool like for real, you deserve it like. Go out there, make us all proud, man, like you know, go handle that, you know. And I came home. Well, I went to a program. I went to a residential program, stood there for um, I stood in the program for like a year and a half of residential outpatient combined. Yeah and um, no violations, man, my wife was waiting for me. The young lady that I told you about my son was already a teenager by this time. I ended up doing, um, a little bit over 14. So I have a teenage son. I have a teenage son now. My wife from my youth, you know, my wife was always by me, though, man, god blessed me with a good wife and I had communication with my son all the time. You know, you would always come visit me and stuff. Yeah and uh, here I was, coming home to him, I paroled to downtown la, and um, it was so.
Speaker 1:It was just unreal, man so I know, now you mentioned, what is it that you do?
Speaker 2:now you said you assist the family members of yeah, so I started an online community called trapped families and, um, what I do is I help families that are incarcerated. Um, because, when I got out a lot of people that knew me, even like my own homeboys, their families I started off with my own homeboys' families like just trying to be there for them. This time I'm already a minister. I'm there just helping them through the process. You know a lot of them, their loved ones, were just getting busted. I was helping a lot of their family get into drug treatment and it wasn't until like two years I was a behavioral modification counselor, substance abuse counselor from the time I got out all the way till almost 2017. And then that's when I started my own businesses. I'm doing life coaching today and I also have my own pool business Awesome dude.
Speaker 2:I do that just for the serenity of just being outdoors. I just love it. I'm my own boss. I do what I do. How do people find you? You got a website or anything? Yeah, I'm on Instagram. Just Trap Families all across the board on Instagram, tiktok, on YouTube they could find me that way and what I do is on my podcast. I bring the families on to share their stories and it's not as easy as some people think you know to put your laundry out there or, and I tell people, just share what you're comfortable with. You know I'm saying because, um, and it's hard, it's hard for a lot of these family members to deal with their loved ones incarcerated but it's good.
Speaker 1:I mean that you're giving them the platform. It's hard. It's hard for a lot of these family members to deal with their loved ones incarcerated, but it's good that you're giving them the platform. It's good to let them know they're not the only ones going through it.
Speaker 2:And they can network and work together through some of those challenges. And my whole purpose in sharing my story, Hector, for real, it's not for fame and glory, it's really to give people hope that you know what you can change. You know Absolutely. I glory it's really to give people hope that you know what you can change. You know absolutely.
Speaker 2:I hear I'm not one of them, ones that that went through and my experience actor through prison is a lot different through other people. Yeah, I, I battle with ptsd, you know. I mean I still hear people yelling. I still, you know, see blood splattering and dreams and stuff. I mean, you know, not every night.
Speaker 2:I don't want people to think I'm just, you know, a freak like that, where every night I'm just crazy like that, but I still have my moments. Certain noises trigger certain reactions from me, but I just want people to know that you know you don't got to go to prison and just be a knucklehead man. You could be your own person. And still People ask me all the time how did you survive in there all them years being a Christian? Like going against the grain? I said you know number one thing is common sense and respect. I knew how to mind my own business. I knew how to navigate through the politics without having my nose everywhere. Like I said earlier, I know how to turn my head when things are happening where my name is not in the conversation of who saw something or who knew something, or you know I'm not there mandoling in the politics.
Speaker 1:It's street smarts, dude. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:And I think for me too, hector. I think my prior life before Christ gang bang, I knew a lot of people from them, two years in juvenile, I knew a lot of people that were considered down homies. That knew me and I'm not going to say that I was a down homie. I did what I did. But other homies may say, yeah, that fool was down for his, because that's what I displayed.
Speaker 2:And then, like I said, when I got to the county jail I'm not going to mention some of the people that mentored me and took me under the wings, but they were of good standings, you know what I'm saying where they had some say-so and it was them that I reported to when I decided to make this decision. And their words to me, they stuck with me. They said you know what, jojo, all power to you, this decision. And their words to me, they stuck with me. They said you know what, jojo, all power to you, man, go and do what you got to do, just don't play games with it. I didn't know what that meant, but later on I seen people playing with religion, hiding behind you know their Bible, their Koran or something, and end up getting dealt with. You know, and for me it's crazy because, just like that gentleman out there right now, he did 30 years, 30?, 30.
Speaker 1:We started off in Hawaii together. I have to interview that and I have a lot of.
Speaker 2:I have so many, my wife trips off me because I have so many friends from way back in juvenile hall that I still try to help today when needed.
Speaker 2:I'm still close to them and I think my testimony, if anything, it stands pure because everybody's like. The person you were in there is who you are today. 30 years later, you're still the same guy. You never forgot where you came from. You love the homies to a sense where you want them to do better. You get them in programs when needed. You know you done helped families with financial support when they got busted. I I look out for my homies and people always tell me you know I'm not that one that got saved and forgot about my homies right?
Speaker 2:no, I hear you I just set boundaries and there's like standards in my life. Now where, you know, I like, I said I would be out there playing on the handball court with all the homies, I'd be on the basketball court playing with the blacks, I'd be, I'd walk the yard with a bulldog, um, but I understood how much to be around the politics, absolutely dude, without getting myself in the mix where now things are being questioned, caught up in a wreck, exactly. You know, I was a man of my word. I practiced integrity when I was a gangbanger and when I became a christian, I lived as a Christian. I didn't have one foot in, one foot out and I think the homies recognized that where, like, they didn't see me two-faced. You know what I'm saying. Of course I'm not perfect, but thank God, I never did anything out of my faith. That was you know where they said, oh yeah, he's a fake. You was. You know where they said, oh yeah, he's a fake. You know what?
Speaker 2:I'm saying and when I paroled, I'm proud to say you know, I paroled from the main line, you know, with a good name, you know, and at that time there was no. You know, I don't think there was any SNY yards at that time in 2003. I don't even remember a lot of people.
Speaker 1:I mean, the terminology back then was like either you're in the hat or you're not in the hat, and that was it. There really wasn't like a pc population that I could remember. Oh, dude, you would, uh, you would not even recognize the department today, man unrecognizable.
Speaker 2:Yeah man, it's crazy. I hear you and I'd be like especially that the new california model man.
Speaker 1:You get to play sports with the ceos, give them high fives, hugs, it's just dope it just sounds crazy.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. I don't know. There's some people that are, you know thinking behind all that Well.
Speaker 1:I want to thank you for coming on, dude, sharing your story, your testimony, bro. I'm glad we chopped it up. I know we had been in talks for like a year and stuff. We finally made it happen, bro. So just remind the viewers where they can find you again on the Instagram.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can find me on Trap Families on Instagram. You can find me on TikTok, trap Fam I think it's Trap Fams and then on Facebook you could hit me up Jojo Godinez, and on YouTube it is Trap Families as well. And, hector, I thank you for your service. Man, you know, I think that was one of the things that caught my attention when watching you. And, man, you know, just some of the things you shared is like I mean, you're just down to earth, bro. You're raw with it too, man, but I appreciate you. Thank you for having me, man.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it, appreciate you. There you guys have it folks. Another banger man. If you guys like what you saw, make sure you hit that subscribe button. I'll keep bringing it for you guys. Love you, keep pushing forward.
Speaker 2:You've been listening to Hector Bravo Unhinged. Follow for more.
