The "big robbery" in 1990

Well since I am explaining things, I may as well explain the story of the ‘Big Robbery’ and how I ended up in prison in 1990 for 2.5 years. This is one of those really dumb moments in my life.

I forget the date but I was at my friend’s house, Ray, the dude that introduced me to Merry Alice. Well he had to go to work or I think band practice. I ain’t too sure, but he introduced me to this guy that morning, named Jimmie, who lived behind Ray. Well Ray had to go and I just stayed there with this Jimmie dude who I just met; he had just met Ray a week before. So I am hanging.

With Jimmie, we are hanging at his house and he pulls out this meth. I have never tried it before so I did a tiny line. A few hours pass and Ray comes back. It is just about dark but Ray had this dude with him named Pete. This is the first time I met Pete, cool little Mexican cat. Well we run out of beer. Pete says: ‘I have some money, can you give me a ride to the store to buy some beer’. I told him it wasn’t my car, but I asked Jimmie. Jimmie agreed to drive us. Now before we get in the car, Pete pulls out some money. I don’t know how much it is, but I see he had some money. I didn’t have any.

So we load up in the car, the three of us. We go to the Diamond Shamrock on Airline and Pete goes in to buy the beer. I am tired so I have my head tilted back, eyes closed. All of a sudden Jimmie shakes me and says: ‘hey that guy is chasing your friend’. I think ‘my friend?’ But it is Ray’s friend, and Ray is my friend, and hell a friend of my friend is my friend I guess.

So I get out of the car, I come behind the dude and yell ‘hey!’ He turns around and has this billy-club thing in his hand, I see that. I pop out my blade and we just stand there for a moment and he takes off. I see Pete picking up the beer. Jimmie pulls up, we get in the car. I ask Pete: ‘Man who the fuck was that?’ He said: ‘I don’t know but I just stole this beer.’ I thought: ‘What?’ But we are now driving to Jimmie's house and right there is a cop car on his street. He passes by, but I guess the call came over the radio [as we] were passing by him.  At that very instant, he comes after us. I am telling Jimmie: ‘Dude, stop and let me the fuck out!!’ This is my old neighborhood, the one where I met my best [friend] James Jordan and I know it like the back of my hand. He tells me: ‘Hold on’ and takes this corner at Tidwell and Airline and smashed, right in to a light pole. I had taken off the seat belt waiting on him to stop so I could run, so I did a face plant right into the windshield. I have glass all over me, cuts to my face, and can’t see nothing. I get out of the car and take off running. I can’t see and I run right in to the glass of the fast food chicken place. I bet I scared the hell out of those people eating there.

Well that cop is right on me, and picks my light ass up off the ground slams me against the wall and cuffs me before I know what is going on. I go to jail, and then court. I got 10 years aggravated time and had to do 2.5 years flat. My life was ruined that night. I swear the plan was not to steal any beer. The plan was for Pete to use the damn money he had to buy the beer. What made him steal it, I don’t know. But even in the police report I have, he said: ‘I don’t know why I stole it, I had money’.

But my life was destroyed that night, I lost everything. I had just started getting to know Merry Alice. I was living in Deer Park with my mom. I was just fixing to start my old job back with Mesh Plastics; I had to beg Dan to give me another chance to show him I wouldn’t let him down after I explained the fight with my Stepdad and Kari leaving me. So he was willing to take a chance on me, and I was to start in a few days. I was just over at Rays, after seeing Merry the day before having one last together before starting to work. I lost my kid. I lost everything.

The 2.5 years I was in prison, all I did was stay in trouble. I stayed on close custody, and that is as low as you go, that is where nothing but the meanest of the badest were, so all I did was a lot of fighting. If I would had been able to read and write, I would had taken advantage of the trade schools they offered in prison.

So yeah, that is the story of the ‘big’ robbery. Everyone hears ‘robbery’ and thinks I was out actually robbing stores. That couldn’t be further from the truth. But what made it aggravated robbery lies in the fact that I popped out my blade on that guy. I wouldn’t had done that if he had not had that club, or if I knew Pete was stealing that beer. But if I am to be honest, he didn’t raise it {[he club] at me or even threaten me with it. I just simply saw it in his hand and thought, let me pull out my blade. That night I lost everything for 2.5 years.

I got out of prison and even though Merry is pregnant, I still cared for her and we hooked up. I was with her almost every day. And then this happened.

I do know I was crazy, and it lasted even while I came here (on death row). I hated everyone and everything in the courts and law enforcement. I stayed in trouble, fought cops in the jail. It is a wonder they didn’t kill me!