Locked In with Ian Bick - I Lived for the Streets — Until I Was Sent To Prison For 12 Years | Davon Eldemire

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

Davon Eldemire grew up in the hood in Bridgeport, Connecticut with no father in the picture, raised by his mom and sisters as the only boy in the house. He had a passion for basketball but eventually got consumed by the street life, giving up his dream. That path led to a robbery where he shot someone and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. In this interview, Davon opens up about what it was like growing up without a father, how the streets pulled him in, and the moment that changed everything and landed him in prison. He shares what the years behind bars taught him about life, the mindset shift that turned his sentence into an opportunity, and how he is now using his experience to mentor the youth and keep them from going down the same path. #RaisedInTheHood #PrisonStories #LockedInPodcast #StreetLife #TrueCrimePodcast #PrisonLife #RedemptionStory #lifeafterprison Thank you to BLUECHEW & PRIZEPICKS for sponsoring this episode: BlueChew: Visit https://bluechew.com/ and use promo code LOCKEDIN at checkout to get your first month of BlueChew FREE & pay five bucks for shipping. Prizepicks: Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/IANBICK and use code IANBICK and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Connect with Davon Eldemire: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bruthabiggs?igsh=M2ZnOGJyMzJ5OTBw Facebook - Davon Eldemire Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Use code LOCKEDIN for 20% OFF Wooooo Energy Buy Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction: From Streets to Prison 03:00 Growing Up in Bridgeport 06:00 Family Life and Influences 10:00 Basketball vs. Street Life 14:00 Discovering Street Fame 19:00 Turning Point: High School and Drugs 24:00 Deepening Involvement in the Streets 30:00 Violence, Reputation, and School Rivalries 36:00 Dropping Out and the Daily Street Grind 39:00 Guns, Shootings, and First Arrest 44:00 Bail, House Arrest, and Escalation 51:00 Second Case: The Robbery Gone Wrong 57:00 Getting Caught, Court, and Sentencing 01:03:00 Entering Prison: Adjustment and Early Mindset 01:09:00 Facing Violence and Finding Mentorship 01:15:00 Personal Transformation in Prison 01:20:00 Mentorship, Helping Others, and Release 01:24:00 Life After Prison: Family, Regrets, and Growth 01:27:00 Making Amends and Changing the Narrative 01:31:00 Closing Reflections and Advice Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's just something in the streets. It's like, if we didn't go to prison, we ain't really out here. Would you have considered yourself a violent person? Went in there off rip. Shout them. I know I'm not playing. What do you think was the most horrific thing you witnessed in prison? Devon Aldemeyer grew up in the hood in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

No father in the picture, raised by his mom and sisters, and consumed by the streets. He gave up his passion for basketball, got caught up in a robbery, where he shot someone, and was sentenced to 14 years in a Connecticut State prison. But prison changed everything. Today, Devon is using a story to mentor the next generation and keep them going from down the same path. Devon, welcome to Lockton, man. Thanks so much for coming on the show. I know this is your first podcast, and you literally just got out of prison two months ago. Yeah, two months ago, man. Thanks for having me. Yeah, well, welcome home. Thanks for supporting the show. You're from Connecticut. Yep, we're from Connecticut. Yeah, and you just got home

from 12 year? 12 years. 12 year. Wow, man. Well, I appreciate you taking the time here. today to come out here. Yeah, I appreciate you, man. I like what you're doing. I've seen what you're doing. My boy, Wuda, have put me on to this. And I said, I got to check out Ian, man, see what he's doing. Went on your page and see all the love that you get from people.

And just how you just came up, man. It's inspiring. And that's why I had to come check you out, man. How to come here. She was all about. And this is nice. What you're doing is amazing. Thank you, bro.

I appreciate that. Did you grow up in Connecticut? Yeah, I grew up in Bridgeport, yeah. for Bridgeburg, Connecticut. PT, to be specific. And that's the hood out there. And, yeah, grew up a little rough, but a basketball player.

Were you both parents in the picture? No, my dad, he was in my A, my mom and my sisters raised me. I was in the house with a house full of women. Even the dog was a female. How many sisters did you have? I grew up with three sisters in the house. My sister, Melinda, Jamie, and Leanna, and our dog. We had a little chihuahua named Princess.

Wow. A whole group of girls. Yeah, it's crazy. Did any of them ever end up getting in trouble? No, I was like the only one. Like my sisters, they fought a lot, argue with my mom, but they all went to school and did great things. I was just like the bad apple.

I just, I don't know. How are you guys in age compared to each other? I'm the baby. I'm the youngest out of all of them. Oh, you were the youngest too? The only boy and the youngest? Yeah, I'm the youngest. Man, what was it like growing up with?

all women in the house? It's challenging. Like, when I look back at it now, like, prison helped me look back on it, you know what I'm saying? So when I look back on it now, I'm like, man, I needed a male figure, you know what I'm saying?

Because, like, I feel like that's how I got into the streets because my sisters couldn't stop me, my mom couldn't stop me. I had nobody to, like, really beat me or even, like, show me the man way. Just think about it, in a house full of females, full of women,

I'm saying? So it was difficult, what I'm saying? But they did the best for me. They did what they could do. Do you think your mom was ill-prepared to raise a boy because she was so accustomed to raising woman? That's a great question.

Nobody has ever asked me that. My mom's a strong woman. She's a strong. Her backbone is strong. So I wouldn't say she was ill-equipped, but I just feel like she... How can I put this? She wasn't...

She wasn't... She wasn't ready. You know what I'm saying? She wasn't ready for me to just start acting out the way I did because she felt as if she did her best and she did do her best I just I just felt victim to the streets for no reason like I grew up okay I wouldn't say it was great it was okay like I didn't I didn't really want for anything it was just it was just enticing it was saying once I start getting that love from the streets I just started disowning what my mom was saying

my sisters were saying and it just became everything what the streets were saying and now to look back on that I should just listen to them what was you and your mom's relationship like oh we tight still to this day Hey, we're tight. I'm her baby. So, like, even when I used to get in trouble, you want punishment. I was like, all right, shit, beat me real quick, boom. Soon as she'd leave him back outside. And my sister used to get mad.

Like, you always let him do whatever he want, and still to this day, I still, I'm still a baby. You think she gave you too much leeway? Definitely. Too much. Way too much leeway. And like I said, it was no way to stop it. It was no way. Like, once I fell victim to the street, she was just threw her hands up.

Like, it is what it is. She got to learn the hard way and that I did. What did your mom do for work? She worked at Genevice for like, remember Genevies? The old store. It's like an Italian? No, it was a pharmacy store. It's like CV.

You know, we got CVS and Walgreens. It was Genevies first. So she worked at Genevies for like 20 years. And then I believe she had got fired and now my mom been on unemployment ever since. Was it hard to support such a big family by herself? Yeah, most definitely. but I've never seen it. I'm saying like when you get older, like I'm as an adult now

and we have conversations now, I realize like my mom did the best she could do and how my mom made rent, she gambled. My mom been gambling since I was, I'd say probably before I was born and she still does it to this day. Like car games and at the casino every week. Like after church today,

my mom is probably going to the casino. Like nine times out of ten, she's going to a casino right after church. but that's how she made rent. That's how she supported us. That's how when school came around, the two pair sneakers that you usually get the white, the all whites and the all blacks,

I had them every year. And she'd win? When? From what I seen, like I said, my mom's just wrong. She never showed no weakness. She never showed no weakness. I seen my mom show weakness one time.

That's my first time I got arrested. I seen it when she just after she had bonding me out and she was like, I'm done with you. And even then she didn't really give up on me, but she started to fly. all back like he has to learn on his own she did what she had to do to put food on the table exactly did your sisters have a good upbringing too i know they were older than you but was it different from yours it's i don't even we all grew up in the same household but it's like we all had separate lives

like i was i'm like i said i'm the baby so i never paid attention to what my sisters was doing and they are successful like in today's world i'm saying they all got their own houses married um cars great jobs So it worked out for them. Whatever they seen in the projects and heard, it made them distance their self from it. How do you feel that they became successful and you went to prison? I feel like this is I had to be. I'm saying.

I moved through life accordingly now. So it was like when I look back on it, like I had to go through my trials and tribulations to become this new me today. The man that has discipline, the man that has courage, self-love. The man who looks in the mirror and be like, yo, you're great. Like, you got it. Just keep pushing. I don't feel no type of way. Like, they did great.

How do you think your mom would describe teenage you back in the day? Teenage me. You know what she would say? A womanizer. That's the first day. I swear, because she always said, you're just like your dad. But it was always with the females. Because, like, I always had the prettiest girl.

Always had the crazy pretty chicks. And my mom used to hate that. Like, when I mean, like, hate is a strong word, but she used to hate that because she'd be like, you just like your father. And my dad is known for having them. all the women. And I never used to be around them. So when my mom just said,

you just like your dad, he made me go harder and just being a womanizer. So she would say I was a womanizer and I just loved to get dressed, love fashion. And yeah, that's probably what she would say. How did you truly feel about your dad

not being in the picture when you were young? That shit hurt. Like, it hurt. And the reason why I hurt is because my daughter was born, Me and my dad had a big argument, and I told him, I said, I'd never be nothing like you, right? And this is how ironic life works, and this is how ironic life is. And this is why you've got to be careful with the things that you say, and you actually put out in the world because it will come to fruition if you don't pay attention to it.

I told my dad I'd never be like you. I'll never be anything like you, right? And it was pertaining to it was like being there for his kid. I went to jail my daughter was two. Came home, she's 14. I told my dad I'd be nothing like him. my dad was MIA all my life, in and out, MIA. I did the same exact thing that I said I wouldn't become.

So, like, that trajectory and looking back on it now, like, yo, I should have just understood or tried to understand my dad was probably going through something that he couldn't even tell me. That's probably why he wasn't there. I'm saying, I should have looked at my dad not being there and I should have helped me become a better person. But that joint actually hurt. To this day, I'm like, damn, I wish I had a connection with my dad. Like, I came home, I phacetone one time.

He didn't call me since. Like after 12 years, my dad, I FaceTime him. Yo, Dad, this is my number. Like, I'm home. And, okay, talk to him for about an hour. This is your little brother. This is your little sister. Mind you, my dad, like, 56.

I got two little brother and a little sister. He got like 11 kids. He's still pumping kids out. So it's crazy. And he hasn't talked to me since. Do you blame your dad for how you became? No. No, I don't blame my dad at all.

Product of my environment is the truth. thing and that's what I became a product of my environment. I'm saying I grew up in the projects grew up in the area where it's rough and that's what I became. Did a lot of your friends have no father in the picture too? All my friend. I can't think of my boy Wuda had his stepfather. His stepfather name was D. Wu and he always just tried to like play basketball because we like the best in far age range we was like the best in the city of bridgeport like right now you look at my boy jameel powell he was he's the best basketball player to come out of bridgeport and me and him used to play basketball and he was one of the ones used to always tell us like yo go to the basketball court

like forget the streets go to the basketball court but we none of us had that's none of us where did your love for basketball come from my sister i never forget we had the little it's a little tv she had in a room like this. It's like a little box TV and I never forget, she was watching the Sixers play. And mind you, this had to be when AI went to the finals, I believe. When they was playing Kobe? What year?

Is that like 2001 or something like that? Dude, I didn't start watching basketball until I got the prison. That is crazy. But yeah, it was when I seen her watching Alan Iverson play and she was going crazy. I'm like, and I'm in the room playing my little Sega and I look over and she's like, Alan Irons and let's go. And then from that day, I'm like, yeah, like, I'm not like, I'm not at an Iverson, too. And from that day, I'm like, I'm going to play basketball too.

And I just start playing basketball and I became good at it. There's people that will say if you play sports that will keep someone away from falling or becoming a victim of the streets. How come that that didn't stop you? Simple. It's simple. I want to say simple is complex. Let me take that back. It's complex because basketball fame, right?

And street fame is two different things. When you get basketball fame, it's like, it's people in the school that you might not see after school no more. I'm saying? It's like all the people, when you walk in in school, they're like, yo, good game, big man. Yo, big man, you did good, big man, da-da-da, right? The coaches. And the after-school reality sets back in. And I'm back in the projects with my friends that were we coming from the bottom, right?

And there's no fame there. It's like, man, big man, get out of here. You ain't nobody. So I didn't. So the basketball fame wasn't enough for me, I'm saying? Because once I start getting that street fame, it's like, yo, basketball. can't keep me from the streets because now my name is popping after school now my name means something in the hood after school now when i walk through the neighborhood like i said all the pretty

chicks know me not just the the chicks in school when i walk around all the drug dealers know me all the gangbangers know me all the people in the corner store know me so like that street fame is different and if you can't um see the difference in that growing up that you will gravitate more towards the streets and that's what I do. This episode is brought to you by prize picks. You and I make decisions every day, but on prize picks, being right can get you paid. Don't miss any of the excitement this season on prize picks where it's good, to be right. I've been loving playing prize picks this football season. It's super simple and honestly a lot of fun. You just pick more or less on player projections, lock in your lineup and watch it play out while you're watching the games. Here's what I'm

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Prize picks, it's good to be right. What was your reputation on the streets? And how old were you? I was known as a basketball player and the dude who get the prettiest chicks. Like before I jumped in the streets, that's what I was known for. I'm saying? But then after I jumped in the streets, it was, oh, big man crazy. Oh, big man bugging. Oh, that's big man from PT. Oh, big man, I'm saying? And it just got worse and worse and worse.

Now, do they call Bridgeport PT? No, that's a project in Bridgeport. Okay. A hood, yeah. Okay. So when's the first time you get yourself into some trouble as a kid? My first time, like my very first time? Very first time.

Stole a bike from me and my cousin, rest in peace school. We was walking from PT to a corner store. But the only reason why we was walking. there because he wanted this bike he's seen his kid on his bike he like yo he live up here so i'm like all right come we go get it so we walk out of pt we walk to the um to the corner store it's called uncle don't anybody that's listening from pt from brits but he know uncle don's and so we go to uncle don's um and so just so happen the kid comes by on a bike literally and he like that's the bike right there is a mangoos a yellow mongoose i never forget a yellow mongoose pegs on both two pegs on the

front two pegs on the back he like that's the bike i want brother that's the bike i'm like let's go brother we're gonna get that so boom we asked a kid do you want to play hide and seek literally probably like seven eight and we we had my grandmother house in pt so boom we start playing i'm like yo come hide in the car with me i tell the dude hiding in the car with me the little kid and he eyes in the car with me and while i'm under the car i'm looking for my cousin see if he got the bike and he fly by on the bike so i'm like yo stay right here stay right here i'm about to go over here so the kid like okay and i come from under the car jump on the pegs we go back to pt and hi hi and hi I don't know how this kid knew where we lived, who we were, but like 15 minutes later,

they came to PT looking for us. We run in my grandmother, the highest, hide the bike behind her in the back. And sure enough, they knocked on the door, came in there, put us in cuffs. And what's the question was, where the bike, with a bike? And you know, as kids, we seven, we gave the bike up. And it was a little slap on the wrist, but that was my very first time getting in trouble with the police. Did you know the wrong thing to do to steal from someone else? No, like I said, probably got in my environment.

Like, you know what's wrong, but it's the norm. So, like, once something becomes the norm, it becomes right. It becomes right in your subconscious mind. Like, oh, that's just the right thing to do. And that's how it works when you become a product of the environment. Did you feel bad at all in that moment when you were actually stealing the bike from another kid? Or it was just... No, I felt bad when I got a beating by my grandmother with that switch.

But after that beating was done, me and my cousin, she gave us a little a baloney sandwich at that time. Yeah. It was a baloney sandwich at that time. And we laugh and the joke and like, oh, that's all. Like, the cops came, put us in cups, asked what the bike was, we gave him the bike, they left, we got a beating by grandma and we got a sandwich. Oh, that's nothing.

That's late. We could keep doing this. So I didn't feel bad. Was your grandmother a strict role model in your life? Yeah, my grandmother don't play. My grandmother, she was the cool one, though. My grandmother, like, everybody loved my grandmother. And her, my family, everybody loves my grandmother.

But she didn't play. She was strict. Whatever she put in that plate, you had to eat. It wasn't no grandma, what you're making today? Are you hungry? Like, yeah, all right, then sit down. And she put any son on that plate, there's been times I've been just sitting there crying.

She's like, you're not leaving to eat that food. I had to really eat the food, but my grandmother's straight. Was she your mom's mom or your dad's mom? My mom's mom. Okay. How did she feel about your dad not being in the picture? I never asked that. Rest in peace, my grandmother.

My grandmother, my brother passed while I was in prison, but I never asked her that. Do you think that if you lived with your grandmother full-time, you would have had a different outcome? No. That's what my grandmother lived in the project, so now. Were her and your mom close? Yeah.

They were, I believe, her and my aunt Pinky, which is my cousin's school, to my mom, my Aunt Pinky, they were the closest. Did you have a big family living in the area, too? Yeah, my whole family was there, yeah, big family. So what happens after that? Like, take us to your high school years? High school, that's where it started. Like, I went to, I went to Basic High School in my freshman year, right?

And like I said, I was a basketball player. I was a basketball player, but I'm a big man from PT still no matter what. So as a basketball player, I was good. And Harden High School, which is in Britsboro, too. We played them. And Harden High School coach Charlie Bentley, he doesn't send a lot of people off to colleges and NBA players that play for him, everything. So he's seen me play, and he actually told my mom that he wanted me to go to Hardin High School.

And I'm at Bassett my freshman year. Mind you, we rivalries. That's on the west side. Bassist's on the west side. side, Hardin's on the east side. So when I'm going to Bassett, my mom, like, you ain't no opportunity over here. And I'm like, what you mean?

She's like, I want you to go to Hardin. They say Hardin's a better school. They got better opportunities at Hardin. Charlie Bentley is known. So I'm like, all right, let's go. I end up going to Harder High School. And that was like mid-freshment year, like after basketball season, something like that.

And that's where everything just went downhill. Like literally, I don't regret anything I didn't like but when I be thinking back I'm like damn if I didn't go to Hardin but at the same time if I didn't go to Hardin I want to have my beautiful daughter here so it's like I'm saying it's like

it's a gift and a curse yeah they say hindsight I was reading a quote that hindsight's not actually 2020 because if you picked a different option then you don't know how that would have played out so you really don't know there's so many different variables I mean I think about certain things all the time like if I pick this

instead of that what would have happened that's a fact But everything turned out the way it's supposed to. Literally. Look where I'm at today. I'm saying with you. Even though I, like I said, I had to go through my childhood and triple a few but things are, it's turning out right because I'm putting the right energy out there

and I'm producing the right things now. So what was the first thing that spiraled out of control when you got there? My very, I kid you not, you know, my very first day, like, I don't want to say no names, but my right-hand man. Like, he's locked up right now. It's this my right-hand man. I got friends. I got best friends.

my right hand man like um my first day literally my first day he like yo we're getting money i'm like huh he like we're getting money i'm like what you mean he gave me uh it was like a quarter a week um and like 10 pills e pills and i'm like what he like yeah mind you i wasn't so i seen anybody something drugs i'm saying like i was a basketball player but i'm still i'm a street dude so he's like yo here we we on so i'm like you serious he like yeah and we went the bathroom and we ripped the dollar like literally we We got the dollar, we ripped the dollar. He's like, yo, for life.

I'm like, hell yeah. We came up with a handshake right there, and that's when I started selling drugs. I stopped going to class, and I'm in the bathroom selling e-pills and weed all day. And it's so crazy. Mine is just years ago, so they probably retired. The security guards just coming there and cop off us, too.

It was crazy, and I'd be looking back at it. That's why I said, if I didn't go to Hardin, if I didn't go, but that's when it all started. My first day at Hardin. How much money are you making doing that? As a kid, it was probably like, probably like, because we selling nickbags at the time. So it was probably like $500 a week, not even. It was something like.

What did you know about drugs at the time? I knew a couple things, but I never, at that time, I never bagged up no weed. I seen people bag of weed. I never used the scale. So I knew the little things about weed. But after that day, after school, we went to his house. He had the scale. He had everything.

And then he taught me everything right there. Were you into drugs yourself, like using them? Yeah, I smoked weed. And from weed, I was addicted to e-pills more than anything, I'm saying? I started off as smoking weed. And then rest in peace, my boy, A.B., man, he made me pop my first pill. He was like the leader from the east side, I'm saying? I used to be on the east side every day, I'm saying, after I went to Hardin.

And I used to be with A.B. every day at his house. I never forget. It's like four in the morning. And we, like, 50 deep, no exaggeration. It's like 50 dudes out here, chicks out there. And he's like, yo, everybody about to pop a pill. And I believe I'm like 15 at the time. Yeah, 15.

And I'm like, I ain't popping no pill. He's like, what? You got my house. You have my house, you pop in a pill. And I never forget me and this dude Scully. Scully, like, I ain't popping no pill either. And he's like, nah, y'all, at my house, y'all pop in this pill. And I was my first time popping an E pill.

And then after that day, it went from one pill every Saturday. to a pill Saturday and Sunday then it went from a pill from Saturday to two pills Saturday two pills Sunday and then it went from a pill every day to two pills every day, three pills every day to the point, yo my max I popped 11 and a half pills one day

I'm saying and I was just stuck they had to carry me I literally got stuck in the club I couldn't move my all my muscles just tightened up they had to carry me out and we was in Waterbury actually Jewel Santana went out there to perform they had to carry me out of the club because I was stuck And I was like, I got to stop popping these pills, man. That was the day I said, I got to chill.

And I just dumped it down. I started popping like one. What was it about e-pills that you liked? It was the feeling of I felt like I could back any chick in the world. Like any chick that walked by, they already know big men going to talk to her. The prettiest chick in the room, I'm off that e-pill. Big men is going to talk to her. As soon as we get in there, I was like, yo, where she got?

They be like, yo, that's the baddest one already there, Biggs. And I'm right over there. And nine times of ten, I was bagging her. And I probably was backing it because my eyes probably dimmed their clothes. I don't know what I used to be saying. But that was, that's what made me like the E-Pill. It was a feeling of like I can't control it

by the same time. I can't, I'm saying? So it was a weird feeling. Do you think about what would have happened if you went to Hardin and just focused on basketball? I probably would have made it to at least a practice squad. Like literally, I know for a fact, I would have made it to an NBA practice squad.

Because, like, how I'm geared, anything I'd do, do, I'm going to do it to the fullest. Like, I don't, I don't care how somebody else feel about it. And I've always been like that. Like, anything I put my mind to you, if I say I'm going to succeed at something, I'm going to succeed at it. And that's how I was. And I'm saying, I succeeded at the street life.

Because if you think about it, when you're in the street life, when you succeed, the badge of honor is prison. I succeeded. I did that. And I understand, like, you know, that ain't the way. I'm going to go this way. So if I would have just played basketball harder, I know for a fact, I'd have been successful.

Why do you think you didn't apply that logic to basketball? Like I said earlier, the fame. Like, this is a real thing. Like, street fame and basketball fame is too different. It's two ends of the spectrum. That shit is different, you know. Like, and that street fame was everything. I'm saying?

Because it came to a point where I didn't have to ask my mom for anything no more. Like, I didn't have to rely on my child support card. My mom had a child support car. She had given me growing up $100 of Diego, swiped $100. Feel me? it came point.

I didn't have to depend on my mom no more. I didn't have to depend on my sister no more. That fame was, that street fame was different. Why was prison the badge of honor? It's just something in the streets. It's like, if you didn't go to prison, you ain't really out here. And I'm saying?

And which isn't true. Like, when you get older, you understand, that's not true at all. But they'd be saying, like, if you ain't go to prison, you ain't really do it to the fullest. And when you're growing up and you see a dude like one of your men's go to prison from the hood, they go to prison.

and then they come back, like, unscathed, they come back, like, diesel, muscle on them. Some of them come back smarter, like, street smart, like, understand how to sell drugs better. They tell you how to steal cars better, how to do everything worse in the hood. So it was like, prison was that bad to honor. Like, yo, if I don't go to jail, like, I ain't really learning that. Like, I ain't really out here. And that's why in the streets, they say, like, prison is a badge of honor. What did you know about prison as a teenager?

My uncle was locked up. My uncle Gil, he was locked out. That's only, like I said, a couple of my friends got locked up, but I never really asked the details of prison. It's just all visual. Like somebody, like I said, somebody would come home, diesel, I'm saying? Somebody come home, like, a little more, like, street smart. You're like, oh, it's cool in there.

Like, oh, it might be, I might could do that, I'm saying, and that's what it was. Did your mom start to see you acting differently? You're getting some money. You're selling drugs. Did she, you know, notice that? Yeah, my mom said it to me. couple times.

Better not be selling drugs in my house. Like I said, I wasn't getting big money. I'm getting little kid money at the time because I'm still a kid in high school playing basketball. So it was to the point where like, he's not asking me for that $5 every day. He's not asking me for that $10 lunch money. Like, what's up? And my mom just say, you better not have drugs in my house.

Where you get them sneakers from? Oh, no, the coach bought it for me because he said I was good in basketball. And like I said, my mom knew I was fucking lying. But it's like she couldn't stop it. What do you think your happiest moment was? before everything went bad from your childhood? When our high school freshman coaches, they brought us to the NFL game.

When Brett Farb was on the Jets, I believe. When Brett Farr went to the Jets, something like that, when the Jets played the Giants and we had skybox seats. And I believe it was gifted from Magic Johnson or something like that. Magic Johnson. I don't know, something like that. It was too long ago, but that was my finest moment. Like growing up like going to an NFL game sitting in the skybox seats where everything I order is free.

Like I can eat whatever I went up here. They like, yeah, and you open the window, you hear the game, you close it, you don't hear nothing. I'm like, yo, this is amazing. So that was like my favorite thing. How often did you think about that in the years to come, that moment? A lot when I was in prison, what I'm saying? Because that's the time before I went to Hardin High School. You know what I'm saying?

So that was like the good moments. Like damn, I was a good kid. Like, I was a basketball playing kid. Like, I was one of them kids where I actually had people who believed in me, like, you're going to go somewhere. Like, yo, you stick to this. You got it. You got it.

So, like, I think about those moments a lot. I thought about those moments a lot. Something I learned in prison is the power of your memories, especially when you're in something like solitary and you don't have a book or anything. And your mind replays memories. And that kind of keeps you motivated and keeps you going. I would always think about happy times with, you know, a lot of relationships, things that I had lost.

I always just thought about that. and tried to replay moments as a bunch as I could. See, like, I did that a lot, but now I realized for me, like, like, you know what I'm saying, everybody's wired different. So for me, like, my past, when I think about my past, it's like, it's like gorilla glue, it's like sticky glue. It's like glue. Like, it keeps me in my past.

So I had to, like, grow out of that. And it's like, you know how they say, like, the butterfly, how it cancun and all that goes. That's, that was kind of my theory of what I went through, I'm saying, to become a new. me like I had to become that butterfly like I had to sit there for a little minute and um grow to understand my past not just have those memories but grow to like literally understand like why I went through what I went through why I chose what I chose and understand like you had to go through that so you could become this and when I realized that I started to paint my future I started to paint a new me like what do I want like who am I like what's next like you went through that cool but I'm not

going to use that as a crutch my whole 12 years in prison. Well, I didn't know how much time I was going to do it when they gave me the 14. I thought I was going to censored modification and things like that, but I didn't. But it's like, why would I continue to use my past as a crutch or like, try to create some new memories. Even though you're in prison, create some new memories that's actually cool and fun that you could actually tell people like, yo, this is what I did to help me change. This is what I did to help me become a new me.

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Like me getting to the street you turn? Yeah. You're about sophomore year? Yeah, sophomore year, I get kicked out of heart in high school. Like the beginning of my sophomore year, I get kicked out of heart of high school. And now I got to go back to BASIC High School. And when I go back to BASIC High School, my first day in school, this shit was like a movie, you know, I'm telling me, and this shit like a movie.

class i kid you not i'm in class this chick she had a little brazen her here and i'm in class i'm chilling and i'm high as hell i'm off a pill and she turned around's like so you think you all that i'm like what she's like oh you think you hot shit i'm like who are you like what are you like what are you she's like that's why they're gonna fuck you up after class and mind jim looking at the teacher like yo what i'm looking at her like a band in class looking at me people know me in class but they all looking at me like yo some people like who is this kid like what It's my first day in school. My first day back at Bassett.

I'm like, man, now I'm getting into her. Like, man, I slap the, I'm going crazy on her. Disrespecting her now. She leaves class. I come out of class. My boy, Lil Jeremy, I never forget. My boy, Lil Jeremy and my boy Teddy, they come grab me up. Like, yo, they're around the corner waiting for you.

I'm like, who? He's like, all them niggas, you know, different huds, different sides. So I'm like, mind you, I'm the only dude from, at this time, I'm probably the only dude from PT going to school. Like one thing, I didn't fear nothing. So I'm like, I don't care. So Jeremy holding me like, yo, don't go that way. Don't go that way.

I'm like, no, I don't care. I'm going over there. And the security guard in. Security guard comes and say, yo, you big man? And mind you, security guard saying my nickname, nah. I'm not big man.

He's like, so you're not big man. I'm like, nah. He's like, all right, then. That's on you. So I'm like, all right. So mind you, my waves spinning at this time. I had waves crazy. You know, I'm bald now.

But at this time, my wave spinning. So I got a brush on me. I'm brushing my hair. And I swear, you know how in the movie, like, everything start closing it? As I'm walking down the hall, everything is closing in. I'm like, yo, they really run that corner. And when I hit that corner, it's probably like 15, like 15 dudes from the other side. And I had to walk up like four steps.

And I'm laughing. I'm laughing because I'm scared, right? But I ain't going to show I'm scared. I'm laughing because I'm fearing this moment, but I ain't going to show them fear in this moment. I'm saying. Like, so I'm only laughing trying to keep from running, I'm saying? Which is the, that's everybody too.

I don't care how tough a dude is. That's everybody. That's what we do in the moments like that. So as I'm walking up the four steps, dude put his leg out. And I pushed his leg like, fuck out my way, brother. He's like, don't call me no brother.

I'm like, man, you heard me, brother. And as I'm talking to him, I see a dude from the side running up. And I just hit him first. Boom. And when I hit him, they all froze like, oh, snap. So now me and him. I'm just fighting. I'm beating him up, boom.

Then they all just rush me, right? When they rush me, they're jumping me now. Yo, don't you know all the females broke the fight up? I can name every chick who broke that fight up. They broke the fight. Stop, why got to jump in big men? They break it up, grabbing dudes. They fight in dudes.

So now, mind you, I never hit the floor either. I have my back on the locker while they were jumping. I got my eyes closed just punching dudes lights out. You know what I mean? And after that, I called my cousin. Yo, they just jumped me, cause. He's like, who? I'm like, at Bassik.

He's like, say less. And anybody from Bridgeburg around my age, that's my age, they can verify this story. My whole projects came to the school. My whole fucking project came to the school. We like 50 deep outside of Basic, and then they whole projects came to the school. So we on this side of the street, they on this side of the street. The cops is in the middle. Y'all PT kids, go back to PT.

Y'all go to the Marines. and you go that way. And I'm saying? And we walking back this way, they following us, but the cops went, mind you, this is a public school. So you could just imagine the chaos of the streets. They got 100 cop cars out there.

And I'm saying? And we walking back to PT, they following us. You know, a couple of dudes with us, we scrapped up, we got guns. So we like, yo, come this way. Come this way. So mind you, they called my mom, told I was suspended for 10 days.

I went to school the next day. I'm supposed to be suspended for 10 days. I'm going to school the next day. The first dude I seen from the other side punched him in the face. Boom. I'm fighting him. They come arrest me in school. Yo, now they ask me like, what's wrong with you?

You know what's wrong with me. They just jumped me yesterday. Like, but, you know, I ain't saying that. I'm just in there quiet. Call my mom. My mom come and get me. They're like, yo, he comes to school tomorrow. He can arrest him.

I went to school the next day. First dude I seen the cafeteria punched him in the face. And that's where I realized like, yo, I'm tripping. Like, I'm bugging out. And that was the rabblehold I was in that. I finally climbed out of. And it started from that. Do you know why they actually jumped you?

Yeah, because I was from the other side. Yeah, but there's got to be more than that, no? No. Like, when you're young and you beefing like that, you want to get your name up, you'm saying? And I respect what they did, because if anyone of them would have came to harder like that, we did the same thing to know. So you didn't wrong anyone, nothing? No, it's just when you young and you in the streets like that, before we start using guns and stuff, like it was like, yo, he's from the other side. What is he doing in our school?

Mind you, this is not our school. This is state school. I'm saying? This is state property. Like, this is not just school, but that's how we used to think. Like, yo, why is he in our school? And I already knew that's how they was thinking. Like, why is he in our school?

Like, he's tripping, man. Like, he was good freshman year because he was, like, playing basketball. But now I'm selling drugs. Now my name ringing on the east side. Now my name is ringing a little bit in PT. And I was like, no, he can't come to the school no more. So I already knew that's why they jumped me. Like I said, if anyone in them were to come to Hardin,

It'd have been the same thing. Would you have considered yourself a violent person? At that time, yeah. Growing up, I was a cry baby. My sister probably said I was a punk. Like my sister, I fought my sister Jamie a couple of times. She beat me up, you know what I'm saying? I cried.

Went to my mom. I'm saying. But once probably like, I'll say like six, seven grade hit, that's when I became a little violent. What do you think caused that? The streets? Product of my environment. Like, you see.

I don't seen dudes get jumped into a game. And after he got jumped, he, my age, we 11. After he gets jumped, he ain't crying. And I'm just like, what? How he ain't crying? Like, they just whooped this dude. Like, he's bleeding all crazy. He's like, I'm screwed.

I'm straight. And I'm like, y'all, I can't, I can't fear that. Like, I can't be in a project showing I'm scared of something that's the norm. Because once you do that, now you're fool. Now everybody is coming at you. Now everybody going to be bullying you. Now they take your sneakers. Now they're running your pocket.

So, like, once I've seen that, I'm like, I ain't fairing nothing. After that incident happens when you got jumped, what happens next? That's when I became a real street dude. Like, I ain't even going to lie. That's when I really just jumped head on in the streets, like any and everything. From if somebody's on the drugs, I'm robbing them. If we see someone on the other side, we're shooting at them. If I don't got a gun on me and I catch him in the sneaker store, I'm punching him in his face.

If I see somebody a girl, he with his girl, we're going crazy. and that's what it became. Did you give up on high school at that point? Yeah, I gave them on high school. I gave my high school after they jumped me. As soon as I got the heart in, it was like I gave up on high school subconsciously because, like I said, I grabbed the drugs and started something.

Now, were there gangs in Bridge for or was it just by projects? It's projects. If somebody in a gang in Bridgeport, like, come on, man, you wild. It's just projects. To walk us through a typical day once you're out of high school and what was going on? A typical day out of high school? Yeah. I wake up, smoke a blunt, pop a bill.

at this time and I just wait for my phone to ring make some flexes and now I'm just riding around and a little I had a little a little Buick that my mom didn't know about

a Buick Park Ave it was like a I was like a 98 and something like that I used to park around the corner my mom my sister's nobody knew only being in my right-hand man and I used to have parked around the corner

so and I just wait and we call it flexing I used to flex all day what we used to call it flexing which is we call it trap now, trap all day into my phone ring and then 2.30 letout. Epic. Harden high school letouts, 2.30. People from other sides of times that come to our leto. We get out of school 230, people then leave to about 5 o'clock. Were you guys just hanging out in the parking lot?

Just hanging out in the parking lot, smoking. Somebody got music. You see a little girl, the girls over there dancing. You try and bag these chicks, everybody just dabbing each other up. Sometimes, a fighter, sometimes, all the time, a fighter break out, either two dudes and it's Probably same hood, different huds, chicks fighting. It was epic. We running in the store, snatch and grab. It was every day. How old were you when you got the case that sent you to prison?

20. What happens then? Well, I called my first case. I caught a shooting at the Puerto Runei Parade. I had a little shootout to put her in a parade. I get caught with the gun. Things happen. Like, I think two people got shot that day

My man's I was with Like, we side by side I'm shooting After I run out of shots, we running, he gets shot I'm saying And when he gets shot He's just like, yo, go You know what I'm saying?

So I got the gun on me, I'm running I'm running a little restaurant And the people in the restaurant I don't know how the hell they knew how to have a gun on me I'll still be thinking about this to this day. Like, how they knew I had a gun on me? So when I run in the store, they call the cops. Like, yo, somebody's in the store with a gun.

And I guess they asked in my description. And they was like, yep, that's him. I had on red shorts with a white tank top. Some red and black sneakers in the red and black hat. And they rushed in there, grabbed me up. I had the gun on me. And they was like, yeah, this is the gun. Why did you have a gun on you?

The Puerto Raneer parade is in other peoplehood. It's in the so-called option. I don't be for nobody now. That shit over and done with it. That's for kids. But it was in the other peoplehood, so protection. Now, how old were you when this incident happened? I was 19.

So this is before the case you went to, you went to prison for? So this, did you go out on bail for this gun? Yeah, I bonded out, yep. Okay. So what did they charge you for the gun? Was that felony possession? Felony possession, unlawful discharge, disturbing of peace, risk of energy.

I had 100 counts of risk of injuries to a minor. I'm like, how is that even possible? I'm saying? But it was just a whole bunch of bogus charges that came with the gun charge. And no one got hurt? No. The bullets from my gun didn't actually match up with people who got shot. That was someone else that shot them?

It was so many people who shot them. So it was like an actual like turf war type of thing? Yeah, yeah. It was real. Do you think about how, like, I'll talk to, like, a lot of motorcycle club guys that have left the club, and they think about how silly some of their disputes were with rivals, looking back on after they left. Do you kind of feel the same way?

Yeah. It's all childish. It's all, but we're kids at the same time. I'm saying it don't make no sense on, like, why I'm beefing from somebody that's, from a different project that's going through the exact same thing I'm going through. He got roaches in his crib. I got roaches in my cred. His dad ain't there just like my dad ain't there.

His mom struggling to pay the bills. It's like my mom struggling to pay the bills. I'm wearing the same. I had the same sneevy's on from like two years ago. Like it's, we're going through the same thing. So like, why am I beefing with somebody that's going through the same thing? Why are we not uplifting each other? Why are we not coming together with the little that we got

and the brains that we got trying to create a better situation or opportunity for ourselves? Now, these seem like some pretty serious charges. How do you get bail? I had a little money saved up. And then, like I said, my mom. She made it work. How much was the bail? And my right-hand man, too.

My right-hand man came through that, no. Yeah, my right-hand man came through at that time. How much was it? I think my bail was 100,000 when I got back to the Puritan Day parade. Yeah, I believe it was 100,000, yeah. So you get on bail and then what happens? They put a bracelet on me. I'm supposed to be in a house arresting.

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you're going to put your house arrest, da-da-da. I'm like, cool. So I go to the house, living at my mom's house at the time, and they put the ankle bracelet on me. And I'm like, yo, I got a daughter. Like, I got to, and we live on the third floor. So I'm like, oh, sometimes I got to go downstairs. to get my daughter.

So they're like, the dudes up there, he's like, I, spend seven seconds in each room. And then when you go down the steps, standing in the hallway for 15 seconds. Each hallway for 15 seconds.

I'm like, all right. He like, and then after that, come back upstairs. I'm like, all, cool.

The criminal me, right? The me that's like, no, they're not keeping me on house arrest. I don't go to fuck, right? My crazy ass,

he like, you downstairs? I'm like, yeah, I'm about to go right here in the hallway. He's like, all right, man, stay in there 15 seconds. I, Hussein, both of that shit, all the way around the block. I ran all the way around the block.

Came back upstairs. He like, yo, good, it worked. I'm like, all right? So I'm supposed to be a house arrest, right? Boom, first nap. I let it rock. I turn to the house all day. Second night, turn the whole day.

I'm like, third night, I'm going outside. I'm going outside. I'm going to see if this shit work. No phone. call. My mom, my mom, Dukes ain't say nothing like they called. I'm like, oh, I think I, I think I broke it. Like, I think I got it. So I go

outside again. I stay up to like 12. Nothing. I'm like, oh, shit. I'm like, yeah. Now I go outside again. I go to a script club this night. And I come back like four in the morning. And then they called the next day like, yo, why is it say you was outside?

You're not supposed to be outside at that time. I realized, oh shit, my shit works after four in the morning. So now I just start coming to house before 4 in the morning, and I was good. So I was like, I was supposed to be in house arrest, but I wasn't. So did they, when, in that moment when you ran around the block, did that program, like a safe zone? Is that what it was? I don't know.

I don't know what it did. I don't know. It malfunctioned. I know I was outside a day day. That's crazy. Yeah. So what happens after that? After that, I'm selling, at this time, I'm selling straight e-pills at the time after I bond out.

Um, you know something? Oh man, I, I skipped the part. My mom threw out all my drugs, man. That's the part. That's, I believe that's the first time I cried in front of my mom. Like, as, like, as, like, being older. My mom, when I gets back, she goes in the room. I think I have probably like a little, like a half pound a weevna or something.

Nothing crazy. And, um, to bond out, I had a cell. I sold my car. And I had a little money saved up. My mom pitched in. My right hand man pitched in. And when I'm locked up, all I'm thinking about is like, all I'm about to go get that weed. I'm about the handle.

I'm about to make a little bit of money. Keep flipping. Keep flipping what I got. I get out. My mom, like, son, I had to throw anything out. I thought that's going to raid the spot. What? My job got zero dollars.

Like, I actually got the name now. Like, I'm actually known for being fly, getting the baddest chicks. And I got zero dollars now. I literally got $0 and my mom told me she threw her all the work. I couldn't do nothing but like I don't know. It's something just in me like, yo, just let it out

and I just start crying like what you mean, man? Like she's like, I thought this gonna raid the spot. Like I got rid of anything. And I couldn't be mad at her. You know what I'm saying? I couldn't be mad at her. So I called my right hand man like, yo. I called his mom, mommy.

He called my mom and mommy. So when we talked to out like, you know, he's like, he like, dude. Nothing over there. I'm like, nothing. He like, all I got is pills. I'm like, fuck it.

Let me get him. He brought me like 12 pills. And pills was going for $10 at the time. I go right to the east side. I need straight cash, too, 10 hours each pill, 10 a night's pill. And then from there, I kept just going and going and going until I fell off, messing with my cousin, man. I should never start messing with my cousin.

How did your mom feel about the shooting and that first arrest? You know, that's a great question there? Because that ignited firing me, too. That made me go harder. Because my mom know people didn't like me because I was from PT, because when they jumped me at Abbasic. So when I gone to a shootout,

people like older ladies from my hood, they was there, you know what I'm saying? And they seen everything that happened. And they told the exact story, like, yo, I'm minding my business, dude's run down on me, not thinking I'm strapped, and they've seen it, and they seen everything happen.

And they told my mom, the story. So when I bonded out, all the cops was outside. Because I'm, like, they know, I'm known now, like, fighting in school. You got your whole hood to come to the school when you got jump. Now you're getting caught with guns for shooting. And that's, oh, it's crazy. That same night, I got, it's crazy. The same night I got jumped, right? The same day I got jumped, I forgot to say this. The same day I got jumped, they follow me for a whole day. And I get, I get pulled over in the car, and there's a gun in the car. I'm saying? And they said I was going to go shoot up by the hook which i was right and and shout to my means man he's doing good in life right now my boy

tie um uh he actually he took the charge like no that's that's my gun you know i'm saying um and and that shit was just crazy like how they literally followed me that whole day and i didn't even know that whole day yo we seen when you when you got picked up from when the whole hook came up there, then you got picked up from PT here, then you went to the east side and sat here. And then after you was on the east side, you went to the north over there. And then you went over here, like, they knew everything. Like, somebody from Cheshire calling me right now. Yeah, we got a prison call.

Yeah. A little prison calling right now. Yeah, it's my mentee, Karan Grimes. Just hold up to the mics of the audience from here. Cheshire Correctional Institution. This call is not private. It will be recorded and may be monitored. If you believe this should be a private call, and I get calls like this.

I could probably like 10 jail calls a day because I was a mentor. So all my mentees call me. And they allow it to you guys to talk to each other? Yeah, because this is a little special connection that we got like as mentors, our mentee, we're supposed to be there for our mentees no matter what. So I could call up to the prison right now to the counselors. Even if my mentees, like, I want to talk to my mentor and they could call me. Yo, what up, y'all?

Ain't no, I'm in his interview right now, man. Say what up to the world. Hey, five, man. It isn't a true right now It isn't a true program Yeah we didn't get there Yeah I'm gonna talk about the true program Yeah

He'll say, dog No, he really He really He inspiring I just I told him He inspired me man I gotta get like him man Which indeed I am

Hey you gotta get me in there to speak Yeah Hey yo matter of fact He wanted to come up there to speak So matter of fact I'm gonna set it up tomorrow Mr. Verit I'm saying

I'm gonna call up there tomorrow And get it set up where he could come in there and speak with y'all. Yeah, I'd love to. Bring me along. Yeah, I wouldn't want it any other way, man. You got to bring me. Nah, I said, let me and we're going to pop out of there, man.

I'm going to finish this interview. Call me later, you're it. You know? I love you, peace. Yeah, I've been trying to get into Connecticut prisons. Yeah, so I'd love to. That's the link right there. I got you.

Awesome. So you're 19, you're on bail. How do you end up in prison? Do you catch another case while you're on bail? I catch a whole other case while I was on bail. and that's when they put my bond $1.5 million and that's where I went to jail.

That's where all my time came from. It was a robbery, assault first, yeah, everything. It was crazy. What happened? A robbery going wrong. Like literally a robbery going wrong.

Set up by a person, I'm saying that, I don't get it. Like, I'll be thinking back some times like, yeah, why don't even do that? I don't even understand why I did it. I know why I did it, but at the same time, like, that's not even me, you know what I'm saying?

But it was just robbery going wrong. Ran in the store. When I ran in, I shot the dude asking for the money. He said he had no money. I left out with nothing. Like, literally nothing. Why did you shoot the guy? I don't, like, just, I ain't playing.

like because it was it was supposedly he had $5,000 on him like I went to jail for robbing the store I'd never rob this story yo like it was a video video I don't know if you still could see it but if you look up um divine out of my rob's grocery store I never once looked at the cash register I never once went for a cash register like not once like I'm saying somebody told me dude in the store flashing five bands so on and so forth so I'm like all right cool say less I'm going to get that you know what I'm saying and went in there off Rip, shot him, let him know I'm not playing. Like, where is that? And he's like, I don't, I don't have the money. I don't have the money. And check his pockets. Um, that fought with nothing, like I said.

Where'd you shoot him at? It was his leg, right leg. So you weren't trying to kill him? No. No, no, definitely not. Did you feel like you had to shoot him to uphold your reputation on the streets? No. To be honest, I believe I shot him because I think that's how it goes. Like I said, everything becomes the norm. Like when I hear all my older dudes talking like when they're robbing anybody, it's like, yo, I hit them off. I hit them off rip, let him know I ain't playing in his own. I'm saying? So off rip, that's what the OGs told me. That's what my dudes from my hood told me. That's what I heard. So I went there and acted out what I used to hear. How did you feel in the moment after you shot him when you pulled the trigger?

I never forget. I walked out laughing. It was snowing. I walked out laughing and skipping. But I'm laughing and skipping because, like I said, said, fear, scared. And at the same time, I'm mad, I did that, and I ain't got nothing. I ain't come out with nothing. You know what I'm saying? So it was crazy. Now, weren't you on a house arrest still? Exactly.

So you were on a house arrest and you're trying to rob this store? Mm-hmm. Okay. How long does it take for them to catch you after the shooting? I got, the only reason why I got caught because somebody told them, I'm saying? The person told on me, and it was three days later. It happened on the 17th when I got caught the 20th. And it's so crazy, right?

when they showed me the paperwork, they had three other suspects. Three other suspects instead of me. The only reason why they knew it was me is because somebody told them. Weren't you on camera, though? Yeah, you know how the streets go masked up, gloves on, the whole night.

You went in there prepared. Yeah, the whole nine. Did you go in there with the intention to shoot someone? Yeah. Because a lot of people will have a gun and they won't have the balls or they're not going to pull that trigger.

Like I said, like the people, I hung around, that's, that's the MO. Like, when you're going there, you got to hit them off rip. Like, I'm not playing. Like, and that's what happened. So tell us about the day that they actually come to pick you up and arrest you for that charge. I think my house was the first house to get raided by the SWAT team in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Like, you know how I'm not even laughing.

Like, Ian, I call my boy Troy Owens right now. He was with me the day I got back. We still, he's a, he's a mentor. And shout to Troy, too. the mentor in Bridgeport right now. And he actually linked me in with the mentor and group in Bridgeport, the people I'm going to be working for real soon.

He was with me today. I got arrested. Yo, you know how Frank Lucas went to jail? You ever watched American Gangster? No. You never watched a movie American Gangster? Dude, I get ripped on this show all the time for not watching you. That's Denzel Washington, man.

You got to watch American Gangsta. There's a lot of movies I got to watch. Denzel watched him. When he got arrested, when he walked out, Like they had the whole block filled up with cops and SWAT team. Yo, like I told you, my mom gambled. So my house was a gambling spot. So my mom and A, by upstairs, they're gambling in the kitchen.

Like, big-time gambling, like, piles of money on the table type. And they, I believe it's playing poker this night in the house. My mom didn't play poker, but she hosted a game at the crib. She's played tongue. But they hosted the game at the crib. So it's mad people in there. And all I hear is, I hear a door kicking, police.

And I hear all the women, because it's all women in there, probably like two dudes. I hear all the women screaming. Like, they're going crazy. And we in my room smoking playing the game. I got the blunt. And my boy Troy and Romel, they're like, yo, big is the police here. And I'm just stuck, you. I never forget this day.

I'm smoking a blunt, but I'm stuck. I know why they hear by the same time. Like, why they're here? Like, they don't know it was me. Like, it wasn't. Nothing on the news. I said it was me. Like nobody knows is me

Like why they hear And I hear all A-by screaming I hear police get out Get on the floor Don't fucking move I hear him going crazy Yo like my boy Romo And Troy they jumping

They jumping on the floor Laying down on the floor Putting their hands up Yo what should we do bigs And I'm just on the bed Smoking a Blunt And then I just The room door opened

And the first thing I came through Was the AK that the cops got Or the AR whatever they have He's like anybody move They're getting shot And my boy Mel and Troy They laid out on the floor They just in there

And I'm just smoking the blunt. He come in, he pointing the gun at me. I'm still hitting the blunt. I'm hitting the blunt. And he's like, oh, you want to be, what he said? You want to be a pretty guy? He just punched me in my face, knocked me off the bed, got me on the floor. Yo, and there's some shit that got me, man.

He had dog shit on his boot, yo. And he has stepping on my fucking face, man. I'm like, yo, you got shit on your boot, yo. Get off my face. He like, shut up, shut up. And they zip tie me. When they zip tie me, like, why y'all zip tying me, yo. Like, what's going on?

He's like, yo, you know why we're here? Where the guns at? Guns, what are you talking about? Yeah, they said, it's a house full of guns. Where the guns at? The person who told them, he said, it was a house full of guns. Yeah, where the guns at?

Showed that person too much. And for a split second, I almost told them myself. For a split second, because my mom is crying. Just give them the guns, give them the guns. For a split second, I took a deep breath. I was about to say, tell him what the guns was at. I'm like, hell no, that's more charges.

Hell no, they got to find that. So I'm like, ain't nothing there. ain't nothing there. So when they walk me outside, yo, ain't I look. I see five SWAT trucks, 30 cop cars. I'm like, yo, y'all serious? Yo, y'all serious right now?

He's like, man. They said you got 30 guns in the house? I'm like, you're serious right now? He's like, man, we're not playing. You see what's out here? They threw me back of the cop car. My hands was turning purple. I'm like, yo, my hands, my hands.

I couldn't feel my hands no more. So when I finally showed him my hands, the cops was like, oh shit. He's like, oh, shit. Yo, we got to cut that. So they cut the zip size. put me in cuffs but that was like that day was crazy how long to take you to work out a plea deal or do you go to trial I was gonna go to trial um um at this time free rickie um

rickie that was my that's my brother that's one dude's my dude i told um I told him I'm gonna hold him down no matter what I was I told him like uh like in prison you don't tell dudes you're gonna hold him down like you just do it I told Ricky like you'll be the only nigga I really like hold down 100% that's my guy's my little brother right there So Free Ricky, he working on sensitive modification right now, but we were Selleys in Northern, and he's like, yo, they don't got nothing on you. Like, because with my lawyers showing me, like, they really don't have nothing on me. Like, so I'm like, I'm going to trial.

And then when I said I'm going to trial, he's showing me, yo, the person told him. I'm like, what? He's like, yeah, show me the paperwork, signed it. Hey, I'm like, oh, shit. So I'm still like, yo, does that person have to come to the corner and take the stand? He's like, yeah. Mind you, then we got my face. They don't have nothing in.

Like, all they got is this person's word. I'm like, I'm going to trial. he's like all right so boom i'm i'm in high court bridge for it i'm getting dressed setting up to go to trial well i'm trying on my stuff that i got i'm seeing i got a little button up little slack shoes and trying on my stuff and then um i go out there in front of the judge and the judge was like you do you understand that you're um going to trial da da da da like giving me the ends and i'm like yeah they like did your lawyer show you that there's another um part of this too like what they like um if you get convicted of any case you're going to

get hit with the what is it persistent offender something like that and I'm like of what they like that's just how I go like so he read me the paperwork and they tell me like if I get convicted of any of these crimes there's an automatic 20 years because I'm a persistent offender because I got the same charges like gun charges over and over and over I don't know if it was they swayed me I don't know how real it is how true it is but that's what they told me I'm reading the paperwork mind you I got caught with a gun on my person so I'm going to get convicted of the gun so when I get convicted of the gun they're going to hit me with the persistent defender and I get more time. So I'm like, nah, hell, no.

I'm like, this can't be true. He's like, yo, and by the way, the person who's telling me, they're here today. I'm like, man, you lying. Marshall's not supposed to do this. He comes downstairs. He's like, yo, bro, she here. What?

Like, yeah. I'm like, nah, tell him I want to cop out. Tell him I want to cop out. Say, like, you want a cop out? So my lawyer come back downstairs, like, you're going to take the first day off me 25. I said, no. They offered me 18. I said trial.

When I went to court, the judge was like, take the 18, I said no. Then he like, I take the 14 years with six years special parole. I said no at first. That's when I dressed up. And then when I found out everything, the paperwork and that the person... Wishing you could be there live for the big game, soaking up the atmosphere in the crowd. But too often, life gets busy. Or the price hold you back. Price Line is here to help you make it happen. With millions of deals on flights, hotels, and rental cars, you can go see the game live. Don't just dream about the trip. Book it with Priceline. Download the Priceline app or visitpriceline.com.

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And I went upstairs and copped out that day. And what did you plead out to? 14 years to serve, six years special parole. And what was the charge? My controlling charge is actually assault first. Assault first. Yeah. And was this a Fed case or a state case?

State case. Okay. So you take this on 14 years, how many do you have to serve? I think the minimum was five. I could go for a sentence modification, but I did 12. You ended up doing 12. Tell us about your mom's reaction. I'm sure she was at the courtroom that day when you got sentenced.

My mom, my daughter, mother, my child, my girl was there. Everybody was there. Duce from my hood was there. It was packed in it. And I don't care how tough you are. You're taking that time. I almost passed out when I took my time. Like, I went from a kid playing basketball

into a street dude to now taking 14 years with a child that's two years old. And I'm in the courtroom, and the judge, I got on a thermal sweatpants that I'm not supposed to have on. I'm supposed to have a jumpsuit on. But I used to take it off and I go to court, throw my jumpsuit to tell the marshes and shit.

Like, I don't know what my jumpsuit got. Because you go to court when you got to regular clothes on. You just look big. You feel like you're special when you really not. But, hey, by do it. So boom, I'm cuffed. And the judge's like, do you know what you pleading out to?

I'm like, yes. I'm like, the judge, like, do you want to say something? I'm like, yeah, like, what do you want to say? I'm like, yo, can you switch my time to 10 years to serve and 10 years per se? And you still, because he wanted 20 years. So I'm like, can you just do it like that 10 and 10? And he was like, so you want me to flip it?

I'll be playing this day. And I've replayed that day until I got out. Because he asked me, so you want me to flip your time? I say yes. So he's thinking six years to serve, 14 years special role when I didn't ask for that. I asked for 10 years to serve and 10 years special and it still equals 20. So when he asked me, I'm nervous. I say, yeah.

He's like, no. No. So I'm like, all right, then. That's all I got to say. And he like, are you sure? I'm like, yeah. I ain't say sorry to the victim. I didn't do none of that.

So he's like, all right, we're now here by that Divine Aldemeyer is taking a plea deal 14 years to serve and six years special parole. I think anybody say I or something like that. And if he asked me, do I agree, I say yes. As soon as I say yes, and he hit that little gavel thing, it's like, I just got weak. Like my legs gave out. Like, I was like, oh. And my lord, he's like, you're like, you're straight. I'm like, now I need a cheer.

Like, what you mean? I'm like, I'm about to pass out. Like, you, you're wilding right now. I just copped out of 14 years in prison. Like, and when I copped out here, my mom screamed, my daughter crying now because my mom's screaming. My baby mom crying. Everybody's crying.

men's in them I look back, they like, they give me the face like, damn, like, what? So, like, I don't know, my legs just gave out, yo. I mean, I need a cheer. I need a cheer. And that shit was crazy. Do you think if you did apologize to the victim in that moment, you would have meant it? In that moment, no, definitely not. Definitely not.

In that moment, I was still, I was still on that, like, I don't care more. I'm in northern. That's a level five facility. I'm saying. when I'm locked down like my day was over at um 550 like just think about that like my day was over at 550 like i i i wake up go to rec at 8 in the morning you get 2 hours 8 to 10 right and then i don't come back out until 4.30 and then 430 to 5 50 was really 430 to 5 30 my night is over like i don't come back out myself out of that. I can't make no more phone calls after that. So my mental

was not even right. Like me and Ricky, good thing. We both from Bridgeport, like, our hoods is like this. So it was like, we was good. Like, I was good, but at the same time, I wasn't. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, I was a little comfort. It was a little comfort in there because I had Ricky with me. It was always chatted about Bridgeport females, things that's happening in Bridgeport. We get on the phone with here, anything that's happening. So, like, we were straight, but like, no, that was, that was real. I was still in that I don't care. I don't know. So once you get sentenced, where do you go from there?

I spent, I believe it was 15 months in Northern. And then the day I, you know, it's so crazy, the day I copped out, no, yeah, the day I copped out, the next day they moved me. The next, because I don't know why, I don't know how that worked like that. But the next day they moved me to, where did I go? Walker for assessment. That's where you go for assessment for like three months until they place you in a prison. Now, special probation or special parole, what you're just discussing as a part of your sentence, what is that? I served that after my own, like after my probation time is over, I go straight to special parole I have to serve.

And what does that mean special parole? Special parole is, I believe, don't quote me on this, but I believe this, this is what the old heads used to tell me. I ain't do my research on, like, law and stuff like that because I ain't have a big case, which shouldn't matter. I still should have did it. but I believe special parole was given to, like, rapists so they know where you're at all times, where you have to register and things like that. So that's why he's on special parole. But now they got special parole for gun offenders.

Like, you got to register as a gun offender now, I'm saying? And then special parole is just something that if I get in trouble, I do that whole six years. I do anything wrong. You're doing that whole time. But at the same time, you know, if I catch a new case, let me take that back. If I catch a new case, I'm doing the whole time, plus more. But, like, special parole, they can send me back to jail for 30 days. They can send me back to jail for 90 days.

They could put me in a program. So I feel like special parole is probably a little better, but it's strict, you know what I'm saying? So it works in your favor if you're doing things right. Gotcha. All right. So they assess you at Walker. Where do they end up sending you? I spent three and a half months in Walker.

Did not go to Cheshire, Big Cheshire. And tell the audience what Cheshire is. Cheshire's Friday. Where's President Connecticut? What makes it the worst person in Connecticut? I don't want to say it, but the truth is like, it's called the rock, you know what I'm saying? They got this aura up there where, like, officers just dislike you. Like, I don't care who you are, what you did.

Like, you got to, you got to earn their type of respect. Like, you got to earn their type of, like, their care. Like, when you get to Cheshire, it's, like, it's on. Like, it's fights every day, COs getting popped on. It dumbed down now throughout the years. But when I first got there, it was real and Cheshire. Like, rare, like, it was different from Northern, and it was different from Walker. When you got there, you just knew, like, no, this Cheshire ain't right.

How did you earn their respect? Basketball. Like, literally, I'm actually, like, good at basketball. Like, to this day, like, you ask anybody. I won MVP every year in basketball. I won every year, championship every year I played. I played three years in a row. And they made me stop playing.

Like, no, big, you can't play no more. Like, just coach. Now, coach got coached the year. You know what I'm saying? I should have brought my certificates to show too so I don't think I'm calvin. I got all my certificates, A thing, MVP, coached the year, everything. So it was through basketball.

I'm in a gym, busing ass, and all the COs, like, yo, come check this kid out where you can ball. And then once they seem like a ball, COs start talking to me. like, yo, man, like, why you're locked up? Like, you know, you answer those type of questions. You're just like, yeah, man, some crazy shit, for me. Now the gyms is getting packed because I'm boiling now.

And now all the CEOs want to know who that is. Where are you from? What you do? And that's how I got, I started to get a little cool in there. What was your mindset in prison? Were you still trying to act tough like you're on the streets? Or are you looking at it as an opportunity to better yourself? In the beginning, I was looking at it as, um, I'm one, I'm this version.

version of big man. I'm still big man to this day, I'm saying, but I was this version of the big man of I ain't let no nigga talk to me crazy. I ain't let no bite disrespect me. I ain't in a bike. You couldn't do nothing. I'm saying if I see somebody from the other side, I'm checking the situation. What's good? Like, what type of time you want? And I say for like my first two years in Cheshire, that's what it was. And so I met one of my mentors before I became a mentor named Larry McCowan, man. That's that's big bro to this day. like we don't keep in touch like that he called me the other day check up on me but that man changed my life i'm saying he he changed my whole trajectory on life you know like with just one conversation tell us the time you were disrespected in prison and what you did um basketball court um do a real little disrespectful you know when you busts in my eyes um you score ken garmin king garmin you're a bitch who he talking to right he's talking to right he's He's talking to you. Yo, when we go back, yo, you know what time of it is.

Dude get loud. Now, you know what it is. Da, ha. I don't do all this out here. When we get back, you know what's up. Go back, going to cell. Fight him real quick. Boom.

Now, A, by the block, like, oh, mind you, I'm skinny at the time, too. I'm with a jail buck 20. So I'm little at the time. So they're like, this little dude ain't know. He ain't scared? Like, okay. And now I start getting respect from dudes in the block.

That's big man. He would fight you, too. What do you think was the most horrific thing you witnessed in prison over the course of 12 years? The most horrific thing? I worked in the kitchen. I always kept a job because when I, with a job, it's like a sense of freedom. Like I'm not stuck in a block. I'm not stuck in the cell all day.

So I worked in the kitchen. I worked in the commissary. I worked in a market shop. And then I became a mentor. But the most horrific thing was I was working in the kitchen. Two dudes arguing, right? One get punched in the face. Boom.

The dude who gets punched in the face, he doesn't do nothing. He, like, he just turned around and start putting on gloves, like the latex gloves. So we all like, oh, like, what's going on? He's like, I'm about to kill this, nigga. I'm about to kill this, nigga. So we like, oh, like, he's not playing. He's like, coming to back. Coming to back.

I'm laughing, but it's just, in this moment that joint was crazy. He like, coming to back. Coming to back. We all watching, like, oh, it's about to happen. Like, they're going to back, but like, I guess I'm working in the kitchen. And there's a cake mixed bowl. The cake mix bowl like 30 pounds Like no cap man it's like this big

It's big as big as big It's like this big Because you serve the whole prison out there at cake mix bowl So and it's like 13500 people in Cheshire So the dude who got punching the face He's walking in front of the dude that No he's walking in front of the dude that just punch him in the face The dude that's behind him

When the dude in front walks in the The dry storage room He grabs the cake mix bowl And bust him in a hat When I mean he bust him in a head Like he bust his dude in the head. He fell flat on his face. When he fell flat on his face, he jumps on top of him and just start beating him.

Boom, boom, boom. Like beating this dude down. We all out there like, yo, all, chill, that's enough. You're going to kill him. You're going to kill him. He's like, he says, going to kill me, right? He's just beating him. Boom, blood everywhere, right?

Then I forget to see your name, man. Oh, dude, he retired after this, too. This is how it was. He retired after this. He beat his dude, like, beating him. So we like, ah, yo, chill, that's enough. That's enough. That's enough.

You let him go. Let him up. Let them live, let them live. All the old heads, like, yo, let them live. I'm still a young man at the time in prison. Mind you, Cheshire is nothing, but like life or the dudes, I got mad time. So I got 14 years, but the dudes I'm around, they got like 60, 70. They literally got letters like life.

They never go home type stuff. Well, they got, let me take that back, man. They're fighting anyway to get out of prison. So I'm still like a baby in prison at that time. So I'm here on the OG's like, let him go, let me go. So I'm like, now I'm with them. Like, yeah, let him go. Like, chill, like, let him go.

So he walks out like, he like, yeah, I hope he, dead too. The dude he beat, like he'd get up stumbling. Like, like, he lost, but he know what just happened. Like, he knew he was just in the fight. He, like, mind you, blood everywhere. He had a white T on and our own, our pants was white and black. Blood is everywhere. So the cake, like I said, the cake is bowl. And then there's a big ass, um, a pot too where we served the whole prison. Like, it was rice. You serve rice for 15 hundred people. Can you imagine how big the spoon is to stir? So he grabs that. Like, where he at? Where he at? So he starts, chasing the dude the dude runs out and runs straight to sag like he runs down the hallway to

sack mind you it's three in the morning at this time we go to work at two in the morning and it's like three it's like three 30 in the morning and there's an officer is one officer that's sit in the kitchen with us to watch us when the dude came out with the big spoon oh so yo he probably is working probably like 25 years at this time you know he just froze he's supposed to hit the button he backing up like oh what happened oh my god what happened he's scared and he just fall just like he froze he older. Like, so he just froze. So everybody, what the fuck?

Like, dude chasing him down the hallway. Other Cios come, grab him up, slam him. Other dude and say, he down the hallway laughing. Like, I whooped his eyes. I whipped his eyes. But that was the craziest shit I've seen in prison. Like, that kick mix bowl was crazy. Well, what's the hardest thing to adjust to when you got to prison?

Because you went from, you know, being on the streets, doing whatever you wanted to do, and then you get to prison for 12 years. I say just doing what you want, like doing things on your time. when you want that's probably the hardest thing for me does do you ever adjust to that like from day one to you know to that last day you don't adjust to that everything is forced like they say jail teaches you patience um jail teaches you discipline that's yeah no it doesn't it forces you to be disciplined at times it forces you to to be patient i'm saying like you got to learn like i just said the other day like i learned patience just now in these 67 days

like my plan was to come home and be doing everything I set out to do in my books right and my composition books none of that hasn't happened yet I'm like damn why they're talking to my sister and my girl they let your patience I'm like damn damn damn didn't teach me patience at all like that shit is just forced to where you think you know patience but when you get out here after a prison term and you apply patience that's when you know like all right this is patience this is actually waiting for your blessings this is actually how to this thing go, but all that stuff is forced in prison. And something you'll come to realize, too, is that a lot of the stuff that you did plan

for is going to happen probably totally different than you expected, but it'll still bring you to that ultimate goal that you thought of to begin with. Exactly. Because everything I wrote down in my journals, none of that happened the way I expected. But it did happen in some type of variation. Was this in your journal? No. Not at all.

My plan was to get back into nightclubs or I even put like real estate. I had it all mapped down to the time. type of car, business names, everything. I could tell you none of that happened, you know. I never expected this. So it's all about just keeping an open mind and getting out and working. You're still so very new to it. And I'll tell you what, at day 60, I didn't have a job or a mentorship program or anything, you know.

So you already, you have that situated. Yeah, I bet myself on the back for that. You have some stability, you know? I definitely didn't have a girlfriend two months in, you know. But my girl, she went around. She helped me down for like the last. three years. We actually got a crazy argument today. We might be done. I don't know. Hey, she showed up today and she's listening to you. I don't know. I love her to death.

Like, that's like she's really my friend. Like I'm saying like I always tell her that like, you, we really friends like, you know what I'm saying? Like I care for you like more than anything like you need you need to see that and the reason being is because like three years ago you was picking up phone calls for me. Three years ago you was crying about like you one drive there to see me. I remember all those hardships that you went through. So I don't care what we go through out here. Like, we're sticking together.

Like, I don't care what we go through. Like, we're going to be a team. Like, we, we, we're going to ride this out. Like, we, and it was a quote I used to always, I had in my journals, um, stamped my journals for her. Like, if I, if we can make it through a prison term, we can make it through anything. Like, I'm going to sleep without seeing you. Like, I'm going, I'm only calling you four times a day.

That's an hour. I only talked to you out of an hour a day. Like, like, like, we went to sleep. through that. So we should be able to make it through this. But three years, she helped me down, and we still together to 60 days later. So it's different, man. Tell us about that conversation at Year 2 that you were describing earlier that set the trajectory for the rest of your prison sentence and change your life. My boy, Cash. You know Cash? He's a real estate agent. He's a name Cash to Closure on

Instagram and things like that. Sounds kind of familiar. Yeah, he's popular out there. He's a real estate agent. He used to sit with my boy Larry, just before I knew Larry. And I believe Kai was my daughter, is my daughter-godfather? I'm not even sure. I think my, because I was my baby mom best friend at the time, with the mother and my child best friend at the time. I think she said it, but he was in prison. And I know this dude. And he used to be with this older dude, Larry. My age, I'm still in my bullshit. So he would, live, I'm like, yo, you, Cash, why you be chilling with this old dude? He's like, yo, my name is Cash, no more. My name is Collique. And that's what got me pissed off like this dude got you not claiming your nickname like i'm like yo stop you a clown like

stop acting like that that i'm talking to him he's like yo trust me one conversation with this dude he's gonna change your life bakes i'm i'm not talking to this dude like i'm not talking to this dude like cash ended up getting kicked out the block because he got caught stealing chicken from the kitchen from the kitchen he moved to a different block the dude literally like um yo young you know what up you know a block kai went to like i said i'm still on my own care stuff i look at i'm like i don't talk to me i don't know block kye went to boom pillow I walked back around. He's like, yo, young man, why you so, like, hot style?

Like, what up with you? I'm like, yo, and I'm only mad at him because he got my boy, Kai, not claiming his nickname cash. So I'm like, yo, you wild, I'm like, for me? So I break it down to him. He like, we talk and we just start chopping up. He asked me if I got kids, da-da-da. I'm like, and there's one question that changed my life.

He said, I'm like, yeah, he like, boy grandma, I got a daughter. He's like, you love your daughter? I'm like, yeah. He's like, you do anything for you do it? I'm like, yeah, he's like, you don't mind me asking, like, what you're in jail for? I'm like, what, no, I ain't, I ain't telling you that. He's like, ah, let me rephrase it. Like, the things you was doing would you say you was doing it for the love of your child?

I'm like, yeah, he was like, so if everything you say that you was doing and that you love was to protect your child, like, why are you in prison? I'm just like, what? I didn't understand what you were saying that first. He's like, you're probably busting your gun saying you're doing this because you're doing this because you don't want to buy it, take you away from your daughter, right? I'm like, yeah, he's probably selling drugs

because you want to take care of your daughter, right? I'm like, yeah, he's like, so how can you say you love her if you did everything to take yourself away from her? I ain't talked to that dude for two weeks. Two weeks. I'm like, this dude, a clown. I'm only calling him a clown

because he had me digging deep into my heart. He had me digging deep. Like, damn, how can I say I love my child? If I did everything in this world to take myself away from my child. How? And after that two weeks, I went to him like, yo, like, oh, hell.

Like, then, I questioned, like, I should touch my heart, like, got me thinking. And then he gave me my first book that changed my life and then I seen the movie. And after that, everything I did after that was different. The Rupert Hurricane Carter story. The wrongfully accused boxer. Dinsett Watson played him Hurricane Carter? Yeah, that's like some, everybody who's been to prison, everybody who's fighting to get out of prison, they need to read that book and watch that movie.

Ruben Hurricane Carter was wrongfully convicted of of murder I'm saying and when he went to prison he said everything prison is doing I'm doing different so when everybody was sleep

he was up studying like literally when the jail shut down lights off he has a little nightlight and he was up reading and studied the dictionary day in the day out and he gave me the book

and I'm reading a book like wow like Dan this dude is different and from that day I vowed like y'all ain't going back to that street life it ain't worth nothing and then he started

I teach me about real estate, becoming landlord, um, landscaping, everything. So I just started. Pool days call for cookouts and lots of laundry. This Memorial Day at Lowe's, save $80 on a charbroil performance series four-burner gas grill. Now just $199. Plus, get up to 45% off select major appliances to keep dishes, clothes, and food fresh.

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Actual mileage and range may vary. Digging my hand and going towards knowledge, like, knowledge that I give me a good future. Did you pay that moment forward to other people that you encountered? That's why I became a mentor, and that's why I get so many jail calls a day. My girl don't understand that. Like, my girl gets mad right now because I get like 10 jail calls a day. And she'd be like, yo, you're supposed to be spending time with me, but I'd be trying to get her understanding.

Like, yo, do you understand? like I changed these dudes lives. Like, I'm working with kids 18 through 25 who never had a dad, who never had a big brother that's like cool and like down the earth with me to put the gun, get them the real, like, you some bullshit. And I'm telling them straight like that, like, you some bullshit.

Like, it's no me sugarcoat nothing. I get 10 jail calls a day. And it's because what Larry gave to me, I give to them. And it used to be bittersweet in prison, you know why? Because I just be like, damn, I'm giving all this knowledge to these dudes. And I see them changing their ways.

their attitude, their character, their being. I see them changing day in the day out. It's like, damn, I'm giving all this stuff, but I ain't even giving it to my child. That used to be bittersweet when I was locked up. But now that I'm home, I give all that shit to my daughter, I'm saying, and I still get the pick with the phone and get that shit to them out here and let them know.

Like, yo, it's a struggle out here, but I'm making it work. I'm handling business. Like, I see the future. What was the hardest thing to adjust to when you got out after 12 years? Her. I heard, my girl. But, I seriously.

I just, y'all, I kid you not. Like, everybody that be around me, like, yo, you're not institutionalized. And my boy K-5, Karan Grimes, I just called me, he always just said, like, I always to tell him, like, yo, my mind is not in prison. And I learned that from Rupert Hurrican Carter. There's a hole in the wall. He just looked out the hole in the wall and just picture his future. And I always just tell him, like, yo, I know we're in prison, but fuck prison, son.

You're not, like, stop being in prison, thinking about things you can do to, have somebody in prison like you or have somebody in prison give you a pat on the back. Everything I did in prison prepared me for this. Everything I did in prison I used to look at like, nah, this one I'm doing I go home. So my adjustment wasn't hard at all. The only hard thing I would probably say is like not even working because I was working in prison is like not getting things as fast as I wanted to come. That's probably the only thing.

I give you credit because for a guy that just did 12 years and got out, you know, two months ago, you carry yourself very well. Thank you. Thank you. And you speak very well, too. Thank you. I mean, there's guys that come on here that have served similar times and have gone out maybe a lot longer than you. And they are a little bit more hesitant or reserved because of that institutionalized aspect to it.

Yeah, I don't know. I wasn't in prison, man. I was in prison, but like I've seen, I always seen better days every day. I always say, like, I'm optimistic, but I deal with reality. Like, I'm very optimistic. I got a award in the true program for, um, most optimistic. I want it every year. Because if something happened in the true program,

my ideology, my philosophy of life was my philosophy of life is love, but at the same time, I was like, yo, things is going to get better. And the only way things is, the only way things is going to get better is if you see it and you believe it, you know it, and you make it and you manifest it.

So I always had that optimistic, the optimism with me, but at the same time, I deal reality. I know my optimism, right? Because sometimes be like a kid, how they believe in Santa Claus and at the same time I understand like yo things can get real and when things get real just be prepared what is that program the true program is the number one program in the nation um for young adults 18 through 25 um Scott Irfrey brought it to Cheshire in 2017 I was the first one one of the first 14 elected to go to the program um and once I got there

everything just went up and up and up how's the relationship with your mom. Right now? Yeah. My mom crazy. I love my mom. It's our relationship dope. Yeah, it's good.

How do you make amends with your daughter? You don't. You just, um... Just beat her from now on. Like, um, I don't, I don't ever... I want to so bad to, um... Like, of course I told her I'm sorry. And of course I told her, um...

I won't leave her again, and I'm saying. But those words... Those words don't mean. anything without action. I'm saying? Those words don't mean anything without truth from here on out. And I guess that's my way of making amends. It's just giving her truth and everything I have within me that I instill within me,

give it to her at a young age. You know what I'm saying? She's 14, freshman in high school at Notre Dame. So, yeah, that's my way of just giving her truth and just being here from now until I go. What about the victim in your case? What do you mean? How do you make amends? Yeah.

I say through my work now. You could never, like, somebody got shot, like a bullet, like, got pierced with a bullet, know what I'm saying? So when they look at that, they think of me. So it was like, I know probably to this day, dude probably like, man, I hate that kid. Or he probably would be looking at him. He was just a kid. He didn't know any better.

I don't know what he's thinking, but my way of saying, like, sorry for becoming a product in my environment and really not being. conscious of the things I was doing is by doing what I do now by stopping that next kid who's going to do what I do or what I did by stopping him by getting his attention like hey listen you don't got to go through what I go through to understand I be trying to give dudes wisdom like um my old head told me like yo you don't got to get hit by a Mack truck to know how that feel do you you can just picture how getting hit by a Mack truck feel right like an 18 wheeler like I don't want to get hit by no 18 wheeler and that's what I be trying to get the

and stay in prison is, that's getting hit with an 18-willer. And I don't want you to hit with that 18-willer. I want you to see that red light or see that it's a green light and stop and let that 18-willer go by and on the opposite side of that or that street is success. And that's the way I make amends with my past and what I've done by just saving lives. How do you want to be viewed as?

Like, say there's, you know, you go into a job interview and there's a guy that just knows about your past. How do you want him to view you as now? Like he knows about my past before, like, the true program? Yeah. They don't know anything about present day you. How do you want them to view you? Exactly as it is.

How they view me? Because, like I said, I deal with life accordingly. So if I was still going to job interview and then somebody from my past, like, yo, this kid is dangerous. He did X, Y, Z. That's my stepping stone right there. That's a hurdle I got to get over. So I don't want you to look at me no other way.

I want you to keep viewing me like that. When I jump over this hurdle, when I climb this ladder, when I climb this moment, you see like, oh, shoot, because life is about showing and proving. So somebody didn't see my work yet. And then I get a deny over here. And then he's seen me keep pushing forward and I end up over here with success. And he's seen me successful. He's like, oh, that kid changes life. That's how the cars are supposed to fall.

So I just deal with life accordingly. Like, me and my girl argue the other day, like, she's like, do you have, I don't got expectations. Like, my expectations, like, I have expectations, but I just. the same time I just deal with things according me. I deal with it like yo if something stops me right here, I'm gonna figure out a way around it or over it. I'm not, I don't have the expectation of like, yo, I'm gonna go this way. And then when something's getting your way, you don't know what to do.

And I feel like that's what expectations do for you. Well, for me use eye statements for me. Some people use expectations as like growth or how they climb their ladder, but for me is different. What's one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you were a kid? One thing I knew now that I wish I knew as a kid It's so much It's like everything

Like everything I learned in prison Like I said I don't have to get hit by that 18 Willa know how that match truck feel That's one thing I wish I really understood Like I don't need to go to prison to understand what prison is I don't need to know I don't need to be in the streets to understand what the street's it I don't need to be I don't need that street fame

To know what street fame is I could look at all that stuff from afar. Drake got a, his line is far from the streets but still close to it, something like that. And that's how I should have been. I'm saying. I lived in the projects, which means I'm close to the streets. But I could have been far from him by chasing my basketball dream. And I'm saying?

So that's one thing I wish I truly understood was like, I don't need to go to prison. Devon, I appreciate you coming on the show today, man. Thank you, man. I appreciate you, man. Anything you do. Hopefully I'll be back up here. Talk about the true program some more, how that joint helped me. But this is great.

This is dope. Yeah, I appreciate you, and I wish you the best of luck. Thank you, man.