Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Celebrity Barber Escapes Prison and Builds New Life

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

Thomas Baca served prison time in New Mexico State Prison for armed robbery, aggravated battery, and kidnapping.⁣ ⁣ Thomas's Links ⁣ https://www.youtube.com/@UCEaXfIt8x2lLs_tJsrBk-TA ⁣ htt...ps://www.sirmenssalon.com⁣ https://www.instagram.com/thomasbacabarber?igsh=MTQwNDBpcjA0a2hkbw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr⁣ ⁣ Get 50% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout.⁣ ⁣ Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7⁣ ⁣ Send me an email here: insidetruecrime@gmail.com⁣ ⁣ Do you extra clips and behind the scenes content?⁣ Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime ⁣ ⁣ 📧Sign up to my newsletter to learn about Real Estate, Credit, and Growing a Youtube Channel: https://mattcoxcourses.com/news⁣ ⁣ 🏦Raising & Building Credit Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/credit ⁣ 📸Growing a YouTube Channel Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/yt⁣ 🏠Make money with Real Estate Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/re⁣ ⁣ Follow me on all socials!⁣ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/⁣ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrime⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart⁣ ⁣ Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox ⁣ ⁣ Check out my true crime books! ⁣ Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF⁣ Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM⁣ It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8⁣ Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G⁣ Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438⁣ The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K⁣ Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402⁣ Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1⁣ ⁣ Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel!⁣ Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX⁣ ⁣ If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here:⁣ Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69⁣ Cashapp: $coxcon69 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 When I showed up to the state prison, I ended up cutting hair. I've got John Jones, Diego Sanchez, Alistar Overim. My thoughts on Vic Blends is he's nothing and he's also fake. Sorry, guys, I'm just telling the truth. I had been locked up at that point for about eight months. He said if you wanted to, you can escape from here. In the school in California, you have a bunch of different groups and I gravitated towards one of the wrong groups, kind of gang-related
Starting point is 00:00:24 and started hanging out with them. and uh and uh and uh, and uh, and uh, started ditching school. Uh, I didn't, uh, I didn't sell any drugs or anything at that point in time. Uh, I was still too young. I was still, you know, doing the right thing. Uh, but still getting into mischief, shoplifting from the store, from Target, uh, you know, taking Walkman's ditching school. We ended up, uh, we ended up ditching school one day, ended up going to some girl's house that we used to ditch to. She wasn't there. And, uh, one of my buddies
Starting point is 00:00:56 stole a carton of cigarettes out of her freezer. One of the other buddies stole a jewelry item out of her house. And yeah, which was kind of messed up. And so all of a sudden, I'm sitting at home one night and the police come to my dad, mom's house, to my actual home. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, the police are here. Like, I'm wondering. How old were you?
Starting point is 00:01:14 I was 14 years old. Okay. And so I'm just wondering, I'm like, oh, my God, the police, my dad's really strict. You got to think about that. And so the police get there to the house. They knock on the door. my dad gets up goes and answers the door and starts talking to him and I don't really hear the conversation and then my dad tells me to go ahead and go ahead and get up, you know, get your house
Starting point is 00:01:35 up here and I got up and that's when they said, we're going to be taking you to Juvenile Hall. And I was like, oh, wow. So I went to Juvenile Hall and got to Juvenile Hall. The other two guys, I won't mention their name. The other two individuals that were friends of mine, they were also, when I got into the juvenile Hall, I showed up to the juvenile hall and I'm like, oh, there's those two dudes. They were both there as well. And so I was like, oh, wow, we're all three in Juvenile Hall. Well, lo and behold, this is the first time I had ever been in jail, Juvenile Hall or anything. So all of a sudden,
Starting point is 00:02:07 they put me in like these shoes that have Velcro straps on them. And I'm like, oh, my God, well, then the other two guys were in another holding tank and they weren't getting shoes on. Lo and behold, little did I know their parents were picking them up. And so their parents picked him up. My dad elected to not pick me up. He was real strict. It was the, the point where if you went, you're gone. Right. And so he allowed me to stay. I ended up staying in juvenile hall.
Starting point is 00:02:31 My dad actually went as to Fars to say, we, we were not, you know, I ended up going to court and they said, well, let's go ahead and release him. He wasn't, the lady who we went into her house or whatever, she ended up liking me and everything. And she had ended up going to court and saying, you know, she wanted me to be released as well. And so they were ready to release me. but since I was 14, I had just turned, I was 14 years old. And so instead of them releasing me, my dad ended up just saying, wanted me to stay in there.
Starting point is 00:03:03 And so he wouldn't take me back into the house. So like when I went to court that day, just to give you an idea, when I went to court that day and I got into the courtroom, I'm scared and everything. I'm wearing a jumpsuit. I'm just a kid. And so all of a sudden, my dad's, my dad all of a sudden says, you know, they go in and the public defender comes back to me and says, hey, we talked to your father. he was the one in court. My mom didn't even go to court. It was the dad that was sitting in there. When they pulled me into the courtroom, I like looked over the area where the bench was and my dad was sitting in there. And so they go, hey, the public defender comes back and goes, hey, I'm going to go talk to your dad
Starting point is 00:03:36 real quick. He goes and talks to him, comes back and he says, hey, I'm sorry to tell you, but your dad doesn't want you back at the house. And so I was like, well, okay, well, what does that mean? I mean, I don't really have like, what do I do then? And then he's all, well, we're going to have to set this for another hearing. I ended up going back to another hearing. They ended up saying, we can, now you're being a word of the state because your parents don't want you back. You can either go to a placement or a group home. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. Did you give them problems prior to this? I mean, I took my dad's, I was a bad kid. I took my dad's golf clubs and I would set them up in the grass and I was knocking golf balls around. I broke a couple windows out in the
Starting point is 00:04:18 neighborhood houses. I was ditching a lot. I, I, I, was just a bad kid. So you, they were just, your dad was just like, I'm, I'm done with it. Well, my dad was also very strict in the sense of even if you were a good kid and you went to jail, none of my family had ever been to jail. So they just weren't, he just really believed in that punishment. Like, in other words, we're not, you're not coming back home. Yeah, I was going to say, I remember my dad had told me one time. He was like, if you go to jail, he said, don't call me. You don't want me to pick you up. Yeah. Like it'd be, you'd be better off not calling. And I was lucky I never went to jail, you know, at that point. So I was a little kid, but that,
Starting point is 00:04:51 that kind of terrified me a little bit. So yeah. So they just left me in there. And I went back to court while I was back in the juvenile hall area in something called Group 3 in Riverside Juvenile Hall. And so Group 3 was for kids 15 and under 15 all the way down to like 12. And then 12 and under was group 4. And so I was in group three.
Starting point is 00:05:14 I went back. They said, hey, some of the guys that had already done time and had been through the system were like, you can go to a boot camp for six. months instead of doing a placement and it's called Twin Pines. It's in Idaho while. They'll come in interview. You can get that knocked out and then you'll be able to get out. And so I was like, oh, that's going to be a lot better than doing a year. So when I went back to court, they said, hey, man, we want to put you in a placement or a group home. That would have probably been better. But me, I was like, I want to get out of here quick. And so I told the public defender, I said,
Starting point is 00:05:43 what do you think about this Twin Pines boot camp? And he's like, well, that's usually like a last resort or whatever that they send you to before Youth Authority. And I was like, well, you know, it's only in six months. I'd rather go to that one. And so he goes, all right, cool. Well, we could send you to the Twin Pines if you really want to go there. But it's like a last resort. And I said, I don't care what it is. And so he's all, okay, we'll have some, we'll, we'll see if the judge says yes. They went in asked the judge. Judge said, no problem. So then all of a sudden, I went back to Riverside Juvenile Hall. When I sat in Riverside Juvenile Hall, all of a sudden one day, they called me for a visit. And I'm like, oh, is it? So I went out and, uh, and there was, uh, these like people in military uniforms there,
Starting point is 00:06:24 just boot camp uniforms. And I, and I assume two of them were inmates and one of them must have been a cop. And they bring two like snitch inmates to come over and sit and, you know, like, are you going to really, you're going to run away. How are you going to do the program? And so, you know, really, I thought I was going to do the program. So I was like, oh, no, I'll be there and everything. And it's no problem. And so they said, oh, okay, cool. We'll let you know if you've been accepted. So like a week later, they said, I got an acceptance letter to twin Pondon. And then I rode a bus and got shipped out over to, uh, to the boot camp. Okay.
Starting point is 00:06:53 Did you what, how was it? Was it? Was it harsh? I mean, was it? I got shipped over to the boot camp and I went on a bus and I was with a bunch of gang members, me not being from a gang. I didn't even, you know what I mean? Living in Southern California, I get over to this boot camp and, uh, God, dude, they literally
Starting point is 00:07:09 like, I was lazy back then. And they woke me up and they're like, oh, yeah, we got to run three miles in the morning. You got to do this and that. Back then I wore real baggy clothes. And so I looked like an idiot. And so they put you in real tight clothes. So that was another thing I noticed when I got there. I was like, oh, man, here, throw me a pair of two X pants or whatever.
Starting point is 00:07:25 And they're like, no, you're in mediums. And so I was like, oh, my God, I didn't like the way it looked. You know, California in the 90s, you were wearing humongous clothes. You looked like a rodeo clown. Yeah. And so now I got there and I did not like it. I realized I was 125 pounds. I realized those guys looked like grown-ass men.
Starting point is 00:07:44 I started getting into a lot of fights, winning none of them at that time. And, and so there was a guy named, there was a guy from California that from 18th Street that I had. So when I was in Riverside Juvenile Hall, I ran across the first person from L.A. And I noticed how elite they were. I noticed, you know, they were a whole different demographic, a gang member. So I was kind of like, oh, wow, these guys are real hardcore compared to Marino Valley or, you know what I mean? And so when I got there, there was a guy from 18th Street there. I didn't know that I was living in the Inland Empire because, like I said, I was.
Starting point is 00:08:18 wasn't from a gang, but come to find out inland empire hates L.A. And so it's like on site. And so that guy from L.A. was over there having a lot of trouble, but he was a hardcore dude. He was getting jumped. And so I started getting into a lot of fights and it wasn't going good. I met some guy from CVL, Corona Vato Zlocos, some big old dude, Crown Town, ended up talking to him. He said, if you wanted to, you can escape from here. And I was like, oh, wow. And he goes, yeah, he goes, you know, you can take one of the staff vehicles. I can show you where the keys are. You can. And I said, no, no, no crimes. Because I, you know, back then I was still nothing. And I said, no, no crimes. I said, I just, how do I show me the route to get out of here?
Starting point is 00:08:59 And then he showed and wrote down like a little route where you could travel down the mountain and this and that. Well, that dude Gutierrez had a fight in the football field and got jumped. He's an 18th streeter. So I ended up befriending him. And I said, hey, man, what's up? And he's all not nothing much. And he's all. And so I said, hey, uh, you know, we started talking. and I said, hey, would you, what do you think about just dipping from here? And he goes, yeah, I'm down. And I was like, oh, thank God. Yeah, both of you are having a fucking horrible time.
Starting point is 00:09:23 Having a horrible time. He was having a horrible time. He was probably an elite dude. I was having a horrible time. I wasn't in the gang mix at the time. And so we decided, I told him, well, let's go. And I said, hey, I talked to this homie from Corona. And he says, gave us the route to go.
Starting point is 00:09:37 Well, that dude said, yeah, I'm down. And I said, okay, well, then we'll just leave tonight. And so all of a sudden, like, they take you to like a chow hall. and they uh like everyone has to like stand up at their bunks put their hands behind their back and uh and and and then they you fall in line like like like like if you're in this rural bunks all of us are standing here and then we turn at the same time and then we we march out and go to the chow hall well when they all marched out and went to the chow hall me and that dude hit under our bunks and so just stayed under our bunks real quiet and then all of a sudden everybody left
Starting point is 00:10:09 and i'm just sitting laying under my bunk real quietly and like not wanting to say a word and then I can't I can hear a pin drop. And so I slightly slide outside of the bunk and I say, hey, brother, I said, hey, everyone's gone. And then it was like, oh, shit, do we do we do this or do we just go to chow? And I was like, no, let's go. And so we, we left. And what happened was, we, we just started going down this trail that this guy wrote us because he had been part of a road crew. So they had been known how to get out of the mountain. And so we just started going down the mountain on a trail. And all of a sudden, it was like, an hour and a half and then all of a sudden we see lights cop cars and everything they must be
Starting point is 00:10:48 looking for us if anybody knows idawyle or banning in california it's dense wilderness so i'm saying there was no way you were going to see us catch us or do anything we we let that whole night it took us about god we walked in and jogged and ran for about six hours and then um it started getting so pitch black i had never seen pitch blackness like this before it almost felt like we were in Africa. I mean, you could see the moon looked a hundred times its size. And so all of a sudden, it's so dark, we really can't go anymore. I have a big Ben jacket on and I have my visiting pants on, you know, those ugly size medium. And so I had all that stuff on. Me and that dude literally had it was so freezing that night, had to conjoined big Ben jackets and kind of huddle up and breathe on each
Starting point is 00:11:35 other. It was that messed up, dude. It was freezing. I literally at that point didn't want to escape anymore. I was like, oh, no, I want to go back. I was like, I'd rather even just go back and face it. And I don't think we're going to make it down the hill. I don't know how we're going to get down. And so all of a sudden, we spend the night there in the freezing cold. If you sleep hot at night, you know how disruptive that can be. Whether you're having trouble falling asleep, you're waking up sweating in the middle of the night or all of the above. That's where ghost bed can help. As the makers of the coolest beds in the world, ghost bed is your go-to for cooling mattresses, cooling pillows, and cooling bedding. From their signature ghost ice fabric to patented technology that adjust to your body's temperature, every ghost bed mattress is designed with
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Starting point is 00:12:51 Just visit ghostbed.com slash Cox and use the code Cox at checkout. Again, that's ghostbed.com slash Cox with the code Cox at the checkout to save a whopping 50% off sitewide. By this time, I'm so thirsty, dude. You didn't think this out very well. And it was dark at night. So all of a sudden we realized we're only 10 minutes away from the camp. So we were so thirsty. We really trucked it back to the camp.
Starting point is 00:13:19 This is embarrassing. And we went and there was a little water hose and we ran across and we drank as much water as we could out of the hose. And then we went back. And then we made it down that hill. And as soon as we made it down that hill, we were in pants in a big Benjacket. As soon as I came up to the freeway marker, it had a sign with a guy going like that and it said do not pick up hitchhikers so i'm really good at spinning off a story and everything and i'm
Starting point is 00:13:44 good of uh you know able to uh able to kind of get your way and so i i was telling him leave it all up to me you know what i mean just because i can talk better i look better i don't have any tattoos at the time and so it was like uh he followed me we went right across the street i knocked on some dude's door that i had no clue who he was i'm actually 15 now at the time and i knocked on that dude's door and uh and uh some guy answered and he's all like and he goes hey hey hey what's up and and i said hey you know what some chick just kicked us out of the car and left us and we got no big old argument whether we're stranded here i'm we're actually from marina valley we're headed up to the mountain and and and he's kind of like uh this and and and i said hey if you can give us
Starting point is 00:14:23 a right i can give you a couple hundred bucks i had not a dollar to my name i was already we're going to jump him look dude i already thought in the cars like as soon as we look i already told the homie that I was with. I nudging me and said, hey, as soon as we're, as soon as we get towards mom, we'll just get, we'll, we'll handle that and then we'll get out of the, and I weren't, there's no money. And, but that didn't have to happen when we got to a certain point, uh, in Marina Valley, we just kind of hopped out on him and he wasn't going to do anything. We took off. I went to my buddy, buddy's house, uh, childhood friend or whatever, ended up calling my mom and saying, hey, I'm out. I, someone told me that if you left New
Starting point is 00:14:58 Mexico and you made it till you were 18, that's, they would uh that they would uh that they you wouldn't build nothing they can do and i heard that was true and so my obligation was to go to new mexico and get away from california wait till i was 18 and then it's gone and so uh i called my mom my mom said yeah oh my god i love you i miss you i'll get you a bus ticket this and that i don't know what to do she's confused because they're not criminals and so uh all of a sudden uh she told my dad you know what i mean being the woman and everything she told my father My father called the police and police showed up to my buddy Tim's house, came and arrested me. And actually, when the police had came, I was going to run.
Starting point is 00:15:38 And then at this point, I just said, I really care about this family that's here like a lot. They've done a lot for me. They're the ones answering my calls from juvenile hall and everything. So I just got arrested or whatever. And they took me back to the juvenile hall. So I got stuck back over there. Back to the boot camp? No, back to juvenile.
Starting point is 00:15:55 Oh, okay. So once you left from the boot camp, now you're done with the boot camp. you got to go back to Riverside Juvenile. So I went back there, lo and behold again, here goes another. I stay there about six months again. And then they get me into this other program. It's a placement this time. And it's called the judge says, oh, we'll give you one more chance.
Starting point is 00:16:12 Usually if you escape from Twin Pines, you're going to California Youth Authority for sure. And so I did that. But you also said that was like a rat last resort. It's a last resort. But since I was on my first chance, I picked the wrong places to go to. So they probably took that into consideration. And they're like, you know what I mean? let's send him to Orange County and we'll send him to Los Pinos. It's a it's a placement in Orange County. And so again, I didn't know any of this was going to happen. I get to Orange County. I'm getting a little bit tougher by this time. And so I'm getting fighting back a little bit more. I'm starting to have confidence in myself. I get over to this Orange County place and they start calling me River Rat. And I'm like, what? What's it with that? And they're like, oh, I bought those from Riverside. They're like, he's a river rat. This is Orange County. And I'm, I didn't.
Starting point is 00:16:58 know there was a beef between Orange County, Riverside. And so I'm stuck over here as this Riverside in this Orange County jail. So I fought 100,000 times. And even the staff all got to know me, they'd switch me to another cottage. I'd get into a bunch of fights. And then all of a sudden, this awesome guy, Gunny, who was running that establishment, they call me in again to get in trouble. I got into another fight. I go in there and I'm thinking, ah, it's just going to be, you know, another misconduct thing. And I'll be sticking around. It's not going to be the end of the world. I go into this to talk to the guy in the office and he goes and he says, hey man, there's a bag sitting over in the corner. And it says Baca comma Thomas.
Starting point is 00:17:37 And it has a number on there. And I'm like, am I getting transported for some reason? And then so I said, hey, man, what's up? Gunny? And he goes, the riversides coming to get you. And I said, no, dude. I said, come on, man. Like I was like, why?
Starting point is 00:17:52 And he's all, I can't. It's just too many altercations. They're coming to get you. And so I was like, oh, man, I knew that it was all bad from there. By this time, I was already engaging on the age of 17. And so I, and so I'd spent that much. You've been in there the whole time? I was 14 turning 15.
Starting point is 00:18:09 I turned 15. I went to Twin Pine, stayed there for a while, escaped, went back, stayed in the, in the juvenile hall for that long, turned, turning 17 now, went to the other, other camp. Now, now I'm 17, going to be 18 in a short period of time. Riverside comes, picks me up. they take me back to the county jail. And when they take me back to the county or back to the juvenile hall,
Starting point is 00:18:32 when they take me back there, I'm like, I know that I'm in trouble for sure. There's nowhere else that they're going to be able to send me. So all of a sudden, I go back to the juvenile, wait there forever, end up going back to court,
Starting point is 00:18:43 go into the courtroom. There's some big huge cholo. I'll never forget this. Guy had three tails on the back of his head. The guy was this, whatever, get in there. And big old dude,
Starting point is 00:18:52 I'm just trying to kind of hunker up next to him and see what he's about. And I'm like, hey, what's going on? you and he goes, nah, he's all, I'm going to go to, go to prison. And I was like, damn. I was like, and then he's, Y, A, and he's all not homes that they're letting you, uh, you can sign a waiver now. And you can, uh, they'll put you in the adult, uh, system as a juvenile. And, and, uh, because Y, A, you can get
Starting point is 00:19:11 stuck there to your 21 or 25. So again, I made a very poor decision. I was like, I, I thought in my mind, I said, oh, I can be out in, in, in, in, in, uh, let me just go ahead and, uh, let me go ahead and, and, and, and, and, and go ahead and go to this, uh, prison thing as a juvenile. I won't have an adult record. I was like, I'll go ahead and do that because I knew the way I was, I was going to get into trouble in YA and I'd be stuck there until I was 21. If you ever go look up California Youth Authority, they have adults in there. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:19:39 They can hold you to your 25 even. It's under the juvenile shit. And so I made a poor decision again. The public defender came in and I said, hey, man, he goes, hey, hey, they're shooting for California Youth Authority. There's really no way around it. Let's just see if we can get you, you know, a real light sentence over there.
Starting point is 00:19:57 You really shouldn't be in there in the first place. And, you know, you kind of built this up yourself, you know, escaping and doing everything else. You really were, you know, you would have never been there. And so, and so all of a sudden, all of a sudden, I'm sitting there and I get and, and that Cholo tells me about his going to the adult system. And then so the lawyer, I was so scared of YA, I was like, because they said that place is crazy.
Starting point is 00:20:19 I knew it was like, you get, when you get there, all this, these crazy stories that I heard. And so I was like, I don't want to go there. And I ended up telling that homie, I said, hey, I told the public defender, I said, hey, well, this other guy that's out here that was just out there had mentioned that you can go to like banning correctional facility or one of those adult places. And you can just get like six months, get the time. And there is no more extra time. Like in other words, it won't depend on your behavior. They have to let you out. It's like New Mexico State Prison.
Starting point is 00:20:46 You can do whatever you want and you're going home. When that date comes up, you're gone unless you've killed someone. Yeah, but you're 120, you're 17 year old who's 120. pounds. I mean, you know what I'm saying? Like, you don't want to, like, I would think it would still be a bad, well, it's, you got nothing but bad decisions. God, you could have imagine when I got there. This is where it gets unreal, like literally. And I am that tiny, I mean, look at me now. So I mean, you could look at pictures from back then. You're a skinny kid with big ears. And so all of a sudden, you thought you were going to hunker next to that cholo. He's, you know, because I went and got the deal and they said, oh, yeah, you can go to
Starting point is 00:21:19 banning correctional facility. We'll send you there for, well, they didn't say banning correctional facility. They said, you'll go to the adult system and you'll do six months. Most of the, and so all of a sudden, I'm like hunkery next to that other dude. And I said, hey, I'm going with you and everything. And then so he didn't really care. He was like, you know what I mean? It was he was already. So look, we get, all of a sudden, a transport picks me up one day.
Starting point is 00:21:38 They put you in a white paper suit with no underwear on. You're naked. Like, I didn't know what this was. I'm a kid. And I'm still 17. I turned 18 that day. My 18th birthday, the Riverside County Sheriff showed up and, uh, and, and were there with these bigger chains.
Starting point is 00:21:53 They weren't the tiny little juvenile hall shackles. They were there big chains. And they showed up. They weren't nice. They weren't counselors. they weren't. And so they're like, you know, they did a transport of juvenile inmates that they took to the adult facility. They took me to Riverside County Jail, I guess, made me an ID. They started sticking all of these other inmates into their gang module pods or whatever. In New Mexico, they don't have that.
Starting point is 00:22:17 So in California, I guess at that time in the 90s, it was 95 when this, when this exact situation was happening. It was 95 already by then because I left in 96. And so in 95, uh, they would take him into Riverside County Jail and these individuals that were from a gang like Eastside Riverside, Casa Blanca, where 18th Street, wherever you were from, you would have a module of a gang pot. And so you're already sheltered by your homies and everything else. For me being from nowhere, they threw you in any pod. Dude, I ended up in going into some room. I got into a fight with some black dude. And then all of a sudden some Chicanoes came to like the rescue and they were like, hey, you're coming in this room and you're not, you know, this and that.
Starting point is 00:22:58 So I went in the room with them. And all of a sudden, over the intercom, they're like Thomas Baca pack your stuff. I'd only been there like three days. And I'm like, oh, I'm going home. They finally realized I don't belong here at all. I was like, I'm going home, dude. I was like, later, guys. I start packing up all my shit.
Starting point is 00:23:13 I'm almost throwing fingers on the way out. And then all of a sudden, I get into this transport and they're saying, you guys are going to banning correctional facility. And I was like, dude, it was unreal. But, you know, then I get to banning correctional facility. and yeah, it was all bad from there, dude. It was the worst place that I had ever seen. I wish I was in California Youth Authority when I had got there to see a 45-year-old man
Starting point is 00:23:39 naked in the shower shooting H blew my mind. And that part was where I was like, oh, this is atrocious. It was like, and then when I had got there, honestly, like, this is where I really picked up a bad attitude and everything. And it kind of on my roller coaster ride to success, I had went in there and there was some dude from Corona Vatos Locos, some big old dude ended up being a nobody, a piece of shit, as far as I'm concerned. Now that I look at it now, I was on a bottom bunk that they put me on.
Starting point is 00:24:07 He wanted the bottom bunk. He came over, tried to assault me or whatever. I fought back, but not enough. There was some big suenial in the pod that ended up being, you know, made. He ended up, you know, being from that black hand. And he ended up coming over to me and saying, hey, did you just have what went on with dude. And so, you know, I told him nothing because I was taught in juvenile hall. You say nothing about nothing. Anything get happened. The answer is nothing happened. And so I kept telling him nothing. And he goes,
Starting point is 00:24:37 hey, you need to tell me what happened. And I said, now we got into an altercation then. And so all of a sudden, he took that dude in the shower and beat the shit out of that dude. And then he came back and told me, hey, go in the shower and go ahead and throw down. And so that was my first introduction to learning that I had to get into a fist fight and it was going to be on call. And that guy had so much stigma and power to him that I just went ahead and did that. And I went in there, fought him, got beat up, came back out. I was like, and felt good. Got my bottom bunk sat there.
Starting point is 00:25:08 That night, I had no clue what table to go to. You know, in retrospect, I guess you were aghastal. I mean, really to think about it, you know, as I am now, I said you were really on that low level. Well, that dude comes over. You are a what you say? You just weren't really anything. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:25:22 A terminology of Gosto is just someone who ain't really shit. You know what I mean? And I am, I am elite, but I'm saying at that time frame, it's you were, you were 17, you were eight, just turned 18. You're barely being indoctrinated. That dude comes back over to my bunk and tells me to bring my tray over to the table. I start eating over there. I start becoming really great friends of them. We worked out three times a day. He, he was in charge of, you know, the whole car. We started working out. And then my kickout date came. And I really honestly, oddly enough, didn't want to go home. you got to imagine I was 18 I was a kid I really felt like this guy was he was in his mid 30s so it's like he was a father figure almost like a you know a mentor and so I was like I didn't really want to roll I was like where's he going I'll just you know what I mean I'd rather roll with you but you know your kickout date came and uh and my dad flew from New Mexico got on a plane went to the airport picked me up brought me out to New Mexico and that's that was how I ended up in New Mexico that was the juvenile sentence that ended and and then I get to New Mexico finally So when I arrived in New Mexico, and I had got to New Mexico for the first time other than just going there for family reunions, me and my dad had a falling out. I think I just became a little bit older. I wasn't feeling, you know, the slapping or hitting or whatever. And I think he tried to yell at me.
Starting point is 00:26:45 And, you know, we never got physical. But, you know, I ended up leaving the house. And so just, and it was weird for me because when I left the house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I didn't really have. anywhere to go. And I hadn't had any friends at that point in time. I mustered up a little job at a place called Keller's Farm Store and started working there, ended up getting into a place. And then really started going out and started meeting some people. And then started slightly getting into grass. And then once I got into that, I ended up going to a bowling alley. This was the first time that I got arrested in New Mexico. I ended up going to a bowling alley, you can bowl. I had grass on me.
Starting point is 00:27:27 It was highly illegal at that time. And so I don't remember how it happened, but I remember there was a cop trying to flag me down or whatever. I ran from him, of course, ran across the street. He caught me. Ended up having grass on me. And he took me in, he took me into the county jail at the first time. And this was in 1998, two years after I had moved to New Mexico. Okay. I mean, Did you bond out or? I went into the county jail. And again, I really didn't have much money then. I really wasn't, you know, I didn't bond out.
Starting point is 00:28:02 I stayed. They did credit time served and then they kicked me out. Remember, I had no support from the parents. So I didn't even have someone to sign for the bond. Right. At the time. And so they had let me out. When I was in that county jail, you know, I met a connect.
Starting point is 00:28:16 Right. And so, and when I got out, I utilized that connect. Yeah, to its fullest potential. I was going to say it's funny when you go to jail. Like I feel like when I went to prison, I'm like all the problems that you can't figure out while you're there. Well, here's your whole group of guys that'll think that have the answers to them. It's like such a stupid place to throw somebody. So what was so when you got out, you hooked up with the connect or did he just give you a number?
Starting point is 00:28:49 No, when I had went to jail since I had started, you know, when I went to. to jail. They liked the way I was in jail. They liked my attitude in jail. So the New Mexico guys, they're real solid. And so they gravitated towards me. And I met a couple of good dudes, one of them being a great connect. And when I got out, I hit him up and, you know, and started using them. And what was this for? Was this for grass? Yeah, this was for grass. Large amounts of grass. This was for anything that I wanted to get. But since I had met a few people on the street already, I met some dealers. And so what I did was I turned those dealers over.
Starting point is 00:29:26 And so since I had a connect that I met in there, I can start getting you pounds. Right. And so that's what I ended up doing. What kind of money are you making? I mean, look, not a whole lot. I would say, just say you get a 10 pack, you know, a 10 pack and you make 15,000 off the 10 pack. So maybe 15,000 bucks. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:29:46 Like a lot to me. That's like, that's what, like a month? That's about a. Yeah, maybe in a month. That seems like a lot to me. Yeah. For, what are you now? 20, 21.
Starting point is 00:29:57 Yeah, 21. Okay. For a 21 year old kid, 15 grand a month. I mean, that's, that's. You weren't making it consistently, but you know, you were dropping, dropping off loads here and there. Even if it was 100,000 a year, that's a lot of money for a kid, you know? Because it's not like you're buying, you know, a Mercedes or something. You're probably, you're buying a vehicle for four grand or 10 grand or something.
Starting point is 00:30:17 I bought a brand new Mustang back then. Okay. Well, see. that's, you know what I'm saying? Like, I mean, that's, you don't have car payments. Like, you know, kids don't live, you know, probably just a regular apartment or something. Like 100 grand a year is, that's a lot of money to me.
Starting point is 00:30:31 But it is in Florida. Yeah. It's $100,000 a year in Florida. Today's a lot of money. You know? I agree. Yeah. And how long was this?
Starting point is 00:30:40 This is 20 years ago, right? This was in, in 98, 99, 2000, 2001, that whole era. 25 years ago. Yeah. And so, yeah, that was probably probably decent money. Look, you got to imagine. So like a pound of grass would be back then somewhere around as high as 2,800, you were getting it for a thousand.
Starting point is 00:31:01 I mean, you were getting it for a thousand bucks. I mean, so, you know, you were getting it for 1,500, 1,600, 1,800, depending on the quality of, you know, the grass. So how long does this go on or does it escalate? I mean, this went on for quite some time. And this went on for quite some time. I made a bad move. I got greedy. I robbed the drug dealer for, you know, about 30 of them. How did that happen? Robbed them like with a gun or you just didn't pay him?
Starting point is 00:31:32 We robbed him with a gun. Oh, okay. Yeah. And so how this happened was it was just, we just did it. We ended up kicking his door in, went in there with some masks, took everything and ended up with all the stuff. Did he know it was you? He had to know it was you. I think he knew it was us, but there wasn't anything that, you know what I mean? It wasn't a fact. Not to mention, I mean, we were running the streets pretty hardcore back then. It wasn't like who's going to do anything about it. It's like, what are you going to do? You're going to come to the house or, you know what I mean? We'll take care of it.
Starting point is 00:32:02 Right. So what, how does, do you get caught? Like, are you robbed the, you robbed the guy. Is that, that's your connect? Yeah. And so I lost to connect. I made a very bad move. I'll be honest, one of my buddies picked up that connect and utilized him for a very long time, made
Starting point is 00:32:17 millions. I was dumb. And so you robbed them. So then after that point, you were on that last bag of, you know, you're on your last, you know, just 15, 20 pounds. And so, you know, getting rid of all that, doing this and that. Long story short, I end up getting robbed by some idiot. And this is where I pick up my case.
Starting point is 00:32:39 I get robbed by some dude. He ends up robbing me for a bunch of stuff, a bunch of cash, robbed me for my safe. It was like two ounces of like $10,000. and a few pounds of grass. And he took that. I ended up catching this dude at a party. Did you know who it was when he robbed you? Or did you figure it out later?
Starting point is 00:32:55 So when they robbed me, they didn't do it to me. Like me and some other homie lived at an apartment. So they came into our apartment and robbed us when we weren't there. So like when we came home, the safe was gone. Okay. And so like our house is broken into. And so I was like, oh, yeah, someone got us. Well, little did we know someone ended up telling us who that individual was.
Starting point is 00:33:13 So we knew who had, who did it. And so it. By the, by just getting lucky, all of a sudden we're at a big party, this dude shows up to the party. And so, and again, I don't really know what he looks like. I've heard his name thrown around. You know what I mean? And so all of a sudden, you know, one of the guys at the party that I'm buddies with had said, hey, this, this homie's here.
Starting point is 00:33:34 So, you know, I had a pistol on me. That's where I picked up the aggravated battery arm robbery and kidnapping, proceeded to take care of it, uh, destroyed him, $70,000 with the facial damage. and yeah and that's kind of how i got caught because did he see what i'm sorry did he see this coming did you did you just walk up and smash him or did you give him an opportunity to pay you your stuff back or just this was this was a big apartment and there was about uh there was probably about god 40 people in that big apartment so it's really packed and so uh he was sitting on the couch you know with some drugs on him and everything and uh you know everyone was doing things back then and so uh he was sitting there and
Starting point is 00:34:15 Yeah, once I found out, I left from my group in area and I walked right over there and just took care of them, you know, right then and there. Just started to proceed to pistol weapon unfortunately. And that ended up escalating outside, you know, broke him off and, and that was, how does the kidnapping charge? Yeah. And you moved him or something? So if you move anyone, anyone's able to look this up. If you move anyone three feet against their will during the during an assault or the commission of any kind of assault or crime, it's a kidnapping. So like false imprisonment would be me not allowing you to leave the room without me putting my hands on you. The moment I put my hands on you, that's a kidnapping.
Starting point is 00:34:58 And if you move more than three feet. So I mean, like the hundred street fights I've been in were all kidnappings. So I mean, as far as I'm concerned, I picked up 100 kidnappings. Right. It was really innocuous charge, to be honest with you. It sounds serious. Well, I mean, but, but read us, it is. It's 18 to 24 with no less than 12. But imagine how easy it to pick up that case. If you and me got into a physical altercation, I promise you're moving three feet.
Starting point is 00:35:20 Yeah. I promise I'm moving three feet. So I'm saying one of us is going to pick up your kidnapping. And an aggravated battery. Okay. Kidnapping isn't tying him up and putting them in a car. I mean, I guess it could be that.
Starting point is 00:35:32 You see what I'm saying? Yeah. When I first picked up the charge and I, and I had went to the county jail and I saw, so I, first they hit me with aggravated battery for assault with the deadly weapons and then tend to commit a violent felony. this is all public information uh armed robbery firearm enhancement for assault with the deadly
Starting point is 00:35:50 weapons they they had false imprisonment all kinds of stuff on there they ended up indicting me on a kidnapping charge and so i was like whoa this is a trip and so when i went there i was like there's no way i don't what is the kidnapping when i went to that law library and looked up the state uh statue on kidnapping it's exactly what i did all right so i was like oh my god you're in some deep hot water this is the the arm robbery only inhaled uh nine years plus the one arm one year firearm enhancement was 10 years. And then, and then the,
Starting point is 00:36:19 uh, uh, kidnapping was 18 to, it ended up playing down to conspiracy to commit kidnapping victim, not freed in a safe place in parentheses, whatever that means. And, uh,
Starting point is 00:36:29 when it was the regular kidnapping, it was 18 to 24, with no less than 12. When it, when it knocked down to the conspiracy to commit kidnapping, victim not freed in a safe place, and it ended up going down to a nine year charge. And,
Starting point is 00:36:42 uh, so nine for, nine for the armed robbery, one year for the firearm. enhancement, which is 10 years, nine years for the kidnapping when you got sentenced finally, and then three years for the aggravated assault, aggravated battery with great bodily harm or whatever. Is that 22 years?
Starting point is 00:36:58 Yeah. And then they consolidated all of that into New Mexico does this. Look them up. They let everybody out. And so New Mexico ended up saying, okay, we'll give you a plea bargain. My first plea bargain was for like 20 years. My second plea bargain was like 15 years. And then the third plea bargain, the third plea bargain, they ended up, the third plea bargain I almost missed out on because I ended up getting into a riot.
Starting point is 00:37:24 There was a big riot in our pods. They moved us to SAG. I didn't sign my plea bargain. So they actually sent me to trial. So I was like, oh, my God, you're guilty. And so they sent, and now you're going to get the full time. So they sent me to trial. Well, at that first initial trial setting hearing, they offered one last plea.
Starting point is 00:37:42 and it was a one to ten with a five-year cap. So instantly I signed it. I was going to sign the 15. But then all of a sudden, when they did that, I was like, oh, I'm signing that quick. And so I signed for it and I got 10 years. Five years in prison, five on probation and two on parole. How long have you been locked up at that point?
Starting point is 00:38:02 I had been locked up at that point for about, it took about eight months to get sentenced or whatever in the county. Okay. So and then they send you to prison. How long do you have to wait a month or two before you get sent to a, this is all state. So you get sent to like a, you get sent,
Starting point is 00:38:19 don't you, I don't know how all states are, but don't you go to like a receiving station where they categorize you and then they shoot you off? Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. So I spent eight months in the county.
Starting point is 00:38:28 He got sentenced to, took the time. I was in Echo 6, a high felony pot. I love that pod. And then I do. I love that pot. I swear to God,
Starting point is 00:38:36 shout out to Echo 6. And I said I wouldn't shout out. So the other thing is, so yeah, I ended up going to prison. I went to the reception center, which was in Los Lunas. I have the gifted gab. So I ended up talking to, into putting me in a level two in Los Lunas, got to that level two in Los Lunas. And once I got to that level two in Los Lunas, I started picking up the clippers.
Starting point is 00:38:58 And I noticed they had a barber gig over there. I ended up getting into that barber gig. I ended up cutting hair over at the level two. What was that mean of a barber? like a training program or like where you actually get a license or no when i show the state prison's really impoverished when i showed up to the state prison uh and got to r dc they did all the classification then they sent me over to los lunas and uh when i got there they see you have to work it's level two is a working camp supposedly so like if you don't want to work they'll shoot you to a three
Starting point is 00:39:28 and so uh uh i wasn't going to work i refused to go in the kitchen when i first got there and then they said well we have what do you do and i said barber and easel well we have a barber position if you want to go in the barber shop. So I ended up going into the barbershop cutting hair. I was still a fool. I was bringing in all kinds of stuff. We were partying in there. I brewed a bunch of hooch one night.
Starting point is 00:39:48 We got caught with it. They kicked me out, sent me to the whole, me and my roommate, my roommate ended up going back to that level two camp. They shot me to a separate camp to separate us or whatever. I went into Santa Fe, did the same thing, cut hair. But all of a sudden, the staff wanted me to cut their hair. So I started becoming a staff barber.
Starting point is 00:40:08 Some idiot took issue with that. I got into a fist fight over there in that level two. That ended up removing me. And I ended up going to a level three. And that was in Las Cruces. What was level three like? The level three was real prison. So like the level two is a joke.
Starting point is 00:40:25 Like it was a joke beyond a joke. It's you got cops over there saying, get on your bunk. Go sit down. Go. It's weird. When I got to the three, I was happy I was in the three.
Starting point is 00:40:34 And so the three, the three you know there's lifers there there's this and that it's just more prison related it was more mimicked my county jail and uh ended up going through that level three this is the roller coaster that you know it sucks i you know i don't want anyone to behave like i did i stayed in that level three ended up getting into a big riot there's a group called the s and m and they're cincicato novo mexico and uh they're a prison gang we ended up uh giving them the boot off of the yard and uh and so it was a big old riot i ended up getting sent to the level six in Santa Fe from that riot.
Starting point is 00:41:10 They gave me, I got, I was one of the first increases to do what's called the level system. And the level system just met now. You went to a level six facility. I did a year in the level six. Once you did a year clear conduct in supermax level six, then they would move you to the level five, which is still super max. You come out five hours a week. And so, and I did a year there.
Starting point is 00:41:31 I did one year in six, one year in five. and then I went and did a year in level four. A level four is level four was hardcore, man. Level six was was hardcore for sure. You had, look, I'll even give you a roster of a rundown. You had the guy who did the Hollywood video murders. You had a sergeant at arms for the S&M. I was in between him and a commander of the S.
Starting point is 00:41:52 They both were already ready to kill me because of what we did in Cruces. So, I mean, they'd put me in. I got sent to the old death row unit just for the luck of the draw. So I went to 3A. I was in a cell called S-109. I was in S-Pod 109. A lot of people will know that unit. And now I just sat there.
Starting point is 00:42:11 I did all that time, went to the level four. The level four now is a six with the doors open. So I mean, you can't get to a level of four unless you've went to a six or five. Okay. Like they won't just shoot you to a four. You have to almost go do the level system or go to a higher level to be able to get into the four. And so the four now is, you know, the four was a no hands policy. So meaning there's no, there's no.
Starting point is 00:42:33 physical altercation, you have older men on the yard that are gang leaders and, and they have, shot callers. Yeah, they have it set real simple. If you have any issue on that yard, which you shouldn't go ahead and, you know, you take care of it like that. Right. Yeah, you come, yeah, you come talk to us at Will, but you can't, you can't just handle it yourself.
Starting point is 00:42:49 No. It caused a whole riot. Yeah. So how long were you there? Well, you've been going year to year to year. So you should be done. Aren't you done? So I got five years in prison, remember?
Starting point is 00:43:01 So I spent, I went to Los Lunas. I spent a month there, just to give you on the time frame, I spent a month there in Las Lunas in the reception. And then as soon as you left the reception, it took about three weeks, about a month in the reception. And then I went straight over to the level two. I spent about eight months in that level two. And then I went to the hole. And then I went to Santa Fe. I spent eight months to a year in Santa Fe, maybe a year, maybe even a little bit longer. Then I went to, gotten to that fight, went to the level five on pending transfer hold, uh, not as a level five inmate at that time just as a disciplinary but in the level five so i got to slightly experience it
Starting point is 00:43:38 and then i and then you know i spent about 90 days there until i got transported to the level three in cruises i spent about a year in cruises and then got into that big huge riot and cruises then went to the level six as an official at level six inmate and then spent a year there and then and then went to the one to the one to the and then went to the five and spent a year so i'm saying you got three you got three years almost at five right now yeah look look at Look, you spent, look, so I look at it like this. In Los Lunas, you got there in 2003. And you probably, you probably spent six months or you probably spent six months in, in, in Santa Fe.
Starting point is 00:44:16 So that was probably a year. And then, and then you spent, you know, a year in the other camps. But they didn't have to let you out at five. You had to do five, but you could do more. Are you losing gang time? Are you losing good time this whole time? I spent five years, eight months in prison, by the way. I spent 1,827 days, so I spent eight months longer than my sentence.
Starting point is 00:44:36 And that was because of the, no? No, not due to anything that I did. It was, they had a backlog of inmates at that time. It was super packed. You could look it up. They almost got sued for it. And a lot of people were getting out late. I was getting out on parole.
Starting point is 00:44:49 It wasn't like I was getting out with nothing. Right. And you were eating your parole time while you were still in there. Okay. Because you remember I got sentenced to one to 10 with a five year cap, meaning it was supposed to only be five in prison. I spent five years, eight months in prison. But that eight months shaved.
Starting point is 00:45:02 off of the five years that I spent out on the street. Yeah, there were some famous case in the feds where they kept a guy for an extra like year or 18 months or something just by accident. Like they just missed it. Oh, so you know what? Really, now that I'm remember, why I stayed a little bit longer was when I had left, finally left all the four and everything and I went to a, went to a regular level three yard. I went to a place called Hobbs, New Mexico, and I was supposed to get released in there. I was already ready to get released. And so in one night in Hobbs, they call a big, huge move list. And they're opening a new prison in Clayton. a notorious prison and somehow I'm on the damn move list I only got a month left and I get on the
Starting point is 00:45:39 move list well when they move me to Clayton all of a sudden they tell me at Clayton uh we we have to be open one year before we could release any inmates so now I have to go on a transport back to Hobbs to get released so that's what made me stay there for eight more months okay yeah well when you got but you and you were released on parole was parole basically like like probation well I was released on probation and parole because the five years, you're only doing two years of parole. I had five years when I got out, minus the eight months that you had done over this day, but two years of parole and then three more years of the probation. So I'm saying I was on concurrent with parole and probation at the same time.
Starting point is 00:46:19 So in other words, when I first checked in, you still had that year and a half of parole since you ate into some of it. You still had a year and something on parole, but it was mixed in with the probation as well. Once you're done with a parole, then you would go to a different office and it would just be probation. Okay. Well, I'm saying what's the different, what like I'm saying, I understand that they're called different things, but I'm saying, is it basically the same thing or on parole? Do you have like an ankle monitor or are you, are they watching? Do you have, do you have harsher? I don't think I'm we've had anybody. Yes. On parole. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Most of it's probation,
Starting point is 00:46:53 probation. Like is it harsher than than being on paper? Yeah, but it's better. I, I didn't want to leave parole. I graduated. I was doing great on parole. And in the late. he was super strict, you checked in five days a week. When you went down to regular probation, you only checked him once a month. What's the difference? The difference of what? Between probation and parole.
Starting point is 00:47:12 The difference of probation and parole is, I guess parole, you're still in the custody of the Department of Corrections. So you could sneeze the wrong way and go back. On probation, they have to violate you. Okay, it's like being kind of like that that's, that's how it is like in the halfway house. Like, if you can do anything,
Starting point is 00:47:29 they just be like, oh, they fill out a piece of paper and you're gone because you're still in BOP custody. Yes, that's what parole is. Right. That's exactly what parole is. If you're on paper, you can fuck up.
Starting point is 00:47:38 Yes. It's a whole process. And then they have to convince a judge to send you that. And you go to a probation trial hearing or in the parole, none of that. It's, you get violated. They give you a hearing,
Starting point is 00:47:48 but you're gone. Yeah. You know, so it's like that. And so, you know, that was. Well, when you,
Starting point is 00:47:53 I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Well, I was to say when you got out, what did you do for work? Did you go straight and try, did you become a barber and try and do the,
Starting point is 00:48:01 the barber thing immediately or did you have to did did you get placed in a job or like how did you graduate when i got out i i my mother was nice enough to say hey you can come stay with me as a grown ass man she lived in a place called rio rancho parole had to have a damn ankle bracelet which i didn't know and they said you can't go to real rancho because it's outside of your county you must be in bernalillo county which is in albuquerque and so i had to go to a halfway house and so i went to some bogus halfway house with a bunch of pieces of junk and sat around there and they're all using drugs and they're a low life losers and and so I was like God, look, when I got out, I hold back. Tell us how you really feel. I feel like they suck. And so I felt like they were all losers. And so,
Starting point is 00:48:45 and they were. And so was I. And so what I did was at that point, I really understood and said, I do not, after this horrible stuff and all the stuff that I did and I don't want to go back. And so I said, you know what? I'm going to get a job, man. And I went over to my dad used to work at a grocery store. So I was like, I'll go to Smith and see if I can get a job. Went in there? No.
Starting point is 00:49:06 Arm robbery. No. I ended up dumbing it all the way. Call centers. I went all the way down to like Taco Bell. Went into apply. No. Went to Walmart.
Starting point is 00:49:16 No. Everyone's all convicted felons. They get a tax break. They'll hire you at Walmart. They ain't hiring me. And so the answer was no. So one guy that was at that halfway house that happened to be somewhere. what smart. He said, hey, how come you don't go to school? And I was like, for what? And he's like,
Starting point is 00:49:34 well, dude, you can, you have to, you're going to get violated. You have 30 days to find employment. If you don't find employment in 30 days, you go back. And part of that employment is either half-time employment, half-time school, or full-time school or full-time employment. I decided to want to go full-time employment because I wanted to make money. I could not find a job. So I ended up going to CNM. I ended up going to getting an unsubsidized and subsidized loan. I ended up going into school. I stayed at CNN. What's CNN? CNN is a central New Mexico community college. Okay. Just to Hill College. And I went there. I hung out there. I took a bunch of courses. I stayed there for, God, I stayed there for four years. I stayed there for about eight months to a
Starting point is 00:50:15 year in school, getting a fitness tech degree. And, and when I stayed there, all of a sudden, But in, I had done martial arts, like, since I was a kid and I'd done a lot of martial arts on the street when I was running the streets. And so I was like, oh, cage fighting came up. So I was like, oh, I asked my PO, do you think I'd be able to take a fight? You know, I'm friends with a lot of guys in the UFC. And so I was like, and there's still buddies with me to this day. So, I mean, I get good training. I'm like, hey, if I take a fight, will that constitute as a job?
Starting point is 00:50:45 And she says, oh, absolutely. And I said, well, I'd like to do half-time school then. And I want to go ahead and do half-time fighting. I moved into Greg Jackson's, one of the biggest martial arts camps in the world. John Jones goes there. All these guys go there. I ended up being the only one on parole living there in the dorms and waking up and fighting every morning. My last fight was in 2012 for King of the Cage.
Starting point is 00:51:09 Okay, so real quick, how are you paying for this? Like you said you got a loan. Student loan. Student loan. Are you getting pale grants? I got a pill grant and then I got two student loans, one unsubsidized and one subsidized. So I had like $10,000 in student loans. And then I got, and I'm poor, remember, I don't, at this point, all my stuff's been stripped for me, all the stuff that I owned, everything was gone. But that'll pay your, but the student loans, well, you're not going to live like a fucking king, but it'll pay your bills. I was in a halfway else, man, paying $400 a month that was cheap. So I mean, I was really easy to live. And then I was doing, and then when I moved over to Greg Jackson's, I got to stay there for free. And so, you know, I didn't pay any run. I swept the mats. I cleaned up. I fought. I trained. I did all of that. And, and, and, and, and, and, and everything was going really good.
Starting point is 00:51:51 And all of a sudden, one of the UFC guys had said, I was cutting all their hair in the gym, just continuously. And one of the guys is like, how come you don't get your barber license? And I kept thinking, dude, I don't want to be broke. I'm trying to go into the UFC like you guys so I can make some money. And that was my main thing. I tried to get on the season of the Ultimate Fighter and a couple of the buddies from Albuquerque won that show. And I didn't get onto the show. So I started realizing, God, it's just not happening for me.
Starting point is 00:52:21 and, and, and, and so I said, well, what's up with this barber journey? And so I was like, you know, and I said, yeah, it's probably. So I went and checked out a buddy that had a barbershop that some of the UFC fighters are going to at the time. They all ended up going to a big UFC event one weekend. And he says, hey, man, can you stay back and cut some hair? And I said, well, oh, you, sure, I would love to. I had the passion for cutting hair. I didn't even ever want to charge.
Starting point is 00:52:45 I just wanted to cut your hair the whole time in prison. I just had a love cutting hair. And so I stayed. back I cut hair. I made $300 that day. I thought it was 300,000. Yeah, I was going to say, if you're, if you're already loved doing it, then how did you not put together that, hey, this is something I can make a decent live. I can make a legitimate legal limit and it's not, they're not broke. You know what I'm saying? Like no offense, but I, you know, every time I've ever going for I feel like I'm getting fucking robbed. It is. It's always like 25, 30 bucks. And it's like 30 bucks.
Starting point is 00:53:20 And I charge 55. plus tax in my shop right now just to give you an idea. I take home about $1,200 today. That's crazy. Just to give you an idea of what it is now. But back then, I was uneducated, man. I really looked at it and thought UFC, you know, the guys that I won't even mention, but, you know, the buddies that are in the UFC and, and, you know, I thought they made
Starting point is 00:53:41 good money and I was like, I want to be in the UFC. I want to make, I thought $100,000 a year was a lot. I was an idiot. I was going to say the, the disparity between the guys that are training and the guys that are winning. You know what I'm saying? Or it's huge. Like the guys that are training to be those guys make nothing.
Starting point is 00:53:58 This is the guys that are winning. Like there's such a, it's like, it's like being a comedian. Comedians are making 50 or 100 bucks to go on stage. And they have to have a full-time day job to pay their rent. And then one day, boom,
Starting point is 00:54:11 you're playing the arenas and you're making $200,000 every fucking show. But there's no, the difference is vast. That's what I think of when I think of these guys. It's like football players that they train and they bust their ass forever to go and play with. They make nothing to play. And then one day, boom, they're in the NFL. Look at this.
Starting point is 00:54:31 Yeah. I believed in myself. This is, I believed in myself 100%. I believed on myself 100%. And that's why it was false belief at that point in time because like you had said, but I believed in it heavily and I wanted to be in the UFC really bad. I never made it into the UFC. I'm glad that I did not make it into the UFC. to the UFC. I fought for King of the Cage was my last fight in 2012. And, uh, and then,
Starting point is 00:54:57 yeah, and then that day I made 300 bucks in that barber shop. And it changed my mindset. I was like, God, you're living in a raft in the gym, cleaning the mats of UFC fighters. I was like, dude, I don't, you know what I mean? And when I made that money, I said, oh, my God, I'm going to go get my barber license. I ran to the barber school. Albuquerque Barber College ran over there and said, hey, uh, how much is it? I want to get started immediately. They said, It was $20,000. And that's when my heart sank again. I was like,
Starting point is 00:55:25 Can you get a student loan? I can't. Well, you know what? So for barboring, for cosmetology, they did back then have, they had a student loan. They had, they had financial aid for the cosmetology,
Starting point is 00:55:38 but the barboring program, for some odd reason, zero financial aid. I'm like, how can they afford to get in the barboring program? But I'll teach everyone a little secret here, especially anyone that's in Albuquerque or anywhere else. There's a program called
Starting point is 00:55:51 DVR. And all of a sudden, when I had remembered, I was in county jail, there was a homie named Little Venom and he said, hey, brother, you're a barber. Hey, you're sick. Dog, he goes, how come you don't go to DVR, brother, they'll pay for your license? And you hear jail stories all the time. I was like, whatever, dog, I was like and got out and fought and did this and that. And then all of a sudden, I thought about it and said, Little Venom from the West, DVR. I was like, homie, I'm going to look that up. And I looked up DVR, uh, uh, rehabilitational program. I looked them up and I was like, oh my God, this is a program. I rat away, uh, filled out an application for the program, but then it said, you got to be disabled. And I was like, well, how can I be
Starting point is 00:56:35 disabled? And I said, wow, PTSD, the medical marijuana card. Hey, guys, I'm disabled now. Here's my disability. And so I got into the program. Uh, they said, hey, you pick a barber school. Well, It took me about six to eight months to finally get accepted into the program, living on my last bit of money, having no money. And then DVR finally said, hey, you're accepted. Here's your acceptance letter. Go ahead and pick a school. Your next step will be to pick a school.
Starting point is 00:57:01 And then go ahead and bring us the information to that school and we'll cut your first check. They don't pay for it up front, but they do a semesterly check funding. And so if you get straight A's or you're graduating grades and you get to get funded. And so that was the first time I've been given anything. And I sat there and I got straight A's. sat in that program for 10 months i became a master barber out of that program i went to a local barbershop uh that same day that i that i graduated the school that same day i went to a barber shop and i was working there the following day and so that next day i went in there and for six months
Starting point is 00:57:34 i worked at that barbershop and and and i never knew anything about business and i sat there and learned every single thing that that woman did at that business every single thing that i liked and that I didn't like. I took that and I compartmentalized it and I opened up Surmen's Salon, the best barbershop in Albuquerque. And I opened up that barber shop. And I opened it up with these guys are going to trip to Surman Salon. I love all you guys. Shout out to you guys. I opened up that barbershop and had nothing in there. That's why I respect this so much. I opened. I had nothing. I put one chair in there. I had nothing in there. And it's grown in to be a beautiful shop. I believe to myself so much that I threw the chair in there. I had 25 years of hair cutting experience without a license.
Starting point is 00:58:17 Are you still in the same location? Have you gone to a lot? I'm in the same location. I've been there for six years. Since I graduated barber school in 2018, I worked at the barbershop at that other place for six months. And then I opened up in 2019 into my shop and I've been open ever since. Do you have other barbers?
Starting point is 00:58:34 I have another barber. I have other barbers that work there. I had one other barber in particular. She knows who she is. She's opened her own shop on the west side. shout out to her. And so now I've started a coaching program. I've started two programs, a coaching program to have barbers be able to open up their own shop. You can make a lot more money when you're your own boss. It's hard for me to sit back and, you know what I mean? And not indoctrinate him. So,
Starting point is 00:58:58 you know, opening up your own shop is monumental. Uh, work a lot harder opening up your own shop too, right? You work a lot harder. So for some people that may not, you know, fit into that category, then you can still, look, I mentor in, you can go booth rent somewhere and still make the same amount of money. You can't booth around out in my place because I don't hoard it out. Like I'm not about the money. You have to really be truly elite and we could either do a percentage or, you know, whatever until, you know, that's how I do it now. Yeah, I was going to say, it makes me think that whenever, you know, you've heard people, oh, I want to open my own business. I don't want to, it's hard. You know what I'm saying?
Starting point is 00:59:35 Like doing the, doing the taxes, keeping the books, because you're doing that, you're typically doing all that and you're having to do, you're working 50 hours a week and you're working another 30 hours a week making sure all the you know the rents paid the electric that everything's the licensing are up the insurance is up you're taking out you know payroll taxes you're keeping up with your taxes because if you don't keep it with your taxes then the end of the year you're basically you know going through hell for two weeks trying to scrape together all your all your crap like it's it's a balancing act so if you're not working 40 i sometimes think to myself like how how fucking cool would it be to just have like a w-2 job where you're just going in you know you're
Starting point is 01:00:13 showing up at nine, you're leaving at five, you, like, you don't have to worry, but they don't have to worry, but along with what we do comes great reward. So it's kind of like, I, I, I, I don't mind putting in the extra work because I'm saying what we are able to do financially and everything now is much better. The tax thing I got really lucky on, my uncle was a CPA. He also did like APS is our Albuquerque public system school taxes. He used to be the superintendent of APS. So I'm saying, as soon as I opened up the business, like to give you an idea to my family, my uncle's like the mayor of a small town Chama in New Mexico. We have a real good family. And so when I opened up the business, I knew nothing about business, but I knew everything about cutting hair. But all I knew that is,
Starting point is 01:00:53 hey, grocery seat sales, you know, four different taxes. I had a CPA that, you know, mentored me really good. And, uh, and, and, and, you know, I started really learning taxes really well. Yeah, that's, that's where I am now. Colby's got somebody. Don't you? My wife found, uh, um, tax strategies. Family friend. Yeah, I was going to say, I thought it was a family friend. I was just here, here, you know, I had to go through hell before we finally found a CPA. This is our second one.
Starting point is 01:01:22 Oh, is it? Yeah. Yeah, I had someone that just, uh, I mean, just didn't. Winging it? Not winging it, but. That's what I got. I got somebody who's winging it right now. I've had somebody who's winging it for five years, bro.
Starting point is 01:01:33 Like, I've just got. There's good CPAs and bad CPAs. A good CPA doesn't want you to pay taxes. A bad CPA wants you to pay taxes. there's something called a game. And when I play a game, I play to win. But I also play by the rules. So it's like, you know, that's all taxes is.
Starting point is 01:01:48 It's a big old manipulation. You could turn your company into an S corp. Then you can just say you wanted to pay your wife. Now you can cut her a check and it's a tax right off. You know, you're projected to pay $50,000 this year in taxes. You could pay her a salary of, you know, $45,000 and, you know, wash the other five. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:02:05 Yeah. We found, we found, we had somebody as over, I think, overcharge. charging us and didn't really know what was like we had to correct his numbers like hey like these numbers are way off like you're saying our income is double like we shouldn't know this much like yeah i basically had a bookkeeper who's she's kind of like and then we one time we went last year did i tell you this we went to h and r block because we were going to go ahead and have h and r block file the taxes like just we're going to give them the numbers but we have them all gave them the numbers the moment came back and was like you're getting uh or she's like oh my gosh
Starting point is 01:02:39 you're getting a refund of $300,000. And I don't know if it was $300 or $600. It was outrageous. Like there is no way. I wouldn't take that. No, of course. But I'm saying there's no way that this woman could possibly think that I'm getting $300,000.
Starting point is 01:02:59 Like nobody's getting $300,000. First of all, if I'm making, you know, $200 million a year, maybe I'm getting it and I overpaid, which you're not, and you're getting a check back. Like nobody's getting 300,000 back. Okay, that's not happening. Now you're paying in. And I'm like, what?
Starting point is 01:03:14 And she's like, oh, yeah, yes, you're getting 300,000 back. And I went, no, no, no, no, I'm paying in. I always pay in. First of all, I don't want 300,000 back. I don't want to go to jail. Yeah. I can't explain that to the judge. You know, secondly, I owe $6 million.
Starting point is 01:03:29 So I don't ever get anything back. So I know even if that went through, I know they just take it. But it's irrelevant. I don't want it back because I know there's no possible way. And I'm saying there, I'm arguing. She's like, oh, no, no, no, it's right. I'm like, lady, there's no way that I made this much money. And they're giving me back, you know, three or four times more than I made.
Starting point is 01:03:49 And she's like, no, that's what the – and she started to argue with me. And I'm like, I'm going to go to prison. Yeah. And she's going to send me to prison. And then the bookkeeper looked over everything, and she was off by a little bit here and there. One or two places, she had messed up the numbers. Yeah. And then it came back.
Starting point is 01:04:04 It's like, oh, no, you owe $3,500. $6.00. I'm like, thank God. Like, I never been so happy in my life to pay. Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. You know, and I pay quarterly. So it's like, you know, but yeah, it's, it takes a, you know, to figure out everything.
Starting point is 01:04:17 So when you say you pay quarterly, do you pay projected taxes? Is that what you're doing quarterly or is it? Or are you doing your gross receipts quarterly? No, I just pay in a couple thousand dollars every quarter just so that I have something paid in. So that at the end of the year when they say, hey, you owe 12 grand. You're like, yeah, I got paid an eight. I owe, you know, four grand, like whatever. like I don't want to be hit you know so I and also if you don't pay in quarterly then you know
Starting point is 01:04:41 I pay monthly oh I pay quarterly once you make a lot they they'll start making you pay monthly I'm just saying you'll have to do that I'm not there yeah I'm not there no but you will be and no it's not nothing great I mean but you'll pay monthly I pay mine every month mine's more than my mortgage well you're you're also would you also have say it like I I'm I have a store I also I have hair product I have thousand dollar scissors I have haircuts I have everything. All your stuff, right? This is all my stuff right here.
Starting point is 01:05:09 This is Cermen Salon right here, guys, everything. Yeah. Yeah. This one's too glittery. Yeah, I don't like that one. That one's no good. How long have you been at that location? I've been at my location for six years from 2019 now till 2025.
Starting point is 01:05:25 Okay. From January 14th of 2019 until now. Oh, yeah. It's the fourth in 10 more days. Yeah, I was going to say, what happened during COVID? During COVID, I became rich. Oh. I compartmentalize strategies, dude.
Starting point is 01:05:37 I don't look. I looked at it like this. When COVID came, it was time for daddy to become rich. And so I looked at it like when COVID comes, all these losers are going to drop off. But I looked at it really like this. When COVID came, you've had people that have been in barbershops for 25 years. When COVID came, we put us all on even plainfield. So now we were all brand new.
Starting point is 01:05:56 And so I really took advantage of that. I take advantage of it in the sense that I was the only one in Albuquerque doing like nothing but appointments. So I was already strategically set up for it. I was far ahead of the game. I also, my barbershop, I named it a men's salon, so I'm bridging the gap between traditional barbering and salon culture. Somewhere where a guy can come in and, you know, have $1,000 shears, you know, used on his hair. It's styling a little bit more, but also clippers on the side if you wants, full on
Starting point is 01:06:23 scissors haircut if you wants, washing your hair out with $100, 1821 shampoo. Are you able to talk about like some of the big names that people will hair you cut? Yeah, I can talk about them. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. I've cut John Jones with the UFC. I've cut Diego Nightmare Sanchez. You guys can all go to their Instagram profiles.
Starting point is 01:06:41 I'm on, uh, went to, you know, I've cut, uh, let's see, uh, who, who's there if I cut. I've cut John Jones, Diego Sanchez, uh, Alice Star Overim, Chase Sherman, uh, God, I've cut a ton of. And if I didn't mention any name, I've cut tons of UFC guys here, tons of BKFC fighters, Donald Sanchez with the BKFC. I've done all their hair. Diego Sanchez is one of the guys in our shop. It's like a, you know,
Starting point is 01:07:10 he's, he's stuck in our shop. Now for fight night, are they going clean shaven? Everybody has a beard now. Yeah. So for fight night, the guys are going with a beard.
Starting point is 01:07:21 Yeah. So for a normal barber, what's the, what's your biggest piece of advice to make more money? For my normal barber, to make more money as a barber, my piece of advice would, be do something that someone else isn't doing so if everybody's closed on sunday and monday like
Starting point is 01:07:41 the barbers are open on sunday and monday that that's one simple scenario uh also make sure that you guys are charging the right amount you know what i mean factor your taxes into that uh you guys uh take time to enhance yourself your craft the better you are at your craft the more money you make so i'm saying the better you get at your craft go start social media go become famous on social media, the more you do to enhance yourself, the more you're going to make. Yeah, it seems like everybody that's doing well now has some kind of an Instagram or YouTube or TikTok, like they're combining it somehow. I started at 18 bucks a haircut in 2019 and guys, I'm at $55 plus tax. So it's kind of like, you know, if you're getting into it and you want to
Starting point is 01:08:26 start a shop or open up your own place, I highly recommend to have your pricing a little bit lower than it should be to catch the interest of the public. And then once, once they see how good you are, they're kind of sewn in. That's what I did. And so, you know, knowing how good I was, I did that low price and I did that for an entire year. And then I went from 18 to 25 and I went from 25 to 35. Then I went to 45 and now I'm at 55. Do you think the result of the haircut or the personality cutting the haircut, which one do you think is more important? Because me personally, I found a barber. I like the cuts.
Starting point is 01:09:03 And I go there now because I know him and I just talk to him. It's the result of the cut number one. It's a combination of the two. If you're an asshole, you know, they're all gone. But if you are great at your craft and let me give you another point there, guys, show up early. If you guys, look, I open it's, I'm open seven days a week. Monday through Friday, I open from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday, I'm open from 7.m. I'm open from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. And on Sunday, I'm open from 7 to 1. And so, you know, if I were you guys,
Starting point is 01:09:36 I would show that dedication. Guys like to see the dedication. The haircut to answer this question has to be superior. So you should really focus on that. But if you're able to add in personality, then you're a winning factor. The more things you can add in, the greater you are. So if you have a great personality and you're also a great barber, then you're winning. But if you're a great barber and with not so much of a great personality, you're still winning because at the end of the day, that haircut has to be elite. You're selling that haircut. So for someone who's never been in prison or jail, like, how do they get haircuts in prison? Is there like a barbershop room? Is it, is it kind of like a hustle that you just do on the side? Or is it like here, here's the official jail
Starting point is 01:10:19 clippers and you can do this for one hour a week or something? That's a great question. There's everything. And so, uh, me, I worked in the barbershop. I was also what's called the staff barber. I cut the cops here on friends of them. You, everyone, so like just say Echo Pod will be on Tuesday for haircuts. So everybody in Echo Pod is going to get lined up and go get their haircuts. So they're going into a barbershop to get their haircut from me. I also run that prison barbershop. But before I got the prison barber job, I would take the straight razors and those little
Starting point is 01:10:51 orange razors that they give. And I did haircuts in the pod. And so, you know, you can do that as well and start there. Yeah, there's usually at least one guy or two guys that are in the part. To one razor fades. In the unit that they would have in the feds, they used to have the actual shavers, right? And so they're still around. They don't sell them anymore, at least not in the places I want.
Starting point is 01:11:13 Yeah, the Norocos. But they still have, but guys still have them, you know, and they'll, boy, they're expensive. But these guys will use them. They'll go, you'll walk in the, you'll walk in the, or it depends on where you are. But if in the low, you'd walk in the bathroom, the guy would have his chair there and you'd have Put a trash bag around his head. How much is a haircut? What was it back then to pick your brain?
Starting point is 01:11:34 It was probably four bucks, five bucks. And was that in the feds? Yeah, was in the feds. So the feds is more high end than the state for sure. And the feds was $4. We were about two bucks at that time. Just to give you an idea. Like $2.
Starting point is 01:11:45 That's a lot of money. At $0.50 an item back then, I do not know what the items go for today. But I'm saying like Nutty Bar Honey Bunn. They're 50 cents an item back then. That's four items. back then when you had nothing that you're making off one haircut I did a haircut in like 15, 20 minutes.
Starting point is 01:12:01 I was going to say that's a lot of money. So you're coming back with a baggage store at the end of the day. Does every prisoner get the same haircut? No. That is a myth. These prisoners want it all. And so it's like these prisoners,
Starting point is 01:12:13 there's no hard part, comb over, razor fade, double triple hard part. It's like they've, heckers are swearing that, you know, they're going on a date that night. Yeah. So it's like, you know, I'm bald. So I didn't, you know what I mean?
Starting point is 01:12:25 But yeah, no, they want it all. They would have the, they would have the pictures up in the, in the barber's shop in the Coleman. They'd have like, they'd have like four pictures up that you could pick from it. Nobody was going with any of those fucking fuckens. Yeah, no. They're all wanted something different. They want something outlandish and crazy. And we don't use scissors in there.
Starting point is 01:12:43 Guys ask, hey, TJ, you don't use scissors in there. How do you do the haircut? Just with clippers, man. You could get the top of the hair, pull it up and cut it just like that, you know, with the clippers. You shear over a comb, guys. sure over finger if there's no comb. Can you trust a bald barber? No.
Starting point is 01:13:01 Hey, you know what though? Jeez, that is a good question. Can you trust a bald barber? God, I would almost look at it like in reality, I guess the barber doesn't have to have hair to be good at his craft. Yeah. But it's, you know,
Starting point is 01:13:17 the joke is he doesn't, you can't have a, the joke is you don't trust a, a bald barber because he doesn't respect your hair. Is that, in that the joke? I've heard similar things like that. It's funny. It's like I'm looking up, every now and then I'm looking at videos about hair transplants and things like that. And like some of these guys that are giving this advice are bald. Yeah. And that's what the comment section say. And I like that comment section because that's kind of an,
Starting point is 01:13:41 you know, that's kind of an oxymoron. It's like, you know, you're bald and you're giving hair advice. But we can say, yes, you're allowed to be bald and give hair advice because as long as you have a license or you read the book or you do know what you're speaking of, you're allowed to do that. But it'd be weird like a tattoo artist who has no tattoos. Yeah, I was going to say, or a skinny chef. Lacking validity. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:14:01 Did you have any overwhelming feedback from any of the other interviews in the comment section? Like, as far as like people pointing out or saying certain things. Hey, man, all the guys in the comments could kiss my royal ass. And that's some real shit. I don't, you know, you keep staying in the comments. I want to hear all that. And so, yeah, now I've heard this and that in the comments. Look, my shop's right there in Albuquerque.
Starting point is 01:14:26 I'm on Manal in Wyoming. You want to come by. Do you just come over? I don't see the comments section being a big thing. You want to do it professionally. We can go to Jackson's. Whatever you want. And what are you posting on social media?
Starting point is 01:14:39 Like, if someone goes to Instagram, what are they going to see? Thomas Baca Barber on Instagram, guys. And you're going to see haircut. You're going to see me giving mentorship. You're going to see me talking about skills for success, talking about how to how to, you know, how to grow a business and really a lot of hair cutting on my channel. They, they, I have a YouTube channel that has three million views. And it's, they're all Thomas Baca Barber.
Starting point is 01:15:04 And on that one, I do just strictly haircuts. That's what they like. I'm on my YouTube, I mean, on my Instagram, I'm a little bit more, you know, with mentorship, haircuts and, and a few other things mixed in. Some UFC fighters on there. You guys want to see the UFC fighters and see if it's real. Go look at their profile and then they have pictures of me cutting their hair on theirs. and then also go to mine.
Starting point is 01:15:26 And you can see it all. What are your thoughts on Vic Blins? Have you seen that guy? My thoughts on Vic Blends is he's nothing and he's also fake. Sorry, guys. I'm just telling the truth. Vic Blends isn't real. Vic Blends is, uh, it just, uh, I just see it as, uh, it's just not, it isn't, uh,
Starting point is 01:15:47 Vic Blends is cutting the presidents here. He's cutting, but he's not having real conversation. Vic blends is, uh, he's too polite. these two. I want to have a real channel. I want you to see the real deal. I want to, you know what I mean? You get the president in there. I'm going to act the same way as I act here. I don't know. Who is that? He's probably like, he's real famous for sure. He's real famous. He's probably 30 years old. Probably my age and millions of years. Yeah. He's cut famous people's hairs. But he's like, he's white guys tatted. And he'll like be on the
Starting point is 01:16:16 street cutting people's hair. Yeah, but he's also, so look, you guys want to talk, Vic Blends. He's also, you want to get real about it. He's the brother barber. So what What about the, what about me, the Chicano barber? He cuts all the blacks there. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I'm just saying he's a black barber. Look at him. Look at the way he talks. Look at where he's from. I'm, I'm different. So look for, look for my videos. What's the difference between white, white hair, black hair cuts? White haircuts, black haircuts and, you know, Hispanic or whatever. Because I remember one time I went to a, uh, me and my buddies from college. Uh, I was on a football team. So, you know, 75% of my friends were all black in college. And we all went to this. to the barbershop, our first summer there, and it's a black barbershop. They all got, you know, fades or whatever they got. And then I sat in the chair and I told him, yeah, two on the sides.
Starting point is 01:17:01 Two on the sides is just blended in on the top. And the barber sat there and he's like, he's like, you know what? I don't feel comfortable. He's like, I can't do this for you. So what is the difference between all the different races, haircuts? The difference is the texture of the hair.
Starting point is 01:17:15 So when you have straight hair and you cut into that straight hair, it will sit differently or it will react differently to the cut. If you have very curly hair, there's techniques to use to have it come out equally as elite. It's the texture and the hair that's different. A little story, I was the first black barber in the state of New Mexico in prison that was allowed to cut black hair, also allowed to cut the cop's hair. Chauncey Johnson, a black barber that was leaving, you know, and Eugene Galloway ended up
Starting point is 01:17:45 blessing me with the job. I was the one to go ahead and take that black crowd. I'm a big believer in, though, you should start off on black hair. if you start off on black hair, it'll strengthen every bit of haircut that you're going to ever do. So another little secret to the barber is out there. Learn on black hair. And if you learn on black hair, you'll be a better barber. First of all, I don't know where you're getting these questions.
Starting point is 01:18:05 And secondly, I don't know. I never, where are you guys seeing these videos? They like that stuff. Those questions that you're because it's like for some. Yeah, these are like these good like little punchy clips. Yeah. Yeah, I'm bro, I'm not hip at all. No, I don't know anything.
Starting point is 01:18:18 I don't know anybody. I, and he's nothing to you because I'm saying he's not in your. trust me well i'm saying too the other thing about like the haircut like i never get i wish the only videos i have of haircuts that have ever shown up all my thing is that there was a barber who was shaving this chick's hair who had cancer and then he shaves his hair well i'm a testimony to who you are bro now that you link to me they're going to start showing up it's i wish i would have brought my clippers to cut your hair and and i brought my scissors but those don't do any good i spend them too but but i you know i really wish i would have brought my clippers to give you a
Starting point is 01:18:49 haircut that would have been amazing to me Listen, I need a haircut. Like, it's like I wait until I, I wait until I have to have a haircut before I go. I wait till I got great hair, dude. I can see how your hair is. I would take I would take about a quarter inch off the top. I'd have it nice and cleaned up. Keep the sideburns there.
Starting point is 01:19:04 I, you can get a nice haircut. You got that high end hair. I can easily, dude. I would, you would have been mind blown. This is fake. This is from the back of my head. This is, I've had two hair transplant. Are you serious?
Starting point is 01:19:14 That looks great. I need one more. Are you serious, dude? Colby and I may be going to. Wow. We may be going to Turkey. Yeah, we may be going to Turkey. I know someone that went to Turkey out of my shop.
Starting point is 01:19:25 How was the results? Amazing. Like literally, because he was really bald. And so when he came back, he came back with a little bit less than you, but it's still a phenomenal. Does he still have his liver? Because I was told by Julian Dory, who has a channel called Julian Dory, he said, if you go to Turkey, he goes, you're going to end up getting kidnapped and somebody's going to
Starting point is 01:19:45 take your fucking liver. Oh, my God. No, he still has his liver. No. Okay. Well, there you go. See? Julian.
Starting point is 01:19:51 Julian, he still has his liver. I'm telling you right now. He has the liver. It's not going to happen. cauliflower ear. So does that happen from one impact or just impact over time? cauliflower ear happens over a magnitude of years. And it's also called what's called the medical term for it is polychondure hematoman.
Starting point is 01:20:11 It's when blood coagulates in between the skin and the cartilage. It's you have to be in a thousand fights for that to happen. but it's only the one here. And so when you wrestle and just pretend that you're taking a shot, you know, from the right side, you might get it more, you know, your ears leaning on your hip. Right. And so it comes from friction and also from a lot of contact. Yeah, a lot of guys will get it on one year.
Starting point is 01:20:36 A lot of guys will get it on two ears. A lot of guys to get it more on one year. I still have some in here. But for the most part, you know, a lot on here. Hey, you guys. I appreciate you watching. Do me favor. Hit the subscribe button at the bell.
Starting point is 01:20:47 So get notified of videos like this. also go to Thomas Barka Thomas Baca barber and we're going to leave the you don't even have to do that just go in the description box and we're going to leave all of his links so you just click on it go there follow and you can be able to get in touch with them through I'm assuming Instagram and whatever and consider joining our Patreon it's $10 a month we put Patreon exclusive content on there and I think that's pretty much it I really appreciate you guys watching thank you very much see you

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