Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - What Happened After I Was Caught...

Episode Date: February 26, 2024

What Happened After I Was Caught...

You don't believe this right now, Cox. He said, but you're going to meet some of the best people you've ever met in your life in federal prison. He was in prison. You're going to have better relationships in prison. He said, and you're going to meet a group of guys and surround yourself by a group of guys that are amazing. He says, and there will be a time when you will be laughing your ass off and having a blast and you will think there is nowhere I rather be right now. And I remember, I looked at him, I go, you're fucking crazy. That's never going to happen. And he goes, well, we'll see. I wish to God I had that guy's name so I could

just write him a letter and tell him he was right. Hey, this is Matt Cox, and I appreciate you checking this out. Basically, at this point, I've already done a whole playlist, a whole series on me, on basically my crime spree, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. So, and how I ended up in federal prison. So at this point in that series, or in the second part of that series, I'm going to talk about me going to federal prison. And, you know, I've already talked about what got me, got me in this situation. So I've been arrested. I get arrested November 16th, 2006. I am shipped to, I'm basically, I'm held, I'm brought to, brought to, immediately they bring me to the, the Secret Service field office in Nashville. That's where, you know, that's where, that's where, that's where I'm, after they arrest me, they bring me there. They handcuffed me to a desk.

The Secret Service agent comes in from Atlanta, so I'm there for hours waiting for her to fly in on like an emergency flight or she might have driven. I don't know. She comes in, she tries to have a conversation with me, and I say, look, I really would prefer to talk to an attorney first. And she says, okay, that's you're right. I understand that. And keep in mind, everybody's being real nice, like they're ready to get me, you know, McDonald's, you know, what do you want? We can go to subway and get you a sandwich. We can go to McDonald's.

What do you? You want to us to go get your coffee at Starbucks? Like everybody's very nice at this point. So I don't say anything and they then transport me that the U.S. Marshals comes in and they transport me to someplace in, God, I don't even remember what state it was. Anyway, they drive me for like an hour away to put me in a Marshall's hold. over. So I go to the Marshall's holdover, and I remember when I walked in the room, I know I'm, I mean, at this point, they've grabbed me, I know I'm done. Immediately, Amanda, the

chick that I was grabbed with, the girl that I was living with, she immediately went straight to our, we had a safety deposit box. She went immediately to the safety deposit box, grabbed a bunch of paperwork that, and went straight to the Secret Service agent's office and gave them the paperwork and a bunch of passports and things that were there. I think there was three or four or maybe five or six. I don't know how many work that she had. She gives them those passports. They show me the passports. They let me know immediately like, hey, she's already giving up stuff. So pretty much know that she's already going to, you know, she's already going to cooperate against me, which is fine. She's got a son and I totally get that. So,

I, the marshal show up, they transport me to the U.S. Marshal's holdover. The media's all over the, all over my arrest, because I was number one on the Secret Service's Most Wanted list. And so it was a big deal in Nashville. So all the local news stations are out in force. There's articles being written. And what happens is I go and as soon as I walk in, they dress me out. You have to understand, like, I've never been dressed out. Like, I've never been stripped down.

they strip you down they spray you down with all kinds of chemicals they take your fingerprints I mean they photograph you like it's it's an ordeal especially an ordeal if you've never been through it

like seeing it happen is one thing but really being treated like cattle and pushed around and told to do this and told you to this and talk to just like you're a dog like most people have never really had someone speak to them that way so I was just like

in shock and by the time I actually get dressed in my jumpsuit and everything and they give you your blanket and your stuff like no pillow or anything you get like a blanket and bunch of you know some other you know whatever soap and crap that they give you and they walk you into an actual unit when I walked into the unit there were 10 or 15 guys there there's one TV and I remember I walk into the unit and I look up As soon as you have to go put your hands through and they unshackle you and they take your stuff off. And now it all gets yanked through the door. And so now you're standing there and you turn around and there's 15 guys staring at you.

And I remember they're all staring right at me. And I remember thinking, I was like, this is when they rave you. But and I just like, oh my God, these guys look tough. I mean, they've got tattoos. One guy had tattoos on his face. He had horns on his head. He had all kinds of tattoos on his face His old body's tattooed

But I just remember thinking Holy shit Like everybody's staring at me And one of the guys points at the TV And he goes Yo man You were just on TV And another guy goes

Yeah man you like that bro Like you took you got millions and millions You took these motherfuckers Yeah but and they all kind of like Yeah bro yeah And I remember thinking I was like Like I was glad

that it wasn't a bad situation as far as these guys looking at me you know wanting to kill me but it was also just I knew just how much trouble I was on because the news I just been on the news so I walk in I lay down and I just go to sleep like I laid there for as long as time and I eventually just go to sleep they bring dinner I don't get dinner I don't get up just take my take my food I go to sleep I go into this huge like this super depression and I slept for about about a couple of days and really by the next morning I woke up and I had this splitting headache splitting headache so I think like the next day I woke up and I tried to call I

tried to call my my parents and I remember the guy with the tattoos he was my bunky so he I go and I'm trying I remember this I was trying to use the phone and I'm trying to punch in the phone and it wouldn't do anything so this this black guy comes up to me first and he goes and he said, he goes, yo man, you, uh, need, uh, try to call your peeps. And I went, what? Try to call you peeps. I said, what? You peeps, man, you peeps. And I thought, what the fuck? So I started looking around, like, I don't have any idea what this guy's saying. And I'm looking around like, is somebody, like, I, he's, I know he's speaking English, but I can't understand

what he's saying. And so the white guy comes with the tattoos on his face comes over and he goes, you're people. And I went, people. He was, your family. He's trying to say, are you trying to call your family? And I went, oh, yeah, yeah. And so he goes, I got this. And the black guy goes, all right, and walks off. I mean, you have to understand.

Like, at that point, this is 2006. Like, there's not a lot of social media. There's not a lot of YouTube. The really YouTube had just kind of come out. Facebook had just come out. Like, we'd have been out a few months. There's no smartphone. So as far as my.

My interaction with other cultures was extremely limited. You know, like the only people I knew that weren't really like middle class or upper class, white people were people that basically did construction work on my houses or did, were, you know, roofers. And they were always very polite and they always spoke very good English. And now I'm in a situation where, I mean, literally I can't understand what people are saying. I mean, I do now. That was actually a really fucked up situation because within about a year or so, I remember being behind a couple guys in prison, these two black guys were about where I was standing behind him in prison. And I remember they said the one guy goes, yo man, well, you know, how you fall? How you fall?

And I was just standing in the child line standing behind him. And one guy goes, how you fall, man, how you fall? He goes, shit, he's over a dove in two stacks. And he goes, no what I'm saying? And he goes, yeah, man, yeah, I got you, I got you. And so when he said, do you know what I'm saying? I thought, I do know what he's saying. That over two grand and a dove, which is a key of Coke,

another black guy snitched on him. and I knew as soon as he said it I was like oh wow he got snitched on by some guy he knows over you know over a you know over a key of coke and a couple thousand I thought and the fact that I knew what he was saying was like wow like I can't believe that I know what that means because two years a couple years earlier I would have had no clue what that guy was saying and I knew exactly I remember thinking I got to get out of here I got to get out of here everywhere is bad so is that bad to say am i no it's bad it's fucked up though right it's but at that time i couldn't even communicate with someone to help me use the phone so the white

guy goes yeah listen man he goes you got to punch in your pin number like where's my pin number you're here it's right here on your bracelet because they had given me like a bracelet so i punched in my pen number and he explains how the phone like there's no instructions they the staff just expects that the other inmates will help one of us others. So there was no inmate handbook. There's nothing like that. So this guy helps me call my family. I call my, try and call my parents. My parents were not around. I then turn around and I call my sister. My sister gets on the phone and she's like, look, I know you were arrested. Like, by that point, it's been on television. People have already called her. She said,

where are you? I tell her where I am. She says, was I in Kentucky or something? Like, they drove me out of out of the state of Tennessee. I knew that. So I tell her. And, you know, she says, look, you know, I'll tell mom, I'm going to wait. We're going to wait and tell mom and dad because they hadn't come back from, they were on like a, some kind of cruise or something. Anyway, so let's say I spent about a week or two in that, in that holding facility. After a couple weeks, like I have a lawyer that comes and he sees me and tells me, you know, you're done. You've got a ton. You're in a lot of trouble. Like, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, You're looking at, I forget what he said, like 20 years or something.

It was outrageous. And he said, you know, I'm going to, he said, I'm going to waive the bond hearing because they're extraditing you to Tennessee. So I said, okay. So two weeks later, I get put on a bus. I get driven to some other facility, which was in, I want to say it was in, I want to say it was in Mississippi. So they drove me to like Mississippi. and I was in Mississippi for a couple weeks and I want to say it was a geo facility

which was a private facility and they housed inmates from all over the country so I was there for a couple weeks and I remember too I remember meeting a guy there that had been busted for he'd been in the prison before I remember his girlfriend kept writing him

and he kept reading the envelope he would read the letters he was my sally because if basically if you're a white guy, you typically end up being sold with a white guy. So I end up getting, I got in a cell that time. And the guy kept getting letters from his girlfriend. And he would read the letter and he would look at the pictures she'd send and then he'd tear everything up and throw it away. And I was like, you know, why do you keep doing that? And he said, well, you know, I broke up with her. This is my ex-girlfriend. I broke up with her. I said, well, she keeps writing you. Like every day he's getting one or two

letters a day. And he goes, yeah, yeah, I know. And I said, yeah, she keeps writing you. Why is she writing you and he goes well i mean we were you know we've been dating a couple years he said and i got caught he got caught i don't know he said like obviously he said he didn't do anything he said he was basically driving a guy around that was delivering drugs or whatever so the point is is i think he got like five years or something and he said he said yeah i i broke up with her and i was like why'd you break up with her and he said i've been in prison before and it's it's hard to maintain a relationship she she wants us to have a relationship he said but the problem is, is that she'll be there for six months, but in six months from now, she's going to start

seeing somebody else, and she'll try and hide it for six months. And then eventually, he said, but I'll know it and I'll feel it. He said, I don't want to be one of those guys on the telephone Saturday morning, screaming into the phone, where the fuck were you at last night? Why didn't you answer the phone? Because he was, when I know, she was on a date with her boyfriend. He said, you know, and I don't want to be that guy. And it would make my time a lot harder. So I broke up with her. I told her we're breaking up. And if I, you're available when I get out, we'll start seeing each other again. I was like, wow, bro. Like, that's, that's, you know, like, that's where I'm at. Like, these guys, like, this guy knows. He said, look, you know,

and he told me something that was very, very true. I remember he told me that, um, he said, he said, the only kind, the only women, that stick with you when you're incarcerated are women that have been married to a guy for several years, maybe they have a couple of kids, maybe it's five or ten years, but the guy's a multi-millionaire. Like if you still have millions and millions of dollars left over and businesses and you can still support your wife while you're incarcerated, then your wife will visit you for four or five years and he said other than that you're what they're going to leave he was like or unless you're maybe said maybe she'll stay if she's from south america or something like you're married to a

south american they're very family oriented like this guy had really laid it out and the thing is i remember thinking to himself that's not true but the truth is is over the course of the next 12 years he was absolutely right the only people i know where their wives stayed with them the entire time were guys that were millionaires, had millions of dollars and still had money when they went to prison. They went to prison for three years or four years or five years. I know a couple guys that have. Yeah, Red Bull. Red Bull's wife only stayed.

So I knew a guy named Andrew Levinson, who was a con man, a great con man, actually. And he, um, so Levinson's wife stayed, but Levinson's wife was from Peru. so she stayed she had a daughter with him she was with him and not when things were up and she's going to stay with him and she wasn't going to leave him yeah he actually met yeah he actually met her at a bus stop she was just yeah pulled in it up in his bentley she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time uh so anyway so i end up eventually i this guy you know another thing that this is this is really funny so i anyway so i anyway Anyway, I end up going, getting shipped to, get flown to Oklahoma.

So they put me on Con Air. Con Air is nothing like you think it is. It's not like the movie Con Air. It's a regular commercial airplane. You pull up in a van with whatever. Eight other guys. I remember I was with a, I was with a former, I want to say, he was a police officer. He was a, like a, not a DEA.

agent but I think he was just a task force agent and he was a crooked and he was in the in the truck with me so and we were talking we talked a few times he was in my unit we talked a few times and and I was one of the few people that knew he was a cop so we get we get all the way to the airport and they unload several buses and several vans filled with inmates some of the buses are buses like they've got like 30 inmates on them so they unload us the marshals are all standing around this massive plane they've all got shotguns they're all yelling at you to get in line do this do that they're calling out names then they slowly call your name they they patch you down a couple times they walk you into the plane like when you get in the plane

you've basically got a paper outfit on so you get in the plane and you you get a you know you're you sit down and i mean it's surreal it's just like what's almost like nazi um efficiency you know like it's they're just that good and brutal at at being able to corral you and get you into a spot and these guys are holding shotguns and no doubt in my mind they love to shoot you

like you can see it in their face they're desperate for you to do something and so even the tough guys don't do anything like they don't mouth off because they know it's a losing situation so you get on the plane and then the plane takes off the plane is horrendous

it stinks people have pissed in their seats it's disgusting but you get up there and the plane takes off and it's got 150 guys in it or 200 or whatever that plane takes and they fly it up and then whatever 45 minutes or an hour later you land in Oklahoma City and Oklahoma City is a holdover that's run by the I want to say it's the U.S. Marshals or possibly Bureau of Prison. I think it's the U.S. Marshalls though. The plane literally lands at the airport so it lands and you get directly off of the

plane and go straight into the holdover, which is, I want to say it's maybe a four-story building. I could probably look it up. I might be wrong, but I think it's four or five stories or something. Listen, it was freezing cold outside. I mean, freezing. Freezing everywhere you went. It was snowing out. I got there sometime and I want to say early January by this point. So it was early January, got there, stayed there 10 days. Remember met a mobster that gone to prison. He'd beaten several murder charges and then lost on racketeering and gotten like 30 years or something. It was still fighting and he was just telling me how dirty the feds are. And he was just, it was funny because he was like right out. This was before I'd met any guys

like this. Like now I know exactly what they are and who they are and what they're about. But it was like that first time. It was like meeting someone from the Sopranos. Like he was that he was straight out of central casting. Like, hey, send me a guy that's a mobster. That was this guy. he was perfect and he he so he he was going on about how dirty the feds are the feds these dirty bastards they fucking and it was just like Jesus like this guy's really laying it on thick with the mob thing but he was he was a mobster and that they all sound like that so I was there for about 10 days and at eventually they call my name they shackle me up you know when they shackle you every time you go anywhere they shackle your legs your ankles your ankles

They put the chains on you. At that point, I had a metal box. They have a box that holds you like this. They put a waist chain around you so you're tied. You can't really move your hands. And it's your chain from here. The chain wraps around your waist. Then it goes down to the shackles, which are around your ankles.

And then that chain goes to the guy in front of you. I mean, you really are like just interconnected, like a, like, like a big like if one guy fell down the stairs he's going to probably yank everybody else down like you're all going to um so anyway we end up i'm end up in uh Oklahoma City the holdover for I get I'm in a cell again for whatever it was two weeks you know and by this point now it's it's it's been well I think I was there for 10 days so whatever roughly two two weeks So I was in there, too, with another guy who'd done, like, 30 years. I mean, you start to talk to these guys who are getting 30 years, 20 years, 15 years.

Like, this guy's a bank robber. He was robbing, you know, banks and this. I mean, you know, you start to hear these stories, and they're just amazing. And anyway, I end up, so I end up going, getting back on the plane. I get flown to Jacksonville. From Jacksonville, they put me in a facility for

like the night. Then they put me on a bus and they drive me all the way to I think I went to Tallahassee. Stayed the holdover in Tallahassee for a couple days. Then I think I went, then I went to Union City. So I was

in Union City. And so it literally took me, I think a total of six weeks before I got to my final destination, which was Union City. Actually, moved from Union City at some point I end up going to Atlanta City Detention Center. They call it ACDC. But I was in Union City, and at that point, the U.S. Marshals had a hold over there. They closed it eventually because there's so many violations.

Like, it was just disgusting. So I went in there, and I remember there was a guy met there. Man, this guy was interesting. he had used identity theft to steal a dealer's license so he could buy weapons and then he was selling those weapons in like New York or something so he'd buy tons of weapons down here using a dealer's license and drive up to New York and sell them in New York and then drive back and he'd been done it for a while eventually they caught him and he actually got into a shootout with the cops this is the guy that was I remember he and the cops were shooting at each other

and one cop he was actually chasing the cop around the car shooting at him and he said he finally got right on top of him and he pulled the gun and pulled the trigger and it went click click click and he was like damn almost had him and I thought Jesus fuck almost had him like it's that's just yeah anyway interesting guy And I remember him telling me, like, these are all like, like, to me, these are all like, this, this whole process of getting to the point where I get to Atlanta was like a process of a learning experience. It lowered my expectation.

It raised my awareness of how much, how dangerous the situation was, and how, you know, and how serious the situation was. but I had the one guy the guy who would chase the cop around the car I was just sitting there I remember sitting there thinking I can't do this and I remember he was what's up bro and I said man man I said I just I don't think I can do this and I remember he's the guy he looked at me and he said well that's a great thing about this you don't have to do it and I go what do you mean he goes you don't have to do it I said what prison? And he goes, yeah, he said, you don't have to do this. He said, they're going to make you do it. He goes, it's effortless on your part. You don't have to try and try and do the time. He said, you just, he said, just do what you're told and keep yourself entertained. He said, that's it.

He said, so you don't have to try. He said, so, you know, you don't have to worry about it. And I was just like, like, I didn't. I was like, what? I remember thinking that was a horrible thing to say. but the truth is he was absolutely right most of my time in prison was just trying to keep myself entertained

if they said it's chow you go to chow they said do this you do this you don't have to think about anything it really is one of those few times in your life like you're an adult but you're taking care of you know you're taking care of by really shitty people and you're not taking care of well but they're not going to let you die so I remember the second thing he told me was because I was like bro how because that that guy had actually

done like 10 years in the state or what had he done 10 years in the Fed and he was going to the state and he was doing he had a few more years left and he told me um he had told me that he said I know you you think this is like the worst because you're at the beginning he's like I'm at the end so it's good he's I'm over the hump once you're over the hump he said things get a lot easier he said uh he said but you don't believe this right now he said I'm going to tell you something You're not going to believe it. And it's funny because those, these guys that look like,

you know, they got tattoos on their face. They're missing. They've been shot three times. They, they, they were raised. They were all raised in,

like, the projects or, you know, trailer parks. And, and they, they just, like, they,

they, they, they, they're just, and a lot of them are just brutal thugs. And, and they're, you know, they have no manners. They don't say,

please, they don't say thank you. Like, they're just, they're just brutes. They have wisdom. and in this situation they excelled and so every once in a while one of these guys would say something to me

and I would just go wow like even if it didn't make sense right there right at that moment that's one of the things this guy said to me was he said you don't believe this right now Cox he said but you're going to meet some of the best people you've ever met in your life in federal prison he was in prison you're going to make better have better relationships in prison

He said, and you're going to meet a group of guys and surround yourself by a group of guys that are amazing. He goes, and there will be a time when you will be laughing your ass off and having a blast, and you will think there is nowhere I'd rather be right now. And I remember, I looked at my, I go, you're fucking crazy. That's never going to happen. And he goes, well, we'll see. I wish to God I had that guy's name so I could just write him a letter. and tell him he was right. He was right about five years later.

It took five years where I was playing risk with a bunch of guys at the low security prison, a bunch of guys that I just thought were great. And there was like four or five of us and we're playing the board game risk. We'd been playing for like four hours. And we used to play like every weekend.

And we're sitting there. There are guys at the prison that sell sodas, they sell coffee, they sell hot dogs, they sell food on the rec yard. So we're on the rec yard playing risks, sitting around the table. There's guys running around bringing us hot dogs. There's guys bringing us soda. Keep in mind, there's a thousand people on the wreckyard. It's like a carnival. Guys are screaming in the background.

Guys are playing music. They're bringing us cold sodas and we're drinking sodas and we're playing. We're eating popcorn and we're playing. We're eating hot dogs. and we're playing risk and we're screaming at each other like this guy's invading this guy's country and we're screaming like you that's bullshit we had an agreement we have a pact like we're yelling at each other and we're rolling dice and we're like one time and at one point I remember laughing so hard I couldn't breathe these guys were so funny and they were so cool and they were so great

and I had such great relationships with them and I remember thinking this is great this is amazing this I'm having a black this is a great time these are great guys and for just a second I thought there's nowhere else I'd want to be and I remember thinking about that guy

at Union City that told me that and thinking motherfucker that guy's right he's right some of the best relationships I've ever had I started in federal prison and it's because

typically after a while as you meet somebody you get to know them you realize what they're about and that you're all on equal footing and that they don't want anything from you you know you just end up being friends so you remove all those exterior factors that cause some friendships for the wrong reasons or put you together for the wrong reasons or the right reasons you remove those and you're just guys hanging out and you very quickly get to figure out who you like and who you don't. And I had a group of guys that I hung out with that were great. So back to Union City. I'm in Union City. My lawyer comes to see me one day. So my lawyer finally comes to see me. Her name is Millie. She was a public defender. And a lot of people will tell you like

public defenders suck. So here's the thing with public defenders. In the state, most state public offenders are pretty bad, right? Like, they're new. They don't really know what they're doing. They just want you to take a plea. They don't want to go to trial. In the federal system, it's actually the public defenders offices are actually private agencies that are funded by the federal government. And so they're given, you know, they get so much money for a case. If a case is a complicated case, they get so much more money. If a case goes to trial, they get more money. So they get certain amounts for different types of cases. And the complexity, of that case. So they're actually paid well. So the public defender's office gets paid a certain fund.

Most public defenders make between $80,000 to $100,000 a year, sometimes more, depending on how long they've been there. Well, so they're not bad attorneys. All right, $100,000 a year in Georgia is a good chunk of money. That's a lot of money. You can live very well in the South for $100,000 a year. This was, I'm sure it's much higher now. This was about what, 15, 16 years ago. So my lawyer shows up, Millie. She shows up. And she says, and she says, hi, my name's your lawyer. We meet. I get taken out of the unit. You go to a little lawyer's room. You meet with that person. I meet with her. She's very nice. And I remember she said, so you've got some problems. She said, they said you've stolen $26 million. I was like, that's a lie. First, she reads off my charges and they're outrageous. Like I had never heard my charge. by this point I've been indicted in multiple jurisdictions like now they like they've had time to rally the troops like the Secret Service and FBI and they they've all you know they've all figured out what we're going to do how we're going to hammer this guy what are we going to do they've consolidated the cases I've got a U.S. attorney I mean it's it's rough so they come out of

the gate and I'm just it's like money laundering conspiracy to launder money conspiracy for bank fraud bank fraud aggravated identity theft conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud, financial institution fraud, social security fraud, social security document fraud, U.S. document fraud, passport fraud, use of a fraudulent passport. I mean, listen, wire fraud, what else, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud. I mean, there's four or five other charges in there. Like, it's rough. And then the charges aren't even the real problem. Like, you can get charged for, like, let's say, half a million dollars in bank fraud and

not even have to go to prison. Just if that was your only charge, the problem is the enhancements. They start adding on enhancements. More than 50 victims. More than a million dollars from one financial institution. Obstruction of justice. Changing jurisdictions to evade detection. Sophisticated means.

Using a specialty device and further. of your crime, you know, on, you know, on and on and as she's adding it up, it's becoming insane. Her initial numbers were you're looking at 15, 15 to 16 years or something like that, I forget. And I was like, that's, that's insane. Like, I didn't kill anybody. I didn't harm anybody. I didn't even hurt anybody's feelings.

Like, I never used harsh language. Like, oh, what do you? this is this is nuts and i didn't steal 26 million dollars i don't have 26 million dollars and so she goes she she takes listens to everything i say she leaves she calls the u.s attorney she comes back and she says that you know the FBI saying it's whatever 11 and a half million dollars for this US attorney or secret services saying it's another three and a half million dollars or four and a half million dollars for that they're saying it's 40 million dollars for this it's like they start on my 40 million they're like yeah it's like 40 million for your finance your mortgage company

they want to hit you with money laundering for that like it gets it just becomes insane the amount of money of and then they they I argue about the 26 year a 26 million like by this point they the second time she came back she came back and she said they dropped it down to like I want to say 20 million or 22 million then she came back and they dropped it down to 15 million um I could get into the $40 million that my mortgage company did, but they pretty much dropped that almost immediately. That actually happens later. I don't want to get too technical, but they're too, you know, I don't want to too chronological. But the point is, is they dropped the $40 million.

So I'm down to $15 million. This takes months, by the way. So it's months. Millie's advice was you are 100% guilty. Like, there's no doubt about that. I remember you, it was funny. It's funny because I remember I had gone to, I'd gone to court at one point after I'd been in Union City for a week, about a week or so. I've been to court for a bond hearing, which is comical.

Because when I walk, when I go in and I meet with Millie, I'm like, what is this? What's going on? She says, this is your bond hearing? And I go, am I going to get bond? And she goes, no, you're not going to get bond? She's, but they have to have the hearing. And you have to think the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Secret Service, they actually have these huge boards, like these huge boards of my pictures of my face before I had plastic surgery and after I had plastic surgery. They have other pictures of my wanted posters.

They have pictures of me going in and out of the bank. They have multiple posters of all my different IDs, like they've got to have 20 IDs. and I'm looking at it not to mention the passports so I've had like two dozen passports so I looked at her and I said well by the way the courtroom is full

of reporters and I remember I looked at her and I went okay well I'm not going to get bond why am where are we here she said well we can wave it if you want and I went well if I can't get bond and she goes if they gave you bond what would you do I go I'd leave I'd run and she goes he started laughing I said I'm not going to lie

I said you let me out of this place you're never seeing me again. She just started laughing. She goes, okay. She said, well, look, they're not giving you bond anyway. She said, let's just waive it. So she, you know, they call the court. They do this.

The U.S. attorney goes on and on so that the reporters can see how, how doomed I am. She stands up and says, Your Honor, we just want to waive this. We're just going to wave it. So they wave it. Anyway, they end up, all right. So they end up waving, they end up waving. Oh, shit. Sorry.

They end up waving the, uh, the, uh, bond hearing. We wait the bond hearing. I leave. I go back. Millie keeps coming back and forth. We negotiate with the U.S. Attorney's Office. And her basically what she said was you're just doomed. Like, you know, you, you cannot go to trial because you're 100% guilty. There's nothing you can do. You're guilty. Okay, I get it. So you basically have no choice but to cooperate. And I was like, okay, she said, I said, I understand. I said, about, you know, who am I cooperating against? And she explains to me that basically, she said,

apparently she is, there's a ton of people in Tampa, Florida on your, not this, you know, there's multiple cases. She's not the Georgia case, but the Tampa case, and you have to understand, there's a Tampa case, there's an Orlando case, there's a case in Clearwater, there's a case in South Carolina, there's a case in Nashville, there's a case in Georgia. So she's like, you know, she says, so the one in Tampa, she goes, there's multiple people that are willing to cooperate against you. She said, they've investigated, they've talked to like, they've got like 12 people that are all ready to, to cooperate. She said, you can't go to trial because you're guilty and you'll get, you know, you'll get 100, you know, you'll get 30 years, easily get 30 years.

She said, and they can always, what they call stack. They can stack your charges. And you can, I think I could get up to, I think if they stacked all the charges, the press was saying it was 100. 54 years or something But she said I remember when she said this She goes She goes

I said they're saying 154 years She said I know But that's ridiculous She said something So that's not really how it works She says even if they stack The chargers

They can't stack the multiple charges She goes So the most you can get's 54 years For what? So She says but look It doesn't matter

She said the truth is She said most likely Most of those Would have been run concurrently So at the same time or sorry, consecutive, right? So they'd be run at the same time.

And as a result of that, she said, the most you can get is 30 years. 32 because of the aggravated identity theft. She said, most you can get 32 years if you lost at trial, most likely. And I was just like, okay, she said, the only thing you can do is cooperate. That's your only chance is to cooperate against people.

She said, a lot of these people in Tampa are saying, like they're saying you did this you did this but a lot of them are saying they did nothing she so those people who have already told on you she or cooperated against you she said they if you cooperate against them and implicate them she said then i can i can get you a what's called a a 5k1 so you get sentenced and you get a 5k1 and you get a reduction in your sentence and i was like okay well how much can i get she's well that's not really how it works the way it works is this you cooperate then when you go to then they give you your PSI your pre-sentence report which states hey this guy's looking at 15 years then you get in front of the judge and the judge says okay he's

going to get 15 years and the US attorney says yes your honor we're we're recommending he gets 15 years which is what the PSI says he should get a PSI is just it's a calculation of what you should get so of what your time you know based on the sentence and guidelines, you know, where you fall. So he should get 15 years. I'm using this as a hypothetical. He should get 15 years, but he cooperated. And as a result of his cooperation, we want you to reduce his sentence and then they make a suggestion, 40%, 50%. They typically don't do it by percentage. They typically do it by levels. Like, we want you to knock off four levels or six levels. And then as a result of that, your time obviously comes down. So if I already have gotten 15,

years and they recommended it of 5K1, I probably would have ended up with eight or nine years. So that's what Millie says. That's what you need to do. You need to cooperate. And I was like, okay. I mean, I don't know. Like everybody's already rolled over on me. You know, not that that matters.

Like, I don't want to say, oh, I only told on them because they told on me. Like, I'm ready to cut every single person's throat to get out of this situation. I'm ready to snitch, rat, cooperate, whatever you want to call on, on every single individual I can think of to get out of the situation. And it is an absolute cowardly thing to do and the brightest thing you can do in the situation. Like I'll deal with people giving me some shit to get a chunk of time knocked off. So, with that said, I say, absolutely, let's do it. What do they want to know?

And she said, well, here's what we're going to do. We'll tell them you're willing to cooperate. And then they'll probably want to talk with you. Okay. So she goes back to the U.S. attorney, explains the situation. And then it turns out that the FBI wants to come in and sit with me for four or five days. Well, I think we wanted three or four days. Three or four days with me.

The Secret Service wants to sit with me for two or three days. So I've got like a week that I need to meet with these people. So I agree at that point in the hope that I get my sentence cut. And they schedule a meeting with the Secret Service. And I go to meet the Secret Service and explain exactly what happened. By that point, by the way, by this point, I've been moved from Union City Detention Center, which is for the U.S. Marshals, and the U.S. Marshals have moved me to Atlanta City Detention Center

because the U.S. attorney also wanted me to be interviewed by Dateline NBC. So it's funny because when I got to the detention center, as soon as I got there, Dateline NBC ran a story on me called The Thief of Hearts. and the story was an interview and it was an interview and reenactments with Rebecca Halk because by this point Rebecca, you know, Rebecca, one of my co-defendants had been caught and she cooperated with the authorities and with Dateline

and they did an interview and it just paints me as this guy that is like this, I'm like a Don Juan, I go in, I swoop women off their feet, I convinced them to fall in love with me. Oh yeah, yeah, I forgot. Single mothers. they have this thing about single mothers at that time in the press single mothers was a big deal like it was trending so they were like he's taking advantage of he's he targets single mothers he convinces them to fall in love with him he convinces them to commit fraud for them

and then he takes all the money and he leaves them to go to prison that was the whole take it was called the thief of hearts and i come off like a real scoundrel i've been And as if I don't come off like a scoundrel already, this put the final nail in the coffin. So, yeah, so I've got the U.S. attorney, I got the FBI, U.S. attorney, Secret Service, and Dateline. They all want to interview me at this point. And my lawyer, Millie, starts scheduling, you know, closing, or closings, scheduling meetings. And it's so funny, because I'll never forget when I was like, well, what's my strategy? Before I decided, like, to cooperate, I go, what's my strategy?

is your strategy, your only strategy, is tell them everything they want to know and hope for the best. She goes, that's your only strategy. Like, she was very clear. But, you know, in her defense, like she didn't mount like a defense for me, because in her defense, I was defenseless. Like, I completely buried myself. There was nothing I could do, but cooperate or take what she was saying was 15 years. Ultimately, it was 32 years. Like, you know, She thought, oh, you're looking at around 15 because she doesn't know what they're asking for. But the truth is, they asked for 32 years. And I'll explain that in the next video.

So basically, I'm now supposed to go to meet with the secret, I think it was the Secret Service first. And I'll tell you all about that. That's a hilarious. So at this point, this whole video thus far has been completely depressing. But the next video is actually going to be funny because that's when I'm talking with the Secret service, the FBI. I meet the FBI agent that I called while I was on the run and mocked. Bad idea. Bad idea. So all of these, all of this kind of starts to come to ahead and you'll see how I end up getting a 26 years. And yeah, it's a, the next videos should be fucking hilarious.

That's it. I appreciate it. And check out the next video and I'll see you.