The Lies That Confine by John Reeves (the reading list .TXT) 📖

but, still I missed her so bad it hurt deep inside my heart. Since Talia was killed in the accident, I was Cassie's whole world. Being left to defend myself in a situation where I did nothing wrong was tough. With all the time I had to think about it, there was still no putting the pieces together. I had started to believe Chris had gotten into something dangerous. Behind my back using me somehow, and using my bank account somehow, putting me in a no win situation with him being dead. I also knew with me being charged with two murders, that someone had got away with two murders. Mr. Williams always made me feel better after our meetings but, then I was back in the cell thinking of the grim set of circumstances.

In a pretrial hearing I was offered a thirty year plea bargain, while facing a life sentence. Mr. Williams asked if I needed time to think it over and, I said No. There wasn't a chance I was going to accept that when I did nothing wrong. It might not have been a life sentence, but for me it was. I wouldn't see Cassie grow up and, she'd have been thirty when I got out.

"Hell No! Mr. Williams, I am innocent."

He looked at me as if I had passed up the best deal I was going to get. Suddenly I felt my world seem to crumble. I knew right then Mr. Williams didn't like our chances of winning.

"No your honor, we do not accept the plea offer."

As Mr. Williams said those words a chill ran down my spine. The overwhelming feeling of being alone consumed me right then and there. The trial date was set as the D.A said that was the best offer they were willing to give me.

"Johnny, the ballistic test results came back conclusive to your handgun. The evidence they have is damning to our case. Thirty years was the best offer we were getting with the mountain of evidence they have."

I explained to Mr. Williams there was no way it had been my gun. Still at that point the truth setting you free stuff was how I thought. He said he admired my strength in the situation, indicating to me he also believed my innocence. Either way I incarcerated for two murders I didn't commit. Wondering if the jury would buy the simplicity of the truth. Knowing the strength of the evidence whether it was legit or not had me concerned. Laying in my bunk I often thought about how I might never see my daughter again, and how the reasons behind that were so unclear. Somewhere there was some kind of involuntary connection I couldn't put together. Just taking that money seemed to be it, yet somehow it seemed much larger than that. What was riding on it was much, much larger, my life with my daughter.

My trial went on for four days before the jury came back with a guilty verdict for murder in the first degree. I honestly thought Mr. Williams did a great job of painting the picture that proved my innocents but, the jury failed to see the truth in the whole thing. Instead the believed the more flamboyant lawyer for the state. I sat there thinking they'd see through his act, somehow that never happened. Instead they seemed to buy into it big time.

"Johnny couldn't be happy with a portion of the money, he was greedy. That greed ladies and gentleman lead to murder...Cold blooded murder."

Peterson put on a show Perry Mason could have appreciated. The jury deliberated for about two hours before the guilty verdict was handed down. The fabricated facts presented by Peterson made me look like a killer, he was so convincing he could have convicted the pope. My own mother might have even thought I was guilty. The problem was the whole prosecutor's argument was built of lies. The gun shown in court wasn't mine. I wondered who switched the handgun, because it was eerily similar to the one I owned. When asked in questioning if I'd ever seen that gun before I responded, NO. However pictures of the pistol were taken inside my apartment that showed the weapon in there. It didn't take long for me to realize the specious evidence was going to imprison me for the rest of my life. Depriving me of moments I didn't deserve to lose.

Two weeks later I was sentenced to two life sentences to run concurrent with each other. I know Mr. Williams knew an innocent man was going to prison but, that meant very little to me knowing what was to come. I filed for an appeal, still I knew deep down inside it wasn't going to do any good. They had me right where the state wanted me. My testimony was deemed a fallacy. They took various portions of my life distorting them to the jury, in an attempt to incarcerate me for the rest of my life. I was advised to not take the stand in my own defense. He informed me they'd ask questions that otherwise wouldn't be asked. The kind of questions we had simulated in conversation and never found the appropriate answer for. After being convicted something changed inside of me. The innocents will set you free garbage was history in my mind.

The morning I was taken out to a bus headed for Stone Mountain Penitentiary my life was going to change as much as my feelings had. The maximum security prison had a reputation as being one of the worst in the entire country. There were executions held there still using the electric chair. If I was suppose to be thankful I wasn't sentenced to death I wasn't. Spending the rest of my life behind the walls of Stone Mountain might as well have been a death sentence. Something had died inside me knowing I'd been convicted to a life sentence for two crimes I took no part in. The fact was I still didn't really understand how I was implicated to begin with.

The cement walls and iron bars had held many convicts before me but, I wondered how many of those men were innocent like I was. The warm days of summer had given way to the cold rains. My hour a day out in the prison yard was not pleasurable anymore. The winter moving in meant Christmas was on the way and, it would be the first Christmas of many taken away from me with my daughter. Sometimes when the warm sun hit my face, I'd wonder if the same sun was on my little girls face. When they bring my food that wasn't fit to eat, I'd think of the last meal Cassie and I had.

Alexander approached me during the hour of outside time for over a week. I knew who he was from back home but, I didn't really know him. However he knew things that I didn't even know. Chris had been using peoples bank accounts to launder money. He had given me ten thousand dollars of blood, drug, or basically dirty money. I wasn't locked away for receiving the money, I was in jail for murder. Chris had been stealing from the various gang members accounts for awhile, he just hadn't exposed the money for almost a year.

"Brooklyn Chris had this chick that worked at the bank. When he figured out he could manipulate bank accounts he started moving money around he knew was dirty money."

Chris turned out to be a modern day Robin Hood, yet how did I become so entangled in the scam? Alexander would gradually explain the twisted details over the course of the next week.

"Brooklyn Chris was messing around with your girl, I hate being the one to tell you this shit. He thought the baby might be his. Before your girl died he got her account number so he could take care of her. When she died, he saw how much the little girl meant to you, and he wanted you to have some of the money to help you get by."

Anger penetrated my inner soul, having been deceived by those I thought I could trust. I believed everything Alexander had told me. The detailed facts proved he knew what happened. I never thought for even a second that Cassie wasn't my daughter, the bond we had was that of a father and daughter. Still the pain of the lies was more than I could stand.

"They found out Chris had swindled their money. There was a hit put out on him. Chris switched cars to try hiding from them but, It must have not worked out well."

"How did you know Chris?"

"I had known him for a while before he began buying cocaine from me. After that I began seeing him a whole lot more."

The more enlightened I became as to what really did happen, the more I thought of plenty of justifiable reasons I could have ended up there. I probably would have killed Chris for real had I known what I had learned. There is that chance I might have been guilty of murder had I known but, the facts were I didn't know. The police didn't thin I knew either. The basis of me being imprisoned was purely falsified and, not even close to the truth. I was more of a victim than I'd first had thought I was.

For two weeks in a row, there was no sign of Alexander. I asked a guard where he was, then found out he'd been killed by another inmate. The guards found him dead and violently sodomized. Several of the others held him down taking turns raping the prison snitch. He'd been valuable to me with everything he knew. Yet to others he'd been a problem, getting time added to their sentence. His benefits went beyond what others were getting, his books always had money on them and he always had cigarettes to smoke on. I sent a letter out to my lawyer, when the reply came it wasn't from Mr. Williams. He had died of a massive heart attack sitting at his desk in the office.

Everyday seemed like the one before it. Time was exactly what I was doing. On the outside my little girl was starting her first year of school. I could imagine her with the fat crayons coloring a picture, trying hard to keep it between the lines. Some of those same lines can become harder to stay within later in life. Worst of all I'd never be there to assist her through the rougher times. I knew my cousin was taking good care of her but, the fact that I missed her badly wasn't eased at all by knowing that. I knew if she raised my daughter with the same morals she lived by Cassie would be fine.

In the winter the cell was cold and, in the summer the heat could kill a man. The food was horrible, rotten, garbage no human criminal or not should have to eat. I would hold the pictures of my daughter close to heart, knowing she'd changed so much from picture to picture. It really made me miss her for knowing how much I was not there for her.. The time got worse for me when a guard pushed me in the back. I turned around shoving him to the floor. The guards came from every direction hitting me with nightsticks and shields. I was on the floor while the stomped me to set