Arrested on January 12, 1979, and not released from prison until November 19, 2014 (a continuous term of 35 years, 10 months, and 7 days; from the age of 18, to the age of 54), I was confined in a cage.

     Sometimes I was held in a cage, within a cage, within a cage. All were cages I certainly and seriously deserved...

     God's Grace and Mercy, however, are sufficient for anyone and everyone who will simply embrace the Way, the Truth, & the Life: Jesus Christ.

     I was indicted for Capital Murder in January of 1979 (causing the death of an individual during the course of a robbery), and the State of Texas filed notice of its intent to seek the death penalty.

     I was guilty as charged.

     After six months of preparing for a capital murder jury trial, I entered a plea-agreement to avoid the death sentence. I pled guilty to the lesser-included offense of murder, at a bench trial before a Judge.

     I did this to avoid being executed by lethal injection. Instead of the death sentence, I was given a life sentence –– with parole release possibilities after serving a mandatory 20 calendar years to reach initial parole eligibility.

     Having turned 19 in the county jail, I entered prison without much in the way of education. Though I quit school as a junior in high school, I was a terrible student, with an extremely erratic and short attention span.

     Additionally, in the year prior to committing the crime, I had a major car wreck, in which my skull was broken into four large pieces and shoved downward upon the brain.

     Consequently, I entered prison dumb as a rock, brain damaged, and filled with rage... We fear things (and people) we cannot understand and fear is the very root of anger and rage...