In yesterday's post, I went into detail about how a boy named Shad, whom I had known since the 5th grade, wound up getting involved in an armed robbery and murder when he was 16 years old. Today, I'm going to focus on what happened after he went to prison.
One thing I didn't mention yesterday was how brutal the incident was. The restaurant owner was shot five times when he was killed. The wife suffered from four gunshot wounds. So, this was not a case of "Oops! My gun accidentally went off!" or "I fired a warning shot and it hit you!" What happened next shouldn't come as a surprise.
I would imagine that Shad was counting down the days until he hit the 15-year mark and he would get released. During this time, there were reportedly several incidents of him getting his hands on drugs and getting high in prison. Around the 13-year mark, he may have realized that he wasn't going to be released after all. He filed a motion claiming that his public defender didn't properly explain the consequences of the sentencing and that he wouldn't have agreed to the plea bargain if he'd understood that he wouldn't actually get out in 15 years. There was a transcript of Shad's appearance during the plea, in which the judge at the time asked him if he understood that the 15-year release was no guarantee. Shad appeared to agree with everything during the proceeding. The motion was denied.
(And I would imagine that the public defender really didn't want to represent Shad at trial, considering the nature of the crime. The public defender was just doing what could be done to avoid the death penalty and probably misconstrued the truth about early release in order to get Shad to accept the plea agreement.)
After this point, Shad became more of a model prisoner and took measures to improve himself by taking courses and helping other inmates. After he had served 30 years, he was eligible for parole. But he was denied. The surviving wife testified to the parole board. (And I should mention that #2 was also eligible for parole at the same time.) I saw an article in which the wife stated she would show up and speak to the parole board every time the two of them were up for consideration. Parole was denied four more times over the course of the next few years.
The ACLU got involved in Shad's case to work toward keeping offenders under 18 from getting life in prison. I couldn't confirm this, but it would appear that the wife passed away before Shad's sixth parole hearing took place. Parole was approved for Shad and #2. Shad had spent 40 years in prison up to this point and was released.
In an interview following his release, Shad complained about the attitude of the parole board during the earlier proceedings and that they just weren't paying attention to him while he was making his case. Did anyone explain to him that the wife testified? Was the board not supposed to take her pain and suffering into account when considering parole for Shad?
That's the real issue. In everything I read and watched about Shad's case, I don't see him taking responsibility for what happened or showing any regret over his past. He just appears to blame peer pressure for his situation. You'd think after 40 years, he'd say something like, "I'm sorry for what I did. That was a big mistake and I should have known better. I blame myself."
Another thing came up during Shad's release. He claims to have moved around and gone to 12 different schools in the five years after he turned 10. So, four of those would have been Central Elementary, Zia Intermediate, Park Junior High and Artesia High School. But I don't know what the other eight schools would have been. Like I said yesterday, I wasn't aware of there being a time in which he wasn't in school in Artesia. But I wasn't tracking his attendance every day. And his father's obituary seems to indicate that he never left Artesia after moving there. Unless Shad was constantly being passed around to different relatives during this time, I don't see how he could have possibly been enrolled in that many schools.
Now, Shad's path to freedom doesn't end here. About six months after being on the outside, Shad became friends with a 19-year-old woman. The nature of the friendship isn't clear, but he was with her when she was arrested for armed robbery. Since Shad was not supposed to associate with criminals, he was also arrested for a parole violation.
Shad was supposedly not aware the woman had been involved in an armed robbery. Shad was denied representation and there was no appeals process for parole violation arrests. He wound up going back to prison (the same prison he had been released from) and was there for at least six months. The ACLU was able to step in and help, but there were a lot of roadblocks to getting him released.
(And it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the only reason the woman became friends with him was that she was planning to blame the robbery on him. I'll bet she actually attempted this and investigators probably laughed in her face.)
It looks like Shad eventually settled into a normal life. I see he had set up Facebook and Instagram accounts. (And #2 is one of his friends.)
And I recently saw online that people in the community where the murder took place still talk about it 40 years later. It had that kind of impact.
I was kind of worried that Shad would try to reach out to me to make amends (like you're required to do in a 12-step program). I was more concerned about having to pretend I didn't know he was in prison for 40 years. But I came to realize that Shad was likely the kind of person who would not make amends.
I seriously doubt I will ever hear from him.
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