Skid Row Marathon

Calling the matter belonging to Eduardo Moreno

and Francisco de Amil. BA 397612.

Calling matters belonging to Carvell Jackson.

Open matter BA406128.

Calling the matter belonging to Devon Williams,

YA073193.

And here we have a situation

where three young men acquire weapons

and a shooting took place.

The fact that Mr. Williams possessed one of those weapons

during the course of the altercation with the police,

requires the court impose 25 years to life.

With respect to count two,

the court will impose 15 years to life.

I am mindful that the gang allegation

was found true by the jury.

The total state prison commitment for Mr. Williams

is 71 years, four months, to life.

Thank you.

Sentencing people regularly to life sentences,

you'd have to be less than human not to...

be weighed down by the reality of,

of what you're doing,

of what you're committing another human being to.

- Hey! - Oh, oh, oh.

Hey!

Running a marathon?

All right, sweetie.

What'd I tell you? Look.

Move it!

When I came to the mission,

I was just at my lowest point.

Hmm.

Worn out, miserable.

Just gave up on everything, you know.

Well, this is what I used to call home.

I slept up under here for maybe two years.

Climbing up into this little cubby hole,

rats, pigeons and all.

And that's what the drugs and alcohol will do to you.

It will tell you that it's fine

to live in the... something like this.

Climbing in and out of a hole

on a regular basis, like, it's perfectly normal.

I went to prison in 2005.

After I got out of prison,

I still was messing around, dabbling in drugs.

One day, I just woke up and said,

um, "You know I'm tired of just doing this to myself."

You know? I knew that I needed help.

- Good morning. -Well, good morning.

-How are you? -Good.

Something got you out of bed early.

Yeah.

David was one of the first members

of the running club.

The first day I went out with them,

I knew I had found another passion.

And that was running.

You just have to discipline yourself.

And that's something

I haven't had much of all my life.

Like I said, I was just running wild

and you don't plan, you know?

You just seem to wander

and you sometimes go astray.

I ended up sentencing one of the defendants

who came before me to state prison.

After that individual was released from state prison,

he shows up to court one day.

"Judge Mitchell, do you remember me?"

And "Yes, I do remember you."

"Well, I was paroled to the Midnight Mission,

I'm getting my life together

and I would really like you to come down

and meet some of the people

that I am spending every waking hour with

trying to deal with my addiction issues,

trying to get on the right track."

And so I said, "Sure, I'll come down."

And at some point, the conversation turned to

"Well, is there any way that you can think of

that you could contribute to our program?"

I started out with just a few runners

a few mornings a week.

And they learned very quickly

that you do not run a full marathon

without a lot of training.

I came in the mission 300 pounds.

And Judge Mitchell came in, "I'm starting a running club."

I couldn't waddle down the street.

I'd waddle down the street, and it's "Oh, god I'm dying."

And I waddled a little further everyday

and I just kept on doing that.

No matter how bad your head's going

or what's going on, show up. Things'll happen.

You think you've got it hard? Show up. Things'll happen.

Where's Ben?

Ben is...

He can't run, his stomach.

Do you know... I mean, is it a stitch

or is it just upset stomach?

-I think it's an upset stomach. -Okay, good, good. Okay.

He felt like vomiting.

I said, you know what you got to do, right?

-Find a spot and just do it. - Right.

This thing right here is my red ball of anger.

With a gun in his mouth, blowing his head off.

'Cause at that time, I wish I could've done that.

I came into Los Angeles right before the summer of 1990.

Uh, I came out here to, to make it,

you know, quote-unquote, to make it big.

♪ I don't need My head kicked in ♪

♪ And I don't need ♪

I'm in a signed band

working with this monster producer.

I got to meet all my heroes.

♪ And I don't need Your hand of god ♪

It was everything that I wanted, and I'm not happy.

Just somewhere down the line,

my drinking started taking me into alcoholic DTs,

I would end up in hospitals.

And then, I got in a three-car accident.

On the way to a liquor store,

totaled three cars, I got arrested.

I got out of jail,

and then I just drank as much as I could, hoping to die.

It was horrible to go through. And I had no options left

and it was just, I'm down on Skid Row.

You know, "I'm better than this."

And "No, no, no I'm not, I'm not better than that at all."

And that's where I wound up, Skid Row.

And I lost everything when I went down there.

I'm doing well in school, and I get it.

I get all the theory stuff.

I'm one of those guys now that gets it.

And I work my butt off at it.

But now, I can see myself going for a BA in Music.

-I want to write for film. -

First, I've got to finish this semester.

Only live one day at a time.

But if you asked me, "What's your dream?"

Well, today, that's my dream.

Sorry about that.

Are you guys getting good grades?

Yeah?

I'm going to college right now, right?

I should have been going to college

when I was 20 years old.

And then when I went to prison,

then I thought about it and I said,

"Why did I do this shit that I used to do?"

Guess how much time I did in prison?

Take a guess, man.

- Twenty years? -Twenty years? No. Take a guess.

- Fifteen? -Fifteen? Nah.

- Too low? -High.

Thirty.

No, almost 29.

Twenty-eight years, nine months, 17 days.

This is the border line right here, the two gangs.

This street right here, Rosecrans, is the border line.

I would come this way.

It was like 7:30,

there were still people out on the street right here

walking around, kids,

families.

I came all the way right here.

I could see two guys coming out on a bicycle, wearing t-shirts.

And I was just right here,

in between the street right here,

and I just dropped my window...

and then, I said, "What gang are you guys from?"

I didn't even say it like that.

I just said "Where are you from?"

Which means, "What gang are you from?"

I had a weapon and, um, I started shooting at them.

They started tryin' to go fast...

and, um, I seen them both fall right there in the driveway.

And when they both fell, I, I knew I'd hit them.

I tell you, everybody that takes a life,

when you get busted,

you wish you could go back and turn everything around.

When I was going to the parole board,

I would tell them, "I'm not the guy that, um...

that did this."

The guy that did this is long gone.

As a Deputy District Attorney,

I would periodically go to the state prisons

to represent the interests of the people

of the state of California,

when these individuals would come up for parole.

Rafael Cabrera walked into the room

and I listened to him talk and explain what he had done.

I was the first person to say...

"I'm not opposing parole."

And it took probably five or so years