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Short filmTranscript
00:00Before the love, and the heartbreak, this is the story of our lives before lockup.
00:24I ran away when I was 12 years old.
00:26I never in a million years thought that I would end up facing over 20 years in prison
00:30for attempted murder.
00:31The stories came when I started burglarizing houses.
00:34Getting caught stealing only made me better at stealing.
00:37All of a sudden we heard boom, boom, boom.
00:39FBI.
00:40FBI.
00:41All units respond.
00:42I remember them putting me in the back of the ambulance, and I'm asking, like, I'm
00:47finna die.
00:48It's gonna catch up to you eventually.
00:50There's blood everywhere, like all over the wall, like all over the ground.
00:55My name is Coraline Adams.
00:56My name is Brittany Santiago.
00:58And this is my crime story.
01:00And this is my crime story.
01:10Brittany, master interview.
01:11Take one.
01:12Soft sticks.
01:19Okay.
01:20Originally, I was born in Fresno, California.
01:25However, I moved to Alaska with my family when I was three months old.
01:30During my time in Alaska, it was me and my four other sisters.
01:34My older sister, Sarah, and my three younger sisters, Nicole, Alex, and Kayla.
01:40I was taken away from my biological father when I was very young.
01:43My mother said that she didn't see him fit to be a parent.
01:49Life with her was hard.
01:51My mom and my stepfather were drinking all the time.
01:53They never had any money.
01:54They started doing drugs.
01:56We lost our place.
01:57And eventually, my stepfather was like, okay, it's time for us to leave Alaska.
02:05We hopped on an airplane, and the next thing I know, the next day, we were in Las Vegas.
02:09My stepfather put us in a hotel on Fremont.
02:12My parents were suffering from addiction and alcoholism, so by the time I was 12 years
02:16old, I was taking care of all of my sisters.
02:20My parents' addiction was at their lowest, but they started stealing from their children.
02:24I remember a time where they had taken my coin collection to the bar to get drinks.
02:30Baby, you remember what I told you?
02:32Yeah, I did.
02:33I remember when you came home that it was gone.
02:35Yeah.
02:36It was the first time I truly felt hopeless, and so eventually, I just ran away.
02:42Hi!
02:43Oh, hey!
02:44Hi!
02:45Hi!
02:46Hi!
02:47My sister Kayla doesn't know how bad I had it when I was on the streets.
02:51This is Fremont.
02:54Drug addicts, drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, and I ended up, like, on these streets.
03:03I remember her being there one day, and then all of a sudden, she was gone, and nobody
03:07would tell me why.
03:09You were gone for a while, and I was confused, and I was like, oh, Brittany left.
03:12Brittany abandoned me.
03:13She didn't care about me and Nikki and Alex, you know?
03:16Like, she didn't care about her little sisters.
03:18My mindset was like, I feel unwanted, I feel unloved, and I feel like if I leave, no one's
03:24gonna notice that I'm gone.
03:26Yeah.
03:27The night that I ran away, I met this girl.
03:30She was, like, 18 years old.
03:31She was like, hey, what's up?
03:32Yeah.
03:33You know?
03:34She was cool.
03:35And then we went over there, that liquor store right there, and she got some liquor, and
03:41we started drinking.
03:43I ended up going back to her place, slept, and when I woke up, I told her, I'm only 12.
03:48I want to go back home.
03:49I just cried and cried and cried, and so she had a meth pipe with her, and she said, if
03:56you want to feel better, like, this is, this is what you're gonna do.
04:00You know, I put my lips to the pipe, and she lit the bowl, and I took my first hit of meth
04:04at 12 years old.
04:06You know, a lot of times when we'd come across kids becoming involved in narcotics activity
04:18is because they generally had a bad home life, and so they just had to get away from that.
04:23The problem was, going out on the streets is worse.
04:26In the beginning, I was like, let me just smoke this, because, like, I miss my family
04:29and I don't know what to do.
04:30And then when my body became dependent upon the drug, it changed.
04:36I ended up living on the streets in Las Vegas, and that's when I met Chalongo.
04:49Chalongo was a very big, big dealer, and he took me straight over to his trap house.
04:58When someone that young gets to the point where they're seeking solace and friendship
05:03in people that are not offering that, and then the next thing you know, they're playing,
05:09you partaking in whatever kind of criminal activity that is associated with this group
05:13of people.
05:16Chalongo taught me how to cook up crack.
05:19He taught me how to bag drugs, and that's what I did for a really long time.
05:23I sold drugs.
05:24Wherever he told me to go, I went.
05:25If I was walking, I'd have the rocks under my tongue, because you have to swallow that
05:28s**t to get pulled over.
05:29And I'd be walking like this down the street, serving, boop, boop, boop.
05:36It was wild.
05:37Like, this is where everything happened.
05:38I can't see 12-year-old Brittany doing that.
05:41A 12-year-old little girl.
05:43A lot happened from 12 to 18.
05:45My brain was operating on a different level.
05:50I didn't want to do bad things, but at the same time, I was going to do anything it took
05:55to get high.
05:58I would panhandle.
06:00I would do the whole, like, stealing stuff from the store and returning it for gift cards.
06:05And ultimately, like, after a while, like, I started stealing stuff from people, like,
06:10on the streets.
06:12Las Vegas is the entertainment mecca of the world.
06:15Everybody comes to kind of let their hair down and have a good time.
06:18But when people are letting their hair down, they're letting their guard down.
06:26So, um, after time went on, like, I remember, like, Chilango started withholding dope from
06:30me.
06:31That was too high, so he tried to hold back drugs.
06:35If you want to hold back my drugs that I'm addicted to, now I'm going to have a problem.
06:39Yeah.
06:40You know what I mean?
06:43So one night, I was talking to this girl that was at the house, and I was telling her, like,
06:47I was kind of sick of Chilango's s**t.
06:49And she agreed with me, and I was like, you know what?
06:51We should just take all the s**t.
06:54Then I went over here to one of these hotels, and I paid one of the managers in dope for
06:59a room.
07:00Over here?
07:01They let you pay?
07:02In dope.
07:03And it wasn't until, um, one of Chilango's customers recognized me and had called Chilango
07:10and said, oh, since they're already here right now, um, can you just have them give me a
07:15sack?
07:16Like, are they, do they have any weight on them?
07:17Like, um, and, and Chilango was kind of like, where are they?
07:22And so he found us.
07:25I just remember them, like, storming up on us and just, crap, knocked me on the ground
07:30and took us back to the house.
07:31He said, tomorrow you go back to work.
07:34And I said, okay.
07:36And I went to my room and I waited, and then I climbed out the window and I dipped out.
07:42I ran right back to Fremont Street, because it's familiar, you know?
07:47Out and about, running the streets.
07:49That's when I met Jeremy.
07:53I was 12 years old and he was 29, almost 30.
07:57When I knew his age, I remember feeling, like, safe.
07:59It's kind of sick, huh?
08:03I just really wanted to, like, kind of show you and, wow, this is it.
08:09I was with Jeremy for about four years.
08:11So Jeremy, um, was the security of the hotel.
08:15He got a free room there.
08:20It was, like, not even a week after I had been here.
08:23One night he just asked if I trusted him, and I said, yeah.
08:27And, like, he ended up, like, taking my virginity from me that night.
08:33Did you, at the time, realize that you were, like, essentially kidnapped and stuck here
08:40and that you were being kidnapped?
08:41Well, at that time, like, no, because, like, I thought that he loved me.
08:46Everybody, like, is always, like, oh, well, she should have known, and why didn't she
08:49just run away?
08:50It doesn't work like that, you know what I'm saying?
08:52Once you're trapped and you're in it, you're in it.
08:54And one day, like, we were, like, laying here, like, resting, sleeping, and, um, all of a
09:00sudden we heard, boom, boom, boom, and it was banging on the door, and, uh, we could
09:04hear, like, FBI, open the door, and there was...
09:07FBI?
09:08Yes.
09:09I was, like, oh, f***, I freaked out.
09:17Every day this week, you might hit a house, might hit two in one day, might hit you and
09:23your neighbor.
09:24This the house I made myself the kick-in king.
09:27I just hear it loud, boom, sound like a shotgun.
09:30Thought I was gonna die.
09:31I blame my dad, I blame my mom.
09:33F***, I hate you all.
09:35They, like, ripped my heart out of my chest.
09:38I thought stealing would probably have me on, like, probation or something eventually,
09:42or something like that, but I didn't think it would cost 12 years of my life.
09:49I was born in Kansas City, Kansas.
09:53When I was growing up, Kansas was off the chain, man.
09:56There was a lot of drug activity, a lot of gang activity.
09:59Because of that, my mom wouldn't let me go to school.
10:02Hey, man, there was a lot of drug activity, a lot of gang activity.
10:05Because of that, my mom wouldn't let me go to certain places.
10:09My mom was strict probably because I was the only boy and she was trying to raise me to
10:13be in the man of the house, so she kept her foot on my neck.
10:17I have three sisters and I'm the second to the oldest.
10:19I have an older sister.
10:21My cute baby.
10:22Ain't no baby no more.
10:24I'm just ecstatic and happy to have all my children at the same table at the same time.
10:30Growing up with all girls, you know, it was challenging.
10:32There's a lot of emotions going on in the house.
10:35So I got to be trying to deal with the fellas pretty much routine.
10:39Now we're walking up to it, right? Look.
10:41Hell yeah.
10:42The house I was forbidden at.
10:47Let's go out here and see if you remember anything, man.
10:52Derek, that's my best friend.
10:53He's been in the picture since I was 9.
10:55I'm 33 now, so he's somebody that's been around the whole time.
10:59Nah, it was lit when we last talked.
11:01He's walked through these doors again.
11:03Man, chilling.
11:05Yeah, we used to skip school here.
11:08We knew the times to come here.
11:09And then when my mom worked the basement, we used to shoot dice.
11:13Hot our candy down there.
11:15Stuff like that.
11:16Look, remember the living room, boy?
11:21Man, it looks so small.
11:24Yeah.
11:25I was raised in the struggle.
11:27We had things, but it was very limited.
11:29My mom, she worked two, three jobs at a time.
11:32So, you know, she was gone most of the time.
11:34My father was never a part of my life.
11:36I think the story I got was he went to the stove, never came back.
11:40So, you know, not having your father there and you a boy,
11:43he done something to you, you know what I mean?
11:45So you're searching for something.
11:47You don't know what you're searching for.
11:48But you know there's something missing.
11:49You're trying to fill a void.
11:52If you don't have somebody training you up,
11:54if all you're seeing is the TV, listening to the radio,
11:57hanging out with your friends, that they don't have nobody at home.
12:01If my mom's working 24-7, my father's not in my life.
12:05Who is mentoring me?
12:07The streets.
12:09When I was a kid, eight years old, and I'm getting in trouble
12:12and I was venturing off into the streets and I was making bad decisions.
12:16All that stemmed from me being hungry, my sisters being hungry,
12:20me needing shoes, my sister needing shoes.
12:23Man, that's all I used to do, come in the house like,
12:25what you got to eat in there?
12:27You know what you got to eat?
12:29Like, I didn't wake up like, let me go do some bad sh**.
12:32You know what I'm saying?
12:33I woke up to my sister crying because she ain't ate nothing since yesterday
12:36and it's a whole nother day.
12:38I go to the stove, you know what I'm saying?
12:40Bring some snacks and sh** back.
12:42I was like nine.
12:44I was stealing real bad.
12:46Started off stealing snacks and candy.
12:48Like, we had a candy store behind our house,
12:51so I used to hit they ass all the time.
12:53And then one day I ended up getting caught.
12:57And then my mom had to come up there and, you know,
12:59you're sitting in that little room and sh**,
13:01and she come in there and get you out that little room.
13:03You leave with a court date and, you know,
13:05that's probably the first time I got in trouble.
13:10Getting caught stealing for the first time only made me better at stealing.
13:15I still got to write these six, seven bars.
13:18Man.
13:19Still writing on paper, huh?
13:21Got to.
13:22Then I memorize it.
13:25I'm getting older now.
13:26Yeah, I'm probably like 12, 13 at the time.
13:30Where we start stealing, like,
13:32the whole carts of groceries or outfits and shoes and stuff now
13:36because we're teenagers now.
13:38So our appearance matters now.
13:39You know what I mean?
13:40We're going to middle school, high school and things like that now.
13:42So my shoes are dirty as sh**.
13:44Kids going to laugh at me in school, so let me steal some shoes.
13:48Stealing is not going to get me no money.
13:50I need some money now.
13:51I'm getting older.
13:52You know what I'm saying?
13:53So how am I going to get this money now?
13:56I was 13 when I started burglarizing houses.
13:59We was creeping in these houses.
14:01We was getting and finding valuables.
14:03Diamonds, rings, watches, appliances,
14:07flat screen TVs, guns, money.
14:10We looking for anything of value.
14:13I never thought I'd go from stealing candy
14:15to sitting in a cell for 12 years.
14:25I was like, oh my God, what are we going to do?
14:26He's like, go flush your dope, go flush your dope.
14:28I can't do this again. I can't do this again.
14:30Next thing you know, boom, they got you.
14:32I just hear a loud boom.
14:34Sound like a shotgun.
14:35They're like, damn, bro, you bleed.
14:37I messed up pretty bad.
14:43When I was 12 years old,
14:44I ended up meeting a guy named Jeremy
14:46and I lived with him in a motel in Las Vegas.
14:49This is the room where I met Jeremy,
14:52sexually abused, and where I sold drugs out the window.
14:57This is it right here.
14:58Everything happened.
15:01One day we were laying here.
15:02All of a sudden we heard boom, boom, boom.
15:05There was banging on the door.
15:06And we could hear FBI, open the door.
15:09FBI?
15:10Yes.
15:11I freaked out and I started crying.
15:13And Jeremy was like, go dump the dope, dump the dope.
15:17I woke up, I was like, oh my God, what are we going to do?
15:19He's like, go flush your dope, go flush your dope.
15:21And I was on the floor and I was dumping all the dope.
15:26They kind of busted the door.
15:28And they dragged him out.
15:30He was in handcuffs
15:32and they were asking me all these questions
15:34and they asked me what my name was.
15:35And I said, my name is Brittany Dodd.
15:37And they were like, what is your name?
15:40Because they were under the assumption
15:41that I was clearly somebody else that I was not.
15:44And I guess like what happened was
15:46like there was this missing girl from Florida.
15:48The FBI was like looking for her
15:50and somebody at the hotel, they thought that I was her.
15:55So what happened after that?
15:56What happened after?
15:57They took me to this place
15:59for like abandoned children or runaway teens.
16:02As soon as the cop left, I like ran.
16:05I ran, I climbed the gate.
16:07I just wanted to go back to him.
16:08I felt like they were putting me in jail.
16:11I felt like a lot of people failed her that night.
16:16She was hauled hostage by her addiction as well as Jeremy.
16:21A lot of times these kids aren't to blame
16:23because they're looking for that love.
16:25They're looking for that compassion
16:26that they're not getting at home.
16:27And they find it out there on the streets
16:29by people say, hey, come here, man.
16:30We'll hang out with us.
16:31We'll take care of you.
16:32Let's go get a hamburger.
16:33And then the next thing you know, boom, they got you.
16:39When I got back down to Jeremy's hotel,
16:41I remember like him telling me that the manager said
16:44because I'm a minor and that if they catch me on property
16:48that they were going to call the police.
16:50I never left that room after the FBI raid.
16:52Like I was just there for like almost a year.
16:54I never left that room ever.
16:57Then finally somebody like realized that I was in here
17:01and they ended up telling management
17:02and they fired him and were like,
17:04you have by the morning to get out of here
17:06or we're going to call the police.
17:09He threw the door open, came storming in with a bunch of stuff.
17:12He was essentially like robbing the hotel.
17:17He sold as much as we could until daylight.
17:21Jeremy and I used to be right over there at Sunset Park.
17:25It's only like two blocks over from here.
17:28For so long.
17:30This is where he would sleep.
17:33I didn't have anywhere else to go.
17:35There's just a little girl like just laying here like...
17:39And that never ever should have happened.
17:42I always wished that my parents would come for me and save me
17:45and nobody did and we stayed in that park for eight months.
17:49It was like right after we got there,
17:50I found out that I was pregnant.
17:52I remember thinking that I was just going to do anything
17:55I could to protect my unborn child.
17:59I stopped doing drugs.
18:00All he did every day was just sit there and smoke dope
18:03while I laid there pregnant with our kid.
18:05I really didn't know what to do about it.
18:07I was like, okay, well, this is just what we're doing again.
18:09This is just where I'm at.
18:11I was 15 years old when I got pregnant with my son.
18:14I ended up having babies back to back.
18:16I got pregnant with my daughter shortly thereafter
18:18when I was 16 years old.
18:20And I finally got the courage to leave and get away from Jeremy.
18:23I called my mom and she told me where she lived
18:27and when I got there, my mom welcomed me in with open arms
18:30and she was crying and I was crying.
18:32And I moved back in with my parents.
18:35And things were good.
18:37Things were good until they weren't.
18:40My mom's addiction was worse than I had ever seen it.
18:44Nobody was taking care of my sisters that well.
18:46And eventually I relapsed.
18:49My stepdad was so upset that he called CPS.
18:54CPS came and the CPS caseworker said,
18:59until I can make sure that your children are in a safe spot,
19:02I'm taking them from you.
19:07And I never saw my kids again.
19:10I blamed my dad, I blamed my mom.
19:12I just was like, I hate you all.
19:15They like ripped my heart out of my chest.
19:18I had two other children that I did lose to adoption.
19:22I would like to pursue finding them.
19:25I got a letter back from the court.
19:27What does it say?
19:28Denied.
19:30I told myself if I can't have my children,
19:32I'm going to vow the rest of my life to getting high.
19:40At 17, I left home and I went back to living on the streets,
19:43committing petty crimes.
19:45One night, I had just committed another petty crime
19:48and I was being chased by security.
19:51I saw a truck coming down the street
19:53and I just swung his door open, jumped in,
19:55and I started yelling, go, go, go.
19:57And he did.
19:59He was kind of like, well, my name's Alfred,
20:01you can come stay at my house.
20:08Friend.
20:09Hi.
20:11I met Ty on the streets,
20:13and later on we were in prison together.
20:16Cheers to a long friendship.
20:20I never told Ty about what happened with Alfred
20:23or why I was doing time with her.
20:25I know you were 17.
20:27How old was he?
20:29He was 56 years old.
20:31There was a void missing by the absence of my father.
20:35I just got kind of stuck with these older guys all the time.
20:38Validation from somebody that was older
20:40definitely made me feel secure.
20:44Alfred would give me rides to dope dealers' house
20:47and he knew how old I was and he would buy me drugs
20:50and he'd give me hundreds of dollars.
20:52And I kind of got, like, caught up in that whole lifestyle.
20:57One day, hit up this guy I knew that, like, did tattoos
21:00and had dope, and I wanted to go over there
21:02and get a tattoo and get high.
21:04So when I got there, like, I got high with him,
21:07but I didn't have money to pay for, like, either one,
21:09so I asked him to give me a ride back to Alfred's house.
21:13He was like, just take me over here, it's cool,
21:15like, you know, this is where I live,
21:17and, you know, my roommate or whatever,
21:20it's not a big deal.
21:22So we drove over to Alfred's house.
21:24I asked them to wait inside the car.
21:26Alfred opened the door, he was pissed,
21:28and so I went to go light a cigarette, and he's like,
21:30you better not smoke that in my living room.
21:33I opened up the side-glass door or whatever,
21:35and I was standing out there, and I was smoking a cigarette,
21:38and then all of a sudden, like, I hear boots on the ground.
21:43I saw all the guys that I had rode with had jumped the wall.
21:46I was like, what are you guys doing?
21:48No, no, no.
21:49Just as Alfred was coming out of the kitchen,
21:51and when that happened, they ran in,
21:53he was like this, and they just, boom, backed him like that.
21:56Alfred thinks that I set him up.
21:58He was screaming and yelling,
22:00and, like, his eye was, like, almost protruding.
22:02Like, it was bad.
22:04And I remember him screaming my name, like,
22:06Brittany, please, like, why are you doing this?
22:08My only thought was, run.
22:11And I bolted for the garage, and as soon as I got to the garage,
22:15I jumped in the truck, and I took off.
22:18Stole his car.
22:20On top of him already getting everything robbed from him
22:22and him getting beat up, and you don't know if he's dead or alive,
22:24you just take his car, and you dip, like, see you later, bye.
22:27Yeah.
22:31It was definitely, like, one of my biggest regrets, like,
22:34hearing his pleas and, like, like...
22:38Yelling your name. You did.
22:40This guy's gonna want me forever.
22:43I ended up going over to my...
22:46What I thought was a friend of mine.
22:48He snitched me out to the cops,
22:50and I was arrested, like, the next day.
22:52And I didn't know if Alfred was dead or alive.
22:55And, like, truthfully, like, I'm haunted.
23:07Life faded in and out. Faded in and out.
23:10Faded in and out.
23:12I woke up, I was handcuffed to the bed.
23:14They really just did what the police do, know what I'm saying?
23:16Yeah.
23:17Apprehended.
23:18I was terrified going to prison for the first time.
23:20Little Brittany was a hothead.
23:22Yeah.
23:23I got into 11 fights my first year in prison.
23:27We're going to spend some blocks.
23:29It's the area right here, man.
23:31I used to go down out here.
23:34I'm talking about we didn't kick so many houses in over here.
23:37Right over this area?
23:38You already know.
23:43I was 13 when I started going to prison.
23:46I was 13.
23:47I was 13.
23:48I was 13.
23:49I was 13.
23:50I was 13.
23:51I was 13.
23:52I was 13.
23:53I was 13.
23:55I was 13 when I started burglarizing houses.
23:59The first house we robbed, it was an adrenaline rush
24:02because we never did it before.
24:03I never did it before.
24:05My heart was beating fast, I remember.
24:07I was nervous, scared probably.
24:09The first house we robbed, what we did really wasn't worth
24:12the backlash we could have got from getting caught.
24:15Like, we left with a watch.
24:17You're running out and you got something
24:19and y'all making a clean escape.
24:23That was fun to us.
24:26You see how this is kind of like connected to an opening?
24:30We wouldn't hit nothing on this street.
24:32Too many cars, too much traffic right here.
24:35You know what I mean?
24:36Somebody can see me.
24:38Every day this week, we might hit a house.
24:40Might hit two in one day.
24:41Might hit two in one hit.
24:43You know what I mean?
24:44Might hit you and your neighbor.
24:45It was crazy like that.
24:47It depends on how we felt, you know what I'm saying,
24:49or what we thought we can get away with at the time.
24:53The crime rate in Kansas City has always been fairly high,
24:56at least in my experience.
24:58Home invasions or burglaries in particular, that is common.
25:04So like, how would you know if anybody was there or not?
25:08If we did our homework the day before,
25:10somebody gonna go run up and knock up on me.
25:12They gonna knock on the door, knock on the window.
25:14You know what I'm saying?
25:15Usually we committed these crimes in the morning
25:18and when people go to work and school,
25:20ain't nobody at the house,
25:21but we still take precautions so when we get to the house,
25:24somebody gotta knock on the doors and the windows
25:26to just get that second approval.
25:28Ain't nobody there.
25:29It was so much easy access going on on this street, man.
25:33For real.
25:34Yeah, I can tell.
25:35See how close these houses is and how dark and gloomy the scene is?
25:39Six inches away.
25:40For real.
25:41Man, we hit this house.
25:42Jump out the window to the next house.
25:44To the next window, for real.
25:46Usually it'd be three of us.
25:49Whenever we took off on a mission like this,
25:51I'd kick the door in because usually it's one take.
25:54We're kicking the door in with me.
25:56And when we get in here,
25:57one person sweeps the house to make sure no one's hiding out
26:02or make sure ain't nobody in the room.
26:04And then once we hear that clear,
26:06everybody branch off and start bagging up the valuables.
26:10This the house where I named myself the kick-in king.
26:16Oh, darn.
26:18This the house where I kicked the door all the way off the hinges.
26:25The amount of houses that we robbed, I would say,
26:28and I'm not lying, it has to be in the hundreds.
26:34Man, we'd terrorize this neighborhood.
26:37Hit three houses this week, three houses next week,
26:39and then go back home.
26:41As I look in and I'm 20, 30 houses in and we ain't had no incidents
26:46or I haven't been arrested
26:48or we ain't had no encounters with nobody, you know what I mean?
26:51Ain't nobody stop what you was doing here,
26:53so you want to be confident in it.
26:55You know, man, when you're doing this s*** for a while,
26:59when you're doing this s*** for a while,
27:00you're getting away with it, you know what I mean?
27:02You're starting to get a little loose.
27:05I never thought I'd be in a situation
27:07to where s*** my life was on the line.
27:11The day s*** went left, we picked the house
27:13because one of my friends' older brother
27:15had an issue with the house owner.
27:17He brought the idea to the crew, the crew agreed,
27:19and that's how that s*** happened.
27:22When you see what we want to hit,
27:24we'll come in here and talk about it.
27:27The food, the food, plus the cover-up.
27:29So every time, you know, y'all did something,
27:32y'all come here and talk first?
27:34Most of the time.
27:35We're mapping it out, we're crossing our T's,
27:37dotting our I's.
27:38Everybody know their job.
27:40So when we move it, it be in sync.
27:43We sat and we watched him for a day
27:45to get the timing on when he left,
27:47when he went to work.
27:48We did all our homework on that the day before.
27:51That's a comfortable feeling
27:52when you see a target driving off.
27:54Now all we gotta do is not be seen by no neighbors,
27:56go in here and get the goods.
27:58When we leave, don't be seen by nobody.
28:00You know what I mean?
28:02The whole time I'm in there, though,
28:03I'm like, man, we in here too long.
28:05That's the only thing running in my head,
28:07we in here too long.
28:10Dude pull in.
28:12You know what I'm saying?
28:13Like, hey, we got company.
28:15We all shoot.
28:17Everybody grab their bags.
28:18He must have ran into a closet or something.
28:21I mean, his car, he had one with him or something.
28:23He grabbed his heat and he pursued after us.
28:27Okay, so I'm running, right?
28:28I hear a major bop from behind us.
28:31I just hear a loud boom.
28:33It sound like a shotgun.
28:40There was blood everywhere, like all over the wall,
28:42like all over the ground, like everywhere, man.
28:44G shot him in the back.
28:46I got scared and once again, I ran.
28:49I got in trouble a lot.
28:50I was fighting a lot.
28:51This ain't no cakewalk.
28:53I'm around murderers and killers and gorillas every day.
28:5712 years is a long time,
28:58so I thought about my life 17 times over.
29:07Everybody was running out the house
29:09and the homeowner's in pursuit.
29:11I just hear a loud boom.
29:13It sound like a shotgun.
29:17I see my partner in front of me
29:19and he take his gun off and he fired two shots behind him
29:23as we running.
29:24This dude shot once.
29:26My homeboy shot back twice.
29:28He shot back once more.
29:33I realized I got hit once.
29:34I felt like a sharp pain coming from my back area.
29:38I remember sticking my hand in my back
29:40and I pulled it back and it's all blood on my hand
29:43and it's like dripping down
29:44and I'm like, yeah, I need to sit down.
29:46I know by the way I'm breathing now
29:48that I need to get to somewhere close
29:50and the only person close in the vicinity is a friend.
29:53So I ran to that person's house
29:54and as I rush in, they see that I'm bleeding from my back,
29:57my back area, and they're like, damn, bro, you bleeding.
30:00He's the one that recommended calling the ambulance.
30:03Like, man, I'm gonna have to call him, bro.
30:04I don't want you to die on me.
30:05And I'm fading in and out.
30:08The paramedics arrived first.
30:09As they was cutting my clothes up,
30:11I seen the officers come in.
30:12They was just trying to get my name, figure out who shot me.
30:15I say, I don't know.
30:16I was just walking to the store.
30:17A car pulled up and shot me and I got hit.
30:19They basically, okay, that's all we need to know.
30:21Went from that, put me in the paramedics
30:23and took me to the hospital.
30:27I remember going in and out of consciousness
30:29coming through here.
30:31I remember seeing this.
30:34I swear on my life, Derrick, bro.
30:36I remember them putting me in the back of the ambulance
30:40and the lady putting the thing over my face.
30:42And I'm asking her, like, I'm finna die.
30:45I'm finna die, ain't I?
30:47And the lady was like, well, I hope not.
30:50Not on my watch.
30:51You know what I'm saying?
30:52It kind of made me chuckle a little bit and I went out.
30:54You know what I'm saying?
30:55I went out.
30:58I knew I was hit.
30:59These are buck shots.
31:00There's 14 holes in my back.
31:02I'm messed up pretty bad.
31:05Here at the University of Kansas,
31:07about 14% of all the trauma patients that we see
31:10come in as a result of firearm injuries.
31:13Shotgun injuries are challenging
31:15and Qualen's injury is representative of this.
31:18The shotgun is producing multiple projectiles
31:21and those multiple projectiles,
31:23depending on the range that you're at,
31:25can cause sort of a widespread amount of damage
31:27if they're at a longer distance away.
31:31I got 14 holes in my back.
31:33They was all in a circle pattern about this big
31:35in my lower back.
31:36They had to cut me open, so to heal that,
31:38they gotta put the staples in you.
31:40To staple that back closed, I had 30-something of them.
31:45Thought I was finna die, so.
31:46Like, this is how I'm gonna end?
31:48Damn, I just had a niece born.
31:50I was thinking about shit like that.
31:51Like, damn, my mama gonna be mad at me.
31:55After my first surgery,
31:56I woke up, I was handcuffed to the bed.
31:58I was asleep long enough for them to go figure out
32:00some evidence and come back, you know what I'm saying,
32:03with me handcuffed to the bed.
32:05So when you woke up, like, how did the police treat you?
32:08The police, they really just did what the police do,
32:11you know what I'm saying?
32:12Apprehend me.
32:13Yeah, right.
32:18I was charged with armed robbery,
32:19armed criminal action, and first-degree burglary.
32:22I was charged with first-degree murder.
32:24Armed criminal action and first-degree burglary.
32:26I was facing 30 years.
32:31Class A felony in Missouri is 10 to 30 years or life.
32:34He was charged with, I think, two Class A felonies.
32:37First-degree robbery and first-degree burglary.
32:42So that's tough.
32:45But you also have a 17-year-old first offender.
32:52I was sentenced to 12 years.
32:54In Kansas, you consider an adult at 18.
32:57In Missouri, you're 17.
32:59I just had turned 17.
33:01If I would have caught my case in Kansas,
33:03I would have still considered a juvenile.
33:06My time in prison, it was a hard time.
33:09I got in trouble a lot.
33:10I was fighting a lot, breaking the rules a lot.
33:13This ain't no cakewalk.
33:15I'm around murderers and killers and guerrillas every day,
33:19so I had to grow up in here fast, you know what I mean?
33:22I'm around guys that ain't never going home.
33:2512 years is a long time,
33:26so I thought about my life 17 times over.
33:31I used to blame my father for not being there.
33:34I used to blame my mom for not being there enough.
33:38But at the end of the day, like, I knew right from wrong.
33:41I had to look at myself and realize that I was the problem.
33:44I did a lot of self-reflecting in 12 years.
33:48No, no, no, no!
33:49Wyland!
33:51Ah!
33:55When I got out, I felt like I'm just thankful that it changed my life.
34:03Being here right now, I never liked the cemetery.
34:08Because we got so many people here.
34:11I'm just glad I ain't one of us, for real.
34:14People look at me crazy because I think prison a lot,
34:17you know what I mean?
34:18Without that s***, man, I know for a fact I would have been dead
34:21because I was in the I-not-give-a-f*** stage.
34:23I didn't care, you know what I mean?
34:25We was already inside that s***.
34:27Like, I didn't care, man.
34:29You got Gary, if you go down this walk.
34:31Something, I just met her about a month ago.
34:34Over here somewhere.
34:35It's crazy, bro.
34:36It's our history.
34:37These our people, man.
34:38Yeah.
34:40I would like to be a mentor to the youth
34:42because I didn't have nobody to mentor me.
34:44And I feel like if I did, my life would have ended up differently.
34:49Bro was crazy, bro.
34:50The coldest dude ever.
34:52He lost his life, man, you know, to gang violence.
34:55And he was like 16.
34:57But we still here, bro.
34:58We got it.
35:00I look at s*** like, man, this could have been me.
35:02You know what I mean?
35:04I miss you, bro.
35:11Hey, Qualen.
35:12Bishop, how you doing?
35:13Pretty good, how you doing?
35:15I done heard a lot about Bishop Caldwell
35:17and him giving back to the community of Kansas City
35:20with the gloves up, guns down,
35:21and the programs that he be doing for the youth.
35:24And I'm here to lock in with him
35:27and be a part of what he got going on.
35:30I used to wish I had somebody to reach out to me,
35:32come get me on the weekends, come hoop with me.
35:34I used to hoop.
35:35I'd probably bust your...
35:36I know I can bust you.
35:38Oh, yeah, basketball, football.
35:40Lay out, boy.
35:43Some people go to prison and they never get it.
35:45They keep coming out glorifying prison.
35:47They keep coming out glorifying the lifestyle.
35:51But I see that he got it.
35:54Feel like you got to protect all of them at all times.
35:56Oh, I don't feel like it. I do.
35:57I know that's right.
35:59Where your daddy at? He around?
36:00If you don't mind me asking.
36:01Huh?
36:02Okay, I'll put this...
36:03I never met my Anita.
36:04I don't know what he look like.
36:06It's important for me to give back to the community
36:08because I took a lot from it.
36:09It's important for me to lock in with the youth.
36:12I want them to be able to understand
36:14and realize off my experience, you know what I'm saying,
36:17that your life can change for the better, you know?
36:20We each one teach one.
36:34The night that I left Alfred beat up on the living room floor
36:37was one of the worst nights of my life.
36:39I'm haunted by that.
36:41I was 18 and they charged me with kidnapping,
36:43Alfred, false imprisonment,
36:45assault to create great bodily injury,
36:48grand theft auto, robbery.
36:51So all together, for that one incident,
36:54I served five years.
36:56I remember like the judge saying
36:57that I'm not allowed to have any contact with Alfred.
37:00And I knew in that moment that Alfred had survived.
37:06Look, there it is.
37:12Oh my God, this is crazy.
37:14I feel like it sucks to be everybody else
37:16because we're not in there, thank God.
37:17Yeah.
37:21I was terrified going to prison for the first time.
37:23I heard so many stories about it.
37:28They were just like, you know, you better watch your back,
37:31you better stand your ground
37:32if you want to come out of there, you know,
37:34alive and not dead.
37:36I got into 11 fights my first year in prison.
37:41I just remember you were just a little baby coming in
37:43and you had nobody.
37:44Yeah.
37:46Being with Brittany in prison,
37:47I almost, in the beginning, it was like a motherly role
37:50because I'm four years older than her
37:52and she had just turned 18.
37:54Little Brittany was a hothead.
37:56Yeah.
37:57Little Brittany.
37:58I just, I don't know why I always felt like
37:59I had something to improve.
38:00Like I just didn't want to be like,
38:02I didn't want to be punked
38:03and I didn't want them to like, the police to break me.
38:05Because you were a baby.
38:07I pretty much had to grow up in prison.
38:09I mean, I was addicted to drugs
38:11from the time I was 12 to the time I was 18
38:13and so once I was incarcerated,
38:15I had to pretty much like mature and become a woman in prison,
38:18learn how to become a young adult.
38:20And that's when I started like exercising every day,
38:22meditating, like I went to NA, AA,
38:25like any kind of thing that I knew to help my life.
38:31When I was getting released from prison
38:32after serving that entire five years,
38:35I remember thinking like,
38:36this is my chance,
38:37I'm finally going to make it this time.
38:39Like I just, if you asked anybody around me,
38:42no one in a million years would have ever thought
38:44I was going to go back to prison
38:45and I did not foresee that future for myself either.
38:51But after my release, I had nothing to come home to.
38:55My kids had been given up for adoption
38:57and I knew nothing but the street life.
39:00You know, when I got pregnant with Giovanni,
39:02I was just so hopeful for myself, my son and my future.
39:05But when Gio was almost two years old and I relapsed,
39:08I was back on the street selling drugs.
39:10Oh, I'm triggered already, oh God.
39:12Okay, you know how earlier I said I don't get triggered?
39:15Because these people behind these doors
39:17are like nobody to play with.
39:19There's all kinds of stuff going on in here.
39:20They're dealing, selling, fighting.
39:23I was 25 years old when I was selling drugs.
39:26Just kind of like, I was just gambling all the time
39:29and just, you know, kind of being a loser.
39:32You know, and then I met G
39:34and started like running the streets with him.
39:37How did you even meet G?
39:38When you're in that lifestyle, like I'm calling people,
39:41like anybody and everybody I knew that like could get it
39:44or whatever until I went over to this girl's house.
39:47She had a few guys over there at her house or whatnot
39:49and G was one of them.
39:50I got a phone call to go serve at the downtown hotel
39:54and I went down there with G
39:56and the guy didn't want to buy my dope
39:57and they got into an argument.
39:59The guy ran out and I was like, okay, whatever.
40:01But then when G chased him,
40:03me and the people that were in the room,
40:04we were all sitting there, we were like.
40:08G shot him in the back.
40:09I got scared and once again, I ran.
40:13I was like, oh my God, oh my God, I gotta go.
40:16I'm a mother and I don't want to die.
40:19Brittany was irresponsible
40:20just because she knew what was going to happen.
40:23She lived that life.
40:24She already went to prison.
40:25She already did her time.
40:27She already saw somebody get hurt from her first case.
40:30Yeah, there was blood everywhere,
40:32like all over the wall, like all over the ground,
40:34like everywhere, man.
40:35It was hard to see, you know.
40:38I was arrested like the next day.
40:41They said I was so lucky that he lived.
40:44Everybody in that room ran
40:46and nobody served any time but me.
40:50I was facing over 20 years in prison
40:52and I was back in jail
40:54fighting an attempted murder charge
40:56for somebody that I didn't shoot.
40:59I ended up taking a plea deal
41:01just because it had a low sentence.
41:04I wanted to get out of prison
41:06so I could just start my life over again.
41:09I was 25 when I went back to prison
41:11and I wasn't released again until I was 27 years old.
41:16I'm so different now.
41:17I'm gonna be the best version of myself
41:19because I'm tired of all the days that I lost.
41:24From 12 to 27 years old
41:27of just addicted, homeless, and in prison.
41:32I didn't know you were gonna catch me here
41:33doing that shit again, but now I know better.
41:35Now I know to stop and think, you know.
41:38I appreciate you coming out here, like seriously.
41:40I love you.
41:43It's been seven years since I was released from prison
41:45and I have not been in any trouble since then.
41:48I want to live a long, healthy, peaceful life.
41:52I want to be around long enough
41:55to give my children the wisdom
41:58that I've had to learn the hard way.
42:02I know one of the hardest things
42:04for an inmate coming out of prison
42:06is to get successfully acclimated back into society.
42:09So my vision of success is just continue on the same path
42:12and going above and beyond to make sure
42:14that I stay on track of my recovery
42:19for my children and for myself.
42:26I love you.
42:28I love you.
42:30I love you.
42:55We also offer some sexual favors as well.
42:58All I see is this dude, like, stabbing like this.
43:01This guy was stabbing, trying to kill me.