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In late 1979 I turned twenty years
old, but I was very immature. My immaturity had a lot to do
with my involvement in the events which led me to prison.
While growing up, I had suffered a lot of abuse. I tried to
get away from my problems by joining the Air Force, but only
found more problems waiting for me along the way. I had
difficulty keeping up with all of my responsibilities, and
the mental and physical strain of service life did not help.
The Air Force finally discharged me for incompatibility with
service life because I was just too immature to handle
everything.
When I came home, I had no friends
and still felt out of place. I tried making it on my own and
moved away for a few months, but failed and had to move back
home. I just didn't have what it took to be on my own yet.
During the summer (1980), I started making acquaintances and
began socializing with them. The trouble was that I was not
mature enough to carefully pick my acquaintances, and just
assumed that they were all "good people." I had never
learned the difference between a friend and an
acquaintance.
On Labor day weekend, my
acquaintances talked me into going out with them. Little did
I know that this would lead to the worst night of my life,
and that I would regret the evening forever.
Everything started simply enough. I
had planned to stay home but they talked me into driving
down to the "Main Drag" on Belmont Avenue (Fresno,
CA).
We were just supposed
to
"cruise main" but Patty Lange
wanted to stop at a "halfway house." I didn't know what that
meant, but they said that it was just about a block off of
the main drag. It wasn't until I came to prison that I
discovered that a halfway house was a place where convicted
felons reside when they get early release from
prison.
I waited out by the car while the
others wandered around talking to people. A little while
later, Patty came back to the car and said that someone had
called and told her that her ex-boyfriend was about to be
arrested on the other side of town for being drunk in
public. She asked me to take her over there to see if the
police would let us take him home rather than arrest him.
Several of us got into the car and drove across town to
their location.
By the time we arrived, he had
already been arrested and they were getting ready to take
him to jail. Patricia Martin was with him and had made the
original call; by now she was hysterical. The police said
that we could drive down to the jail and see when we would
be able to pick up Roger (Patty's ex-boyfriend). They said
that they only wanted him to sober up. Patricia Martin
climbed into the car with us, and now we had too many people
in the car, but I couldn't just leave her there alone late
at night like that.
When we arrived at the jail, we
were informed that Roger would not be able to leave the jail
for four hours. On the way to the jail, one of the girls
asked Patricia Martin where her daughter was. She told us
that Vince Holland was watching her baby at her motel
room.
One of the people with us that
night was Timothy Meyer. He told everyone that he and
Holland had been locked up together before. He said that the
reason Holland was locked up was that Holland was a rapist
and a child molester.
We went to Patricia Martin's motel
room to get her baby away from this predator. When we
arrived at the motel, we began knocking on the door
immediately, but didn't get an answer. Patricia Martin,
Patty Lange and I went to the window to look inside while
the others continued to knock at the door.
What we saw at the window was very
disturbing. Holland was kneeling on the bed with the baby's
face at his crotch. We started banging on the window and he
jumped up from the bed and ran into the bathroom. He turned
the light on while he was inside, and when he opened the
door to come out, the light was still on. We could easily
see that his semi-erect penis was sticking out through his
unzipped pants. We all went back to the door, and pounded on
it some more.
When Holland unlocked the door, the
girls rushed over to the bed to get the baby while us boys
surrounded and distracted Holland long enough for them to
get out of the room. On her way out, Patricia Martin grabbed
her key to the motel room from the top of the dresser.
Holland either didn't care or didn't realize that we had
seen him with the baby, and stayed behind at the motel when
we left.
We tried to file a report with the
police department, but they said that the crime occurred
outside of their jurisdiction and said that we had to go to
the sheriff's department. We went to the sheriff's
department, but they wouldn't take a report and said that
the report had to be filed by a doctor at the hospital. We
then drove to a hospital and tried to get them to file a
report, but they said that they couldn't file a report
without a police officer. We asked them to call whoever they
needed.
After several hours of waiting, no
one every showed up, so we began to feel as though Holland
was going to get away with what he had done. Everyone was
upset and wanted to do something about it. Meyer suggested
that we go back and "kick his ass," but I said that I would
only want to make a citizen's arrest. They agreed, so Tim
Meyer, Wayne Willhoite, Phillip Syzemore and I went back to
the motel. On the way, the others kept talking about how
sending child molesters to prison was like putting them
through a revolving door. Meyer said that Holland would
still get away with it even if we were able to arrest him.
He kept saying that he wanted to "kick his ass" and "----
him up." Wayne and Phillip agreed with him and after a
while, they convinced me that it would be OK to go along and
watch the fight. After this, Meyer said that he didn't want
to get caught fighting him and end up in jail, so he wanted
to get him out of the motel room. He remembered that
Patricia Martin had told him earlier that Holland had set
off some burglar alarms earlier by kicking on the glass
doors of some businesses. Meyer used this fact to make up a
story to tell Holland so he would want to leave the motel
with Meyer.
When we arrived at the motel, Meyer
told Holland that the police were looking to arrest him for
attempted burglary because he had broken those glass doors.
Holland asked us if we would take him away with us. Meyer
said that he knew of a place where Holland could go, and we
all piled into the car. Meyer gave the directions as we
drove. I did not know where we were going. We ended up in
the countryside.
When Meyer appeared to have gotten
us lost, we stopped the car. Everyone except Holland got out
of the car. I was out of cigarettes, so I opened the trunk
to get some out of my tool box. The others asked me for
cigarettes as well.
Meyer was anxious to get the fight
started. We put our cigarettes out, and Meyer walked up to
where Holland was seated. He was seated half-out of the
driver's door with his feet on the pavement; his elbows were
on his knees and his head was in his hands. Meyer kicked
Holland in the forehead and stepped back. Holland asked him,
"What'd you do that for?" Meyer said, "You stuck your ----
in that baby girl."
Holland didn't even deny it, he
simply replied by saying, "You know me. You know me." As
soon as the words had left his mouth, he punched Meyer --
knocking him to the ground. He immediately stepped past
Meyer and went toward Wayne who was the youngest and
smallest of us all.
Wayne took a step back and said,
"Don't come no closer." Holland kept coming. Wayne took
another step back and warned him again by saying, "Don't
come no closer."
When Holland kept coming, Wayne
rushed him and punched him in the chest. Holland grabbed at
his chest, looked at his hand and then jumped on Wayne. The
two of them struggled and fell to the ground a few feet in
front of the car's headlights. Holland ended up on top with
his hands around Wayne's throat, strangling him.
Phillip was the closest to the
fight and tried to pull Holland off of Wayne and break his
choke hold. Holland was a very muscular individual, and
Phillip wasn't strong enough to pull him off by himself. I
ran up and tried to help pull him off, but even together we
weren't successful. I ran back to the car to find something
to use to make him release Wayne. The first thing I saw in
the dark of the open trunk was a chrome-plated wrench lying
in my open toolbox. I grabbed it and ran back to the fight.
Before I could reach them, Holland had managed to throw
Phillip off. I swung the wrench at his shoulder. This did
nothing, so I continued to hit him. I was afraid that Wayne
was going to die. Holland eventually released Wayne and
everyone scrambled away and got into the car. We drove away
leaving Holland behind.
It was only a little over a year
earlier that I had been discharged from the Air Force for
being too immature to handle life in the service. Because of
this and other circumstances, I was in a very naive
position. Meyer was the one who had wanted to fight, but
Holland knocked him down with one punch and then attacked
Wayne. Since he was attacking Wayne, and since Wayne had
tried to back away (and because of Holland's greater size) I
thought of Holland as the aggressor. I never saw the knife,
and by the time I found out that Holland had been stabbed,
he was already dead.
When we left, Holland appeared to
still be alive and OK. He was moving around, and I had to
swerve to avoid hitting him with the car. After we left, I
suggested going back to take him to a hospital, but they all
said, "No, he's already dead." I didn't believe it, but this
is when I found out that Wayne had stabbed Holland. Wayne
said that he wanted to get rid of the knife he had used and
that he wanted me to give him the wrench so that he could
dispose of it as well. I didn't give it to him, and
eventually it was one of the main pieces of evidence used
during the trial.
They began to make threats that if
anyone told the police what happened, the others would, "get
him." This is when I began to find out about what kind of
people I had been hanging around with. They had all either
been in some sort of jail or prison before.
I had never had any contact with
the police except for two minor traffic tickets, so I knew
nothing about being on the wrong side of the law. I started
to take their threats seriously and began to be afraid for
myself. As you can see, they knew what they were doing, but
I didn't have a clue.
We eventually picked up the girls
and Roger at the jail, and drove back to my house. Before we
left the jail, I overheard Meyer tell the girls what
happened, then threaten to kill them if they told the police
what happened. When we got back to my house, they started
bragging about what they had done as if they were proud of
it, then swore everyone to secrecy under threat of violence.
These guys did so much bragging that during the trial the
witnesses got confused as to who said what, and just claimed
that everyone was bragging, even though I had said
nothing.
The next day, I tried to leave
town, but I had no money or transportation. Meyer was still
with me, and I didn't manage to make it out of town. Meyer
went off on his own, and when he came back the next morning,
he had a car out in front of my house, and said that he had
borrowed it from a friend. When we walked out to car, he
paused. That is when I noticed a strange car parked
approximately fifteen or twenty feet away with several
people in it. These were detectives from the next county.
Even though they were out of their jurisdiction, they
proceeded to arrest us and searched my mother's car and home
without any warrants.
The detectives later claimed that
another person had led them to my house and that they had
just waited until someone walked out. The only trouble is
that they were never able to provide this other witness, nor
any proof of where Meyer's car came from or who loaned it to
him. Obviously, he contacted the detectives himself, and
then led them to me. This is borne out by other
events.
Because of my immaturity, I was
very gullible and naive. Meyer was able to "cut a deal" with
the prosecution. They let him shift the blame unto me
despite the fact that he was the instigator of the fight. I
believe they had made the deal before I was arrested, and
when they found out the truth of the situation, they felt
that it was too late to switch tactics.
If Meyer had not been present that
night, this man would still be alive today. No one would
have thought to go back to the motel. At every turn of
events that night, Meyer was the force behind the direction
taken. Meyer told us that Holland was a rapist and child
molester. Meyer convinced us to return to the motel. Meyer
convinced us to take the fight out of the motel. Meyer must
have given Wayne the knife on the way to the motel. Meyer
invented the story about the police looking for Holland.
Meyer told the story to Holland and caused him to want to
leave the motel. Meyer told me where to drive. And, finally,
Meyer started the fight.
Despite these facts, and in spite
of his prior criminal history, Meyer was allowed to
manipulate the situation to his advantage. He represented
himself as having tried to save the man's life by starting a
fight, when, according to him, the rest of us wanted to kill
him; this was obviously a total fabrication.
The District Attorney wanted this
murder conviction so bad that he was willing to go to any
lengths to have it. He hid the deal he made with Meyer from
everyone. When the deal came out in court, he misled the
judge and jury (and everyone else) into thinking that Meyer
didn't get a great deal - that he would serve three years in
prison for his involvement. The truth was that they were
going to release him as soon as the rest of us got
convicted.
They had a special arrangement with
Meyer that would modify his sentence to release him from
custody at the completion of the trial, as long as the
prosecutor was pleased with his testimony and it matched his
earlier statements he made when he was trying to secure the
deal for himself. With this kind of a carrot dangled in
front of his nose, Meyer could easily go free. Who but a man
of great principle would tell the truth in this situation?
Considering Meyer's criminal past, he could not be described
as a man of great principle. The prosecution even made it
easy for him, they provided him a printed copy of the
statements he made earlier so that he could memorize them
for his day on the stand.
Based upon Meyer's perjured
testimony, the rest of us were convicted of murder and sent
to prison with life sentences. During the trial, the
District Attorney blocked all efforts to tell the jury about
Holland's past, and concealed his arrest record. At
evidentiary hearings held during the appeal, it came out
that Holland had kidnapped a thirteen year old girl (and
attempted to kidnap her twelve-year-old friend, and held her
in a motel room for over eight hours while he and an
accomplice repeatedly raped her, sodomized her, and forced
her to orally copulate them. The appeal court determined
that the District Attorney knew of the and concealed it.
They also ruled that the District Attorney knew of and
concealed evidence which indicated that I had not intended
to kill Holland. The opinion of the court was that even
though the District Attorney lied to the court on numerous
occasions and concealed evidence that would have been
favorable to my defense, they felt it wasn't enough to have
affected the outcome of the trial.
I am now over forty years old and
have served over twenty years behind bars for murder, even
though it wasn't truly a murder. Half of my life has been
wasted by one night of very childish and stupidly bad
judgment. I have done everything I could think of to right
the wrong of taking a life. But what can I really do? I
can't give him back his life. I have written letters to his
family to apologize. Inadequate as that seems to me, it is
at least something I could do. I have completed many group
therapy and anger management classes, vocational training
and college courses, and have gone to counseling where
available. I am a model prisoner, and I am involved in youth
diversion here where we try to redirect the lives of youth
who appear to be on the road to prison.
I have been eligible for parole
since 1994, and though I am a prime candidate for release,
it does not appear that the Board of Prison Terms will set
my release date for many years to come (if at all). Each
time I appear before them, they refuse to set a release date
for me even though there is no evidence of unsuitability for
parole. So, even after twenty years, I still have no idea
when I will be released. At the trial no one was allowed to speak as to my character, when witness were placed on the stand to testify the District Attorney made objections and said it was inadmissable. I was never afforded the services of an investaigator which I found out later that I was entitled to when it was a homicide case. We were all tried at the same time even though I did not want to waive time. This was all done at the courts request and Madera county so the cost for the courts would be less for them. We later found out that both Holland and Meyers had been in and out of the system since they were very young and in juvenile hall for crimes. Holland had also sexualy attacked others at the hall. Had moral charges brought against him. Had previously spent a year in jail for rape and was let off when the DA in Fresno diden't prosecute...My attorney first received a autopsy report of different person when whe was preparing for my defense. She was ill with the flu, had almost lost her voice, yet they continued the trial. In my appeals to the State, evidence was brought out that the Jail deputies called us the "Three Stooges" within hearing of the Jury. One lady was dismissed after the 2nd day because she felt she coulden't handel the stress and diden't believe we should be tried.
In California, there are two
general types of prison sentences, Determinate and
Indeterminate. Determinate sentence prisoners serve a
specified amount of time established when they are sentenced
by the court, then they are released upon parole.
Indeterminate sentence prisoners come to prison with no
specific time set for them to serve, only a minimum and a
maximum of life. All Indeterminate sentences currently have
the maximum of "Life" in prison. When an Indeterminate
Sentence Prisoner (who is called a "Lifer") approaches the
completion of the minimum term, the California Board of
Prison Terms conducts a parole suitability hearing.
California law states that the Board "shall normally" set a
release date at the first hearing except in extraordinary
circumstances. They are guided by a set of rules they have
been allowed to adopt for themselves which authorize them to
establish release dates far off in the future. They can even
change the release date at any point in time they may
desire.
Even with this extreme latitude in
discretion, the Board of Prison Terms still does not obey
the law. They conduct approximately 2,200 parole hearings
every year, yet no one receives a release date at his first
hearing. In fact, everyone is automatically found
"unsuitable" at every hearing, and informed that they must
wait from one to five years before he will be considered
again. Of those who have appeared before the Board several
times, even they do not get release dates. Lifers are
automatically found unsuitable for parole and informed that
they must wait from one to five years before another hearing
to consider them for parole again. In 1999, no parole dates
were given out at all, while in the previous seven years, an
average of thirteen prisoners each year were found to be
suitable for parole. By September 2000, they still had not
found anyone suitable for parole, then when faced with
intense public scrutiny overs its policy of no parole for
lifers. Of those who were previously found suitable, many
had their dates revoked by Governor Gray Davis even though
no circumstances had changed since their dates were given to
them in the first place. Less than one half of once percent
of eligible Lifers receive release dates.
The problem with the Board of
Prison Terms can be linked to politics and the media. No
politician wants to be seen as weak on crime. The Board of
Prison Terms is comprised of political appointees, appointed
by the Governor, who in turn was elected as the result of a
campaign held in the public and heavily influenced by what
they see in the media. Appointments are not permanent
positions and may be filled by anyone the Governor choose;
all of them are currently ex-law enforcement officials,
despite a legal requirement to represent a balanced
cross-section of society.
The Board's entire composition is
white, male, mid-to-upper class law enforcement, and it has
been this way for over twenty years with rare
exceptions.
Unfortunately, the politics of the
day make it easy to condemn everyone without distinction. It
is virtually impossible for a Lifer to be released from
prison, no matter what the circumstances. It has made a good
many people willing to turn a blind eye to injustice.
Because of this, I feel as though I am in a helpless
situation.
During the course of the
trial, I was not allowed to present character witnesses,
introduce evidence in my behalf, or have access to evidence
which would have been favorable to my defense. Now I am
subject to the Board of Prison Terms and Governor Davis'
rubber stamp of injustice printed with the words:
UNSUITABLE
FOR PAROLE
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