Here’s a little bit about my early life growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington State, about 45 minutes north of the city of Spokane.
My mom has 8 sisters and 2 brothers, and they all have like 6 or more kids, so I grew up with close to 100 first cousins. We spent every holiday and birthday down at my grandparents’ house. Neither of my parents used drugs, but my dad was a weekend drinker. My mom stopped drinking after my youngest brother turned 2.
So I grew up in a good house—both parents worked and gave us everything we needed. I loved sports and played ball all through school, and I believe that’s what helped me graduate.
I started using drugs in high school, and it got worse and worse. It almost made me quit school a bunch of times, but I also had a strict military dad—lol. I turned 18 during my senior year, and that caused problems. I ended up stealing a car and wrecking it, almost killing my first cousin Les, who lived with us. I was put on federal probation—that was in 1995, I believe.
I was in and out on violations until I finally got off probation in the early 2000s. Then I caught a big case for accessory to murder in 2006 and went to prison until the end of 2022. I violated after 11 months and got out right before Christmas. Then I caught this case 6 months later and got 5 more years.
Here I sit… Crazy! It seems like this has been my whole adult life, and I’m more comfortable in here than I am out there in the world—and that’s not a good thing.
Out of time, so I’ll continue in a minute.
