I've been wanting to make this post for a quite a while but always got distracted by shiny objects before I sat down...
I've been wanting to make this post for a quite a while but always got distracted by shiny objects before I sat down and gathered the information.
Back before Google+, before Buzz, when we all used Facebook I discovered a guy I went to high school with had been sitting in jail for more than a decade.
I had no idea.
He was arrested just before our graduation and I was wrapped up in studying for exams, my part-time job and my girlfriend. That Taylor stopped showing up to school in a class of nearly 600 and a student body of closer to 2000, just never hit my radar.
But, I remember Taylor. He was tall and skinny, wore glasses that were obviously too large for his face and always sported a military-style buzz but. I remember sitting next to him in classes and hanging with him at lunch. I do not recall a mean bone in his body.
So, it was weird learning that he'd been in prison since 1994. In ninety-four I was in AIT and then Ft. Hood. He was in jail. I was buying my very first brand new off-the-lot truck. He was sitting in jail. I was going out with friends, preparing to be deployed and an avid mountain biker. He was sitting in jail.
So much has happened to me since 1994 and he was sitting in jail. Not for any crime he committed, but from an arcane Florida law that tied the fate of the harshest crime to all involved.
Taylor Wells was living on his own. We hadn't graduated yet but he'd already turned 18 and left his parent's house. In his new apartment and his part-time job at Taco Bell he made "friends" who didn't have his best interests in mind and one night they asked him for a ride.
"Let's go get some pot".
So, they drove to a house and some of his "friends" went in while he waited in the car. One of those men shot the dealer.
Taylor plead not guilty to murder. The judge gave him life instead.
_On the night of April 29, 1993, Taylor Wells gave two young men a ride to a house another young man fingered as a drug dealer. Taylor was told—he explains this in his damning statement-- they were going to “pick up some weed.” Taylor was a senior in high school. He’d never been in trouble with the law. Other actors in the crime traveled in two cars.
Taylor had moved into his own apartment. He was working part-time, going to school and planning his future. But picture this: he’s in an apartment, hanging out, and these guys want to go pick up the weed. And these very tough guys, these guys Taylor is fascinated by, tell him he needs to drive a couple of them to get the weed. So he does. He doesn’t drive the shooter. He doesn’t drive the guy who fingered and led the others to the dealer. He doesn’t drive a single guy who fires a shot.
When he arrives at the beach house, Taylor parks the car, turns it off and listens to the radio. If he was a getaway driver, he surely wasn’t an efficient one.
What he doesn’t know: the others go in, put on masks and hold the occupants and visitors at gunpoint. One of the men, Juan Sanchez, a fugitive from New York authorities for a previous killing, shoots a young man in cold blood. Taylor’s passengers return to the car, toss a bag of pot in and a gun and tell him to drive away fast. Within days, Taylor tells police everything he knows, without an attorney present. At the end of his interview, Taylor doesn’t know it, but he is doomed_.
[1] http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2005-07-24/news/WELLS24_1_1_burgan-cape-canaveral-sanchez
[2] http://stju.blogspot.com/2006/07/taylor-wells-case-post-taken-from-one.html
Everyone seems to think the justice system failed him. Everyone but the DA and the judge, that is. And so, a young man who did nothing more than drive when scary people said they needed a driver sits in prison until he dies.
No, the criminal justice system is not fair.
http://www.dc.state.fl.us/ActiveInmates/detail.asp?Bookmark=1&From=list&SessionID=291978329
Back before Google+, before Buzz, when we all used Facebook I discovered a guy I went to high school with had been sitting in jail for more than a decade.
I had no idea.
He was arrested just before our graduation and I was wrapped up in studying for exams, my part-time job and my girlfriend. That Taylor stopped showing up to school in a class of nearly 600 and a student body of closer to 2000, just never hit my radar.
But, I remember Taylor. He was tall and skinny, wore glasses that were obviously too large for his face and always sported a military-style buzz but. I remember sitting next to him in classes and hanging with him at lunch. I do not recall a mean bone in his body.
So, it was weird learning that he'd been in prison since 1994. In ninety-four I was in AIT and then Ft. Hood. He was in jail. I was buying my very first brand new off-the-lot truck. He was sitting in jail. I was going out with friends, preparing to be deployed and an avid mountain biker. He was sitting in jail.
So much has happened to me since 1994 and he was sitting in jail. Not for any crime he committed, but from an arcane Florida law that tied the fate of the harshest crime to all involved.
Taylor Wells was living on his own. We hadn't graduated yet but he'd already turned 18 and left his parent's house. In his new apartment and his part-time job at Taco Bell he made "friends" who didn't have his best interests in mind and one night they asked him for a ride.
"Let's go get some pot".
So, they drove to a house and some of his "friends" went in while he waited in the car. One of those men shot the dealer.
Taylor plead not guilty to murder. The judge gave him life instead.
_On the night of April 29, 1993, Taylor Wells gave two young men a ride to a house another young man fingered as a drug dealer. Taylor was told—he explains this in his damning statement-- they were going to “pick up some weed.” Taylor was a senior in high school. He’d never been in trouble with the law. Other actors in the crime traveled in two cars.
Taylor had moved into his own apartment. He was working part-time, going to school and planning his future. But picture this: he’s in an apartment, hanging out, and these guys want to go pick up the weed. And these very tough guys, these guys Taylor is fascinated by, tell him he needs to drive a couple of them to get the weed. So he does. He doesn’t drive the shooter. He doesn’t drive the guy who fingered and led the others to the dealer. He doesn’t drive a single guy who fires a shot.
When he arrives at the beach house, Taylor parks the car, turns it off and listens to the radio. If he was a getaway driver, he surely wasn’t an efficient one.
What he doesn’t know: the others go in, put on masks and hold the occupants and visitors at gunpoint. One of the men, Juan Sanchez, a fugitive from New York authorities for a previous killing, shoots a young man in cold blood. Taylor’s passengers return to the car, toss a bag of pot in and a gun and tell him to drive away fast. Within days, Taylor tells police everything he knows, without an attorney present. At the end of his interview, Taylor doesn’t know it, but he is doomed_.
[1] http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2005-07-24/news/WELLS24_1_1_burgan-cape-canaveral-sanchez
[2] http://stju.blogspot.com/2006/07/taylor-wells-case-post-taken-from-one.html
Everyone seems to think the justice system failed him. Everyone but the DA and the judge, that is. And so, a young man who did nothing more than drive when scary people said they needed a driver sits in prison until he dies.
No, the criminal justice system is not fair.
http://www.dc.state.fl.us/ActiveInmates/detail.asp?Bookmark=1&From=list&SessionID=291978329
Comments
Sigh.
fundrazr.com - Legal Defense Fund for Taylor Wells