[Foster] You know, I later learned a lot about the LaHoods.
Their father's a good man, from everything that I've learned about the family.
And this father had three boys,
which was Michael Jr., which was Nicholas, and there's a younger brother.
Well, I learned that Michael was a young man
that had a lot of potential.
This was a potential that was cut short.
I understand from his family's perspective that...
they kind of see me as the responsible party.
There's a point that I had to come to in my life
where I had to realize that I put myself in this position
and I was a part of this crime that took place.
My name is Kenneth Foster Jr.
I'll be 41 years old next month.
I was convicted for capital murder,
and I was sentenced to death in 1997.
[man 1] And I walked up, I fired one shot.
And as I got closer, I fired one more shot.
[man 2] She was shot through the cheek and it stopped in her jaw.
[man 3] I drove him around behind a desk and I stabbed him approximately 25 times.
[man 4] I couldn't believe it.
I just thought I can't believe I just killed somebody.
[man 5] I don't feel bad about it. [laughs] [man 6] I started stabbing him, stabbing the guy on the couch.
I don't even need this, huh?
Okay. Okay.
I done got, I done got old with this beard.
I done got grey hairs everywhere.
[clears throat]
[distant siren blaring]
[Foster] Well, I grew up mostly in San Antonio, Texas.
Both of my parents were...
Unfortunately, they were... they were both drug addicts
and in and out of prison.
When I had my time with my father, that time was spent mostly on his terms,
which was him going in the store stealing to support his habit,
watching him shoot drugs.
Sometimes he'd try to teach me how to be a better criminal
when I was just a child.
Eventually, around fourth grade, which was in the '80s,
my grandparents took me in.
You know, they wanted to give me a chance in life,
and they did their best to raise me from there.
So, for me to sit here and say that I didn't have opportunity
would be wrong.
I'd be, I'd be telling a lie.
They deserve better than what I did.
[upbeat music playing on radio]
[Foster] At that time, which was 1996,
I was getting involved in music.
I had friends that had a recording studio.
And the night in question, which was August 14th,
we were hanging out.
We were, you know, we were smoking, we were drinking,
and we were kind of club hopping.
We wanted to go see different clubs.
And there was four of us that was in the car.
I was driving.
In the front passenger seat was Julius Steen.
Sitting behind me was Mauriceo Brown,
and in the passenger back seat was DeWayne Dillard.
As we were driving, you know, one of the occupants said,
you know, they asked if maybe we wanted to pull a jack move, you know?
And a jack move was pretty much, you know, you kind of run up on somebody.
And it's basically, it's a robbery. Under the law, it's a robbery.
I was, you know, I fell to peer pressure, and I said okay.
And so, this happened twice.
And there was, there was an unsettling feeling in me.
I knew. I knew it was wrong.
And I knew it shouldn't be happening.
And we decided to stop, you know?
We were kind of what you would call "joy riding."
We knew that we were heading in a direction of a club
that we had heard about.
And so, as we were driving towards this area,
there was another two cars in front of us.
The two cars ended up turning into a residential area.
That's where, that's where the events took a wrong turn.
They ended up pulling up into a house to the left,
so we kept going straight down the road.
The road happened to--
We thought it was a dead end, so we made a U-turn.
As we were getting ready to leave the residential area,
there was a female that was standing at the end of the driveway.
And she kind of flagged us down.
You know, she...
she looked in the car and she wanted to know,
"Hey," you know, "do I know you?"
We said, "No, you don't know us."
And she was dressed real skimpy.
It came out later that she was a stripper, you know.
And, and... she looked good.
She was a beautiful woman.
And, um...
one of the occupants in the car had actually said that--
I believe it was Mauriceo Brown who was in the back, you know.
And Mauriceo Brown was kind of a class clown,
and he, you know, was a goofball.
He liked to flirt with women, so he told her, "Hey, you look good."
And she said, "Well, you know, if, uh...
[stammers] If you like what you see, take a picture.
It'll last longer."
So, at that point, Mauriceo Brown exited the car.
And, you know, he approached the woman.
And at the top of the driveway, Michael LaHood Jr. was there.
What happened at this point is under a lot of controversy.
At the time that Mauriceo Brown left the car,
we were about 70 feet away at the bottom of the driveway.
The driveway went up like a slope,
and then it went into, like, a carport, okay?
So, whatever took place up there is probably only known
between Mauriceo, Michael, and Mary Patrick
because they were the only ones that were there.
[gunshot]
[static hisses]
[man] This is SAPD case number 96492347,
the scene of a capital murder.
I did know he had a gun.
He never said he's taken the gun.
He never said, you know, "Be prepared to take off."
We didn't know what he was going out to do.
We really thought he was going out to goof around with the female.
According to Mauriceo Brown's testimony, he said that Michael brandished a weapon.
And when he brandished the weapon,
he said he pulled his weapon, and it went off.
Um, Mauriceo Brown testified that we didn't plan a robbery.
He testified that nobody encouraged him to rob.
And he testified that he acted on his own accord.
Um, unfortunately, that wasn't good enough, you know.
The jury didn't believe it, you know.
And they convicted both of us for capital murder.
They convicted me of being a conspirator to the crime.
Um, they convicted me mostly for being a driver,
for driving the car.
And they handed down the death sentence for that.
I could honestly say that...
you don't understand death row until you're there.
[metal door slams]
You don't know if you're gonna get to death row,
and people are gonna be trying to kill you, murder you, fight you.
I mean, it was scary.
Every day when you're there, and every year,
there was executions mounting up.
Some of these guys became my friends.
People that, "Hey, man, uh...
I got an execution date, man.
Uh, I'll see you."
And it's like...
that's fittin' to be me.
Uh...
You can't put that into words.
[stammering] It's a traumatic process.
It's a traumatic process.
[protesters chanting] We say, "Hell, no!" They say, "Death row!" We say, "Hell, no!"
They say, "Death row!" We say, "Hell, no!"
They say, "Death row!"
-[protesters clamoring] -[horn honking]
[protesters chanting] We are the people...
[Foster] To tell you about what happened on the day of my execution,
I have to tell you about what happened the day before.
I had become real vocal on death row
because we ended up gaining a reputation
for being vocal and willing to protest for our rights.
They decided to remove me from death row a day early of my execution.
[Foster] Where are you taking me, man? Where are you taking me to?
I'll walk with you if you tell me what you're doing with me, man.
[protesters chanting]
[Foster] Am I gonna see my family, yes or no?
Am I gonna see my family, yes or no?
[all chanting] Free Kenneth Foster! Free Kenneth Foster!
I was scared to death. I didn't know why they were coming.
I mean, I know that I can't get executed before my execution, but what do I know?
I didn't know anything up to that point.
So when they came and took me out my cell, I went to the ground. I laid it down.
I'm not participating in this, man.
I'm not participating in this.
-[all chanting] Free Kenneth Foster! -[man] What?
[crowd] Free Kenneth Foster!
I refused to walk.
I was scared.
I didn't feel like I should be getting executed,
and I made them carry me.
They carried me, put me in the van, they drove me to Huntsville.
Um...
and then the next day, I had my final visit with my family.
I found out through the warden, he told me my sentence was commuted,
and he said, "Hey, we'll have a bus here to get you in about ten minutes."
They reprocessed me. I was reprocessed as a new inmate.
And the second half of my life began in August 30th, 2007.
Every day, for the last 21 years, I've had to think.
What can I do that's gonna make a difference in this situation?
Because it's hard to bring a triumph from a tragedy like this
because this man shouldn't have lost his life.
Even though I wasn't the one that killed him,
nevertheless, I was there.
And I've had to pay the price for it, and it means something to me.
Over the years, we wanted to build a bridge with the LaHood family.
We've wanted to show them the person that I've become.
We want to discuss with the family, not only my sentence,
but is rehabilitation and redemption possible?
I wanna show that life is worth something.
You'll never disbelieve in the word "redemption" again.
I can guarantee you that.
[car beeping]
[LaHood] You don't, you don't get lost in this neighborhood.
I mean, you don't just-- I took a left accidentally instead of a right.
I mean, they were this deep into the neighborhood
'cause they were following somebody.
This is my parents' house.
This is where the incident happened
on August 15th, 1996, at 2:14 in the morning.
So, at the time, all three of us-- myself, my older brother, my younger brother--
were living with my parents, so we were all home.
My bedroom was on the other side of the house.
I was just watching TV.
I know I heard the alarm go off.
And so, I actually got up and opened the door.
I saw my pop run by with a weapon, with a gun in his hand.
And I heard a female's voice from down the hallway,
and, you know, faintly saying, "Mike" and then "shot."
I grabbed a weapon and followed my pop.
I walk out of this door,
and Mike's car was parked here.
But what I could see was literally a river of blood
that was coming from underneath the car, all the way down the driveway.
So, I walk around.
And then, the young lady was screaming at the top of her lungs.
And then I saw my brother laying facedown with his head that way, at this angle.
And then my aunt said, "Mijo, he's gone."
I'll never forget that. She said that.
And so, when she said that, I remember looking at my pop.
I can still see it. I remember looking at my pop.
And he went from being intense, like, "What do I do?"
I can just see it. Now, as a daddy, I get it.
To literally-- I mean, he just...
[exhales]
Like his spirit left his body.
And he walked out to the front of the yard and cried by himself.
I didn't know whether to follow him, what to do.
I didn't... There was no CPR to do.
[breathing heavily]
Well, I mean, I became a functioning anger-holic, right?
I was angry.
The world gave me no answers.
You heard your mom cry the way only a mom can cry.
You helped load your brother's body on the gurney
after they did the investigation and rigor mortis set in his body.
And you helped your pop wash your brother's blood off your driveway.
I didn't want help. I thought that was for weak people.
That was my mentality at the time.
And so, it showed out in my behavior.
[breathing heavily]
I mean...
I didn't celebrate birthdays. Christmas was like whatever.
Stared at an empty chair.
You know, I felt guilty to laugh.
I lived with regret.
I have regrets that I wasn't there.
There wasn't a time in his life on this side of heaven
that he needed me more
than August 15th, 1996, at 2:14 in the morning.
I used to sit outside my driveway...
with my weapon, and challenge evil, the devil, to come back.
I said, "Come back, you son of a bitch. I'm ready for you, you coward."
Kenneth Foster, even today,
he's still saying that he didn't know what they were doing.
There's no reconciliation without truth.
So, to say, "I didn't know where I was going,"
and, "Mauriceo wanted me to go to--
We're just going to some party. I'm just driving.
Now I'm gonna get killed for it on the death penalty"?
We weren't dealing with a Boy Scout back then, you understand?
He had the gun earlier in the night.
He was on deferred adjudication, which is probation,
community supervision, for shooting two guys in the stomach.
So, I don't respect that.
The idea of meeting with Kenneth Foster doesn't enrage me anymore.
It used to.
I will not expend any resources
to do something solely for him.
He can't pay me back. There's nothing he can do to pay me back.
So why even seek out a debt that he can't pay?
[birds chirping]
[Hughes] Here's something that we did.
We all had our "Save Kenneth Foster" shirts on.
It says "Don't let Kenneth Foster become another victim
of a racially-biased judiciary."
It's kind of, maybe, not the best slogan for a banner.
"A racially-biased judiciary?" I mean, what is that?
Just like, I would say,
"Don't let Kenneth become the victim of the racist system!"
It's, like, the way that I would do it. [chuckles]
[dog yelps]
Now, here's a punchy banner.
That gets the information out there that you wanna get out there.
It's way better than "racially-biased judiciary."
Just saying.
In death penalty cases, the loudest voices were always the voices of the victims.
But we also felt like, especially in these cases
where innocent people are on death row or in danger of being executed,
that they are being victimized by the system
and that their voices should be just as loud.
Here's some letters from Kenneth, actually.
You can see, like, it's typewritten, and it's so long.
He always had a lot to say, and he would always be like,
"I need you to do this, this, this, this, this."
Like, a long list of things he needed me to do.
We felt that by focusing on a single case,
we could humanize people on death row.
I think his case was really easy to understand
because he didn't shoot anyone.
That was understood by everybody,
that he was in a car several feet away when this murder took place.
I didn't know about the law of parties.
Until Kenneth's case, it was the first I'd heard of it.
It has some... also language about predictability,
that you should have known that this crime could have occurred or would occur,
so it's a very specific law.
And that was a big part of our campaign, was hammering away at that law.
Because it asks a person to basically be psychic,
that they should have known that this crime was going to be committed.
Commutation is very, very rare.
In fact, I think that when Rick Perry commuted Kenneth's sentence,
it was only, like, the second death sentence to be commuted.
Execution is murder. It's premeditated murder.
I saw my long-time pen pal, Justin Fuller, executed.
Despite the sort of clinical veneer of the lethal injection process,
when you witness it, it's...
It's... I don't-- It feels like witnessing a violent crime. You're watching your loved one be murdered right in front of your eyes.
That's like-- And you can't do anything.
Kenneth Foster's death sentence,
I agreed with it then, and I agree with it today.
And I will always agree with that.
I think it's terribly wrong for people to believe
that he was "wrong place, wrong time."
To believe that he was just a driver and didn't know.
I don't think they believed they were gonna be found guilty
because I remember they were laughing and joking.
And when they were found guilty, I think they were a little bit more concerned.
I think Kenneth was the most person in shock.
And he was the one I was most convinced of.
Even though Mauriceo Brown was the actual shooter,
but I was more convinced with him
because you could just tell he was the brains behind the outfit.
He was the one who was pulling the strings.
He may not have fired that weapon, but he facilitated that whole night.
It was August 14th, 1996,
when four individuals were driving in a vehicle, looking to rob people.
Mauriceo Brown, DeWayne Dillard, Julius Steen,
and Kenneth Foster was the driver.
The pattern was seeing people that were just stopped, and robbing them.
This woman had been working, and she was-- You know, she was a waitress at a Jim's Coffee Shop,
minding her own business, making--
Scraping up all of her money she could get from tips
and whatever she's getting paid there.
They would have seen the first victim over here at this location.
And at that point,
that's when Kenneth Foster moved his vehicle over there
to let Julius Steen and Mauriceo Brown out so she can be robbed.
They were looking for, they thought, an easy prey.
They saw her by herself, a lone woman.
They said, "She'd be very easy to go and rob at gunpoint."
Now, if they did not intend to go use it, why was it loaded?
The four individuals in the vehicle had just completed their first robbery.
They were then proceeding to their second robbery.
They saw three individuals right here.
Two women and a man.
And at that point,
that's when Mauriceo Brown stepped out of the vehicle again
and brandished a gun in their face, yet again demanding their money.
Demanding their purses, money, and credit cards.
He is the one that pulled into this location.
And remember, if anything, he was spotting what was going on.
In fact, he was a very big participant in this.
After the second robbery, they proceeded to go looking for other victims.
Not going home, not cutting it short, but continuing.
And at that point, they saw Mary Patrick in a white vehicle.
A pretty woman driving a vehicle alone,
and they figured, "We're gonna follow her."
So, as you can see, this is a lot of winding and turning.
And I don't see any kind of nightclubs out this way,
and it wasn't like this 20 years ago, either.
Yeah, here we are. This is it.
This is the house.
Okay, we're in front of Michael LaHood's home.
That's when Mauriceo Brown confronted Michael LaHood,
put the gun in his face and demanded the money,
demanded his wallet. And shot him in the face.
[gunshot]
It wasn't an accident.
The trigger pull is much too hard for that.
It's not an accident. The gun didn't accidentally discharge.
Kenneth Foster, he manipulated the individuals.
The jury saw through that as well.
He's an arrogant individual,
and he would've said anything and would say anything--
I believe he'd still even say to this day that it wasn't--
He didn't anticipate Mr. LaHood getting murdered.
Kenneth Foster's case was decided before Mauriceo Brown's case,
which means he was found guilty
and, in addition, he was actually sentenced the death sentence
before even Mauriceo Brown, the actual shooter.
That's how much they believed he was involved in this case.
[chatter]
[LaHood] Well, I knew that night, after Mike passed,
I knew at that moment that life was gonna be different.
I knew there was a new normal in our lives.
[chatter]
Brokenness creates more brokenness, right?
I just thought to myself, I gotta get my shit together.
I can't say it any other way.
[laughing] Hey, George. Good to see you, brother.
God bless you.
And a friend of mine, he started talking about faith, you know?
And said, "You should try out my church." I was intrigued.
And little by little, it started permeating in my spirit.
But thank you for being here this morning. My name is Nico LaHood.
We're here this morning for a very particular reason.
I'm a hypocrite if I don't believe
that someone who is guilty of murder cannot turn their life around.
You know why?
Because the apostle Paul, who wrote two thirds of the New Testament,
used to be Saul of Tarsus and he was a murderer.
So, I am not a follower of Christ if I don't believe
that someone who commits the act of murder cannot be redeemed.
'Cause God says he can.
I couldn't talk about my brother's murder or the situations
without salivating with anger and hate.
So, what changed your worldview?
Christ revealed mine.
The idea of meeting with Kenneth Foster,
it would be a benefit to him, I'm assuming.
This whole time, I have not felt that that was something missing
in my journey to find peace.
I found peace.
I didn't make a mistake. People like to talk about poor choices as mistakes.
A mistake is an accident.
I didn't make a mistake, I made a poor choice.
I sold drugs. I sold drugs when I was young and foolish,
and I was arrested for selling drugs.
I was pissed off at myself because I was labeled a drug dealer,
a criminal, because I made poor choices in my life.
I was just stupid.
So, I was mad at myself because I was dealing with these labels
that I helped put on myself. I mean-- So, I've lived it.
That's why I believe in redemption. Right?
[car honking]
[Lawrence] I remember this one. That's one of him.
Well, I see this and this.
That's him there.
This was at Easter time.
There's his Easter basket and...
He was good, he was darn good at that age, because I've had to just about...
deprived him of his early childhood experiences
and things that he had confronted there.
And he was back on the right path. [chuckles]
Kenny was born to my youngest son,
and I saw that he was not being well taken care of.
Now, I'll admit that my son was a drug user.
He had gotten into trouble in different times.
And I saw the need for him to be in a different environment,
and I asked to let him stay with me awhile.
And that's the two of us, Kenny and myself.
I don't know what we were doing or what we had done.
Evidently something funny because we were still laughing over it.
[chuckles]
I just wanted to train him up to be a good person... [chuckles]
as far as setting his goal in life.
For some reason, he wanted to be a policeman. [chuckles]
Would you believe it?
In his second year in middle school,
he got with a group that was smoking marijuana
and he got suspended from school.
That was the first instance of his really getting into big trouble.
When they said death penalty because of he has driven a car,
I just never-- I never conceived the idea that he was going to be executed.
I-- It was just something in my mind. I said, "There's just no way."
His execution came around.
Governor Perry spoke and said,
"The sentence will be commuted to life in prison."
I said, "Wow," I said to myself. I mean, yeah, I cried.
Yeah, I'm not so macho or whatever that I can't shed tears.
It was, it was tears of joy.
"Now," I said to myself at that time, "now the thing is get him out of there."
Death-- I mean, a life sentence is a life sentence,
and we still have work to do.
I mean, yeah, I'm 90 years old now, but I still say I'm going to see him free.
Yes, even now. Yes.
I said, "He's going to be free."
I'd do everything I possibly can to free him,
and so now I'm going to continue doing it, and it's going to happen.
-I'm for Nico LaHood. -I'm for Nico LaHood.
I'm for Nico LaHood.
I'm for Nico LaHood because he's gonna be good for our community
and he's the right man for the job. Please vote for Nico LaHood.
When you need somebody to watch your back, Nico LaHood has your back.
Today, I'm a husband and dad, former prosecutor and magistrate judge.
Now, some say all that's not enough.
I say what got me from there to here is my hard work
and a belief in redemption.
[phone ringing]
If she was a few months younger, it would have been a capital murder.
I mean, it's...
There's no way in hell I ever dreamed that I would be the district attorney
of Bexar County of San Antonio.
A lot of people were curious about what kind of DA I was gonna be.
People said, "Look, he has this experience.
His brother was murdered in his driveway."
And there was a group of people that thought I would seek the death penalty
most of the time.
I believe we're balanced.
We seek it. There's no doubt about it.
I'm gonna review three cases today on death penalty decisions.
But anybody that makes a carte blanche statement
that I'm just against the death penalty,
I say, "Have you tested your theory? What do you mean?
Has your kid been shot in the face in your driveway?"
"No. I don't know.
I think you think you're against the death penalty, you just don't know."
[LaHood] When I attended the execution of Mauriceo Brown,
and I was still very angry...
And they ask you, "Why are you here?"
And if you want me to say exactly what I said,
I said, "It's none of your fucking business why.
I'm here 'cause I wanna follow this through.
This individual murdered my brother and I need to see him go to the Lord.
I need to physically see him take his last breath and go to the Lord."
I'm all for reconciliation in all circumstances.
There's people absolutely wanting me to advocate for him to get out.
And if I'll meet him, it has nothing to do with the sentence.
He's eligible for parole in 40 years.
If he's changed his life, then God bless him.
I'll visit him on a regular basis. How about that?
-[Lawrence] Good to see you! -[LaHood] You look sharp.
Look, look, this is not being sharp. I just-- I went to church this morning.
Well, amen. I was in church, too.
[Lawrence] You know, we are here for a purpose.
Even though there were something that happened in our family
that we both regret.
I mean, I do, I regret it and feel half of a feeling for you,
and I'm hoping that we don't hold animosity.
But I can only say I'm sorry and I apologize for what he has done,
and which he would do the same thing.
He would apologize now that he realizes.
Kenny being driving the car.
Mauriceo inflicted the punishment upon your brother,
and Kenny has spent 24, 25 years in confine-- Well, incarcerated.
And now, I'm trying to see if there is some way that...
I don't know-- Well, if he could get another trial
or... I don't know what would be necessary there.
Yeah, I know you have an opinion and you have some perceptions of what's going on
based on what you've been told.
-He was charged with capital murder. -Yes.
Under the law of parties,
you do not have to pull the trigger or do the stabbing to be responsible.
That's the situation we're in with Kenneth.
-Let me ask you this. -Sure.
Now, is it any benefit
for the defense attorneys that work the cases?
I'll tell you that the mindset behind the law of parties
is for it to be the benefit of the community.
It's not whether it's a benefit to the defense or to the state.
It's a benefit to the community. Think about it.
There are some people out there that are very manipulative
and have a mastermind.
And if we didn't hold that person accountable,
and only the person they manipulated to do the crime,
then people would get away with a lot of stuff.
[sighs] Anyway, yeah, I'm just trying-- Really...
I'm really trying to find something that would be advantageous
in our case where Kenny may...
can get another hearing and get something
that may lead to his being released from prison.
I don't have this yearning desire to meet with Kenneth,
but I don't mind being obedient and meeting with him,
and then maybe it's something that he needs, or...
Who knows what's gonna happen from it? But I'm saying is, I'll be--
I'm gonna go in there with an open heart.
But just so you know, 'cause I wanna make sure we're always clear,
I have no intention of advocating for Kenneth
to get out sooner than he should. Just to let you know.
I'm just being honest with you.
He can still serve a tremendous purpose from in there.
If he gets out at the right time, then I'm okay with it.
I'm okay with the system playing out. How about that? I'm okay with it.
[children chattering]
[LaHood] I just thought it was interesting.
He was kind of trying to gently touch on the fact
that he believed that Kenneth was being over-punished
or punished too harshly or unjustly,
which he's entitled to that opinion.
I have no qualms with that, but...
I mean, even if I-- And it's a huge if, which is not gonna happen.
Even if I wanted to advocate to get him out early, I have no authority.
The law is the law.
I mean, he's not even eligible, regardless of who wants him out.
Until 40 years.
[Foster] The main thing that I want to get with Nico about
is really a couple of things.
I really wanna talk to him about the power of a man
and his ability to go through a situation like this, you know?
And to come through the other side a better man.
But it's also to talk to an individual that...
maybe once in his life could have been right where I'm at.
You know? He could have been sitting right here.
I look at him as somebody that was on the wrong course in life,
but got his life straight.
And I admire that.
I admire him as a man and I admire what he's done.
And perhaps at some point in time in the discussion,
we could have a legal discussion regarding...
um, was my case deserving of death?
Have I done anything with my time to deserve a second chance in society?
In the readings that I've done, when you are really seeking forgiveness,
you have to be honest about what you did.
And that means that I would have to sit down with Mr. LaHood,
and, piece by piece, walk through what happened that night.
[stammers] If anybody ever knows anything, if Nico and his family ever know anything,
Mauriceo didn't want that to happen.
Mauriceo was just trying to be a show-off.
There was no conspiracy to rob anybody.
Somebody would have got out with Mauriceo, just like earlier in the night.
Somebody would have been with him to hold his back.
You don't send one man to rob two people. You don't do that.
I wanna say something.
And I've been saving this for this documentary.
And it's something that...
Nico doesn't know.
And it's something that some of my supporters don't know.
But I want the world to know this.
When we were in that car that night,
and Mary Patrick was here talking to us, talking to us at the car,
and said, "Hey, are you guys following me?" or whatnot.
And, "No, we're not following you."
All this is in the trial record, but this is the part that's not.
When Michael LaHood was at the top of the driveway,
I don't know if he got upset
or maybe he was angry that she was talking to us for so long.
But regardless if anybody believes it or not,
and I say this at the possibility of my own demise,
he kind of gave us the bird.
Like this here. Like, you know.
And kind of in a joking fashion, I told Mauriceo, I said,
"Man, you gonna let that guy flick us off like that?"
And it was really just a joke.
It was... it just didn't mean anything behind it.
And that's when Mauriceo jumped out the car.
That's when he got out and went up to the driveway.
I feel that...
if I hadn't said that, we would have just drove off.
I'm accepting the guilt.
I'm accepting the blame.
If I have to do this life sentence
because of something that my stupid mouth said,
then I have to do it.
What I said caused Mauriceo to get out the car.
Was, "You gonna let that guy do that?"
And he got out, trying to be a tough guy, man.
And that's something that I've had to live with.
That's something I wanted to sit in front of Nico and tell him,
"We weren't trying to rob your brother."
But perhaps what I went through, death row,
maybe that was something to spank me on my butt.
To warn me.
Keep your mouth shut.
Listen, pay attention, be humble in life.
Why would you believe this?
Because what I just said can hurt me.
What I just said can hurt me, can be used against me possibly.
So, I've had to go back to my cell and pray and think,
"What would I wanna say to Nico LaHood?" Because if he never comes to see me,
this may be the only way that he hears my side of the story.
My legal defense was always we did not conspire.
We did not agree to commit a crime.
Me saying, "Hey, man, you gonna let this guy flick you off?"
It's not a crime.
But I assume the responsibility of what took place that night
because of what I said to Mauriceo.
Mauriceo wasn't trying to kill that man, he was just trying to be a tough guy.
And he lost his life because of it.
You know, I'll tell you something. [scoffs]
It's the worst feeling in the world to...
have somebody treat you...
so good,
give you everything that you could have wanted within their means.
And for you to hurt them and disrespect them
in the way that I've done my family...
[sobs]
You know, you know, my grandfather took me from a father that was a drug addict.
My mother was a prostitute.
And she died of AIDS in 1993.
And he tried to take me from that, you know, and tried to raise me right.
There's something that Nico LaHood's father,
Mr. Michael LaHood Sr., said.
"You can spend 20 or 30 years building a reputation.
And in 30 seconds, you can ruin it."