B59) Word of Honor

I was subpoenaed by the Pima County prosecutor . It was back to the Pima County Jail. At the time I was at Rincon prison in Tucson, Az. When the transport showed to pick me up I had just started reading the book, Word of Honor by Nelson DeMille. I took the book with me. I wasn't sure how far I'd get with the book. 

I’d been in prison for a couple of years. My former business associate (Larry) was finally going to trail. He was able to delay his trail for four or five years. I was in the Pima County jail when the trial began. Larry would come by every day to visit me in the jail. He never looked worse. It got to him. Four years under indictment turned Larry into a raging alcoholic. His wife left him. She was a co-conspirator that pleaded guilty and got probation on her charges.

A couple of months before the start of the trail Larry settled with the IRS. He paid hundreds of thousand of dollars to the IRS in an out of court settlement. If he won at trial his legal issues would go away forever.

The trail ended on a Friday if memory serves. When the jury went to deliberate Larry split. Bye-bye. If the jury came back guilty he would stay gone. If they came back not guilty it would not matter if he was there in the courtroom or not. Larry was indicted on half a dozen charges. All marijuana related. Because of his many priors, if Larry was found guilty on one charge it meant a twenty five year prison sentence.

The jury came back guilty on all six charges. And a life sentence to someone involved with a non-violent and victimless crime. Who does this make sense to?

Larry went to his parents house. Got a bag of cash, a bottle of vodka and one of his dad’s cars. He was fleeing the state. He was not going south. Sixty miles south is the Mexican border. Going north did not make sense.

Larry got as far as the phoenix area. He pulled off the highway bound for a convenience store and more liquor. Once in the store Larry began making a scene. He was blackout drunk. The manager of the store called 911. A police officer was dispatched to see what the problem was. When the officer approached Larry, Larry pulled out his gun and shot the officer.

The officer hit the ground. He pulled his gun and shot Larry three times. It was a nightmarish scene to be sure. After the officer shot Larry three times his gun jammed. Larry walked over to the officer laying on the ground and was getting ready to shot the officer again. This is when a bystander jumped on Larry and wrestled the gun away from him. Larry laid on the ground in the convenience store and bleed to death. 

I think the officer made a recovery from the wound. Larry shot him in the hip.

All this happened after dark on a Friday night

I get up Saturday morning for a Pima County jail breakfast. After breakfast I turn the tv on. The lead story is Larry having been killed the previous evening. I did not know. I did not want to find out by watching the local news.

I flipped out. I was taken to the psych ward of the jail. When I left the prison earlier that week I brought a book with me. I smuggled books with me everywhere I went. The jail guards took my book when I was processed into the jail. I would get the book when I left and went back to prison.

For some reason the novel I'd brought with me from prison was given to me after I was sent to the psych ward.