Original subtitles

Lisa called me on the phone.

Hey, Kim. She asked me did I want to take a trip with her.

I told Kim that I was looking at expanding my nail business, and I just

to go to Thailand to go and pick up some products.

I couldn't tell her all the details.

I thought I was helping Lisa.

Are y 'all bringing these products?

Kim had no idea that she was talking to a major drug smuggler.

Okay.

I wasn't thinking about whether it was fair to her.

I wasn't thinking about the jeopardy that I was putting her life in.

Dad, Mom, I'm in trouble.

I just shot somebody.

It definitely was a betrayal.

I don't mean to laugh about it, but I was really sick.

In 1993, I got out of the military.

I had a stellar career, a few medals, a few awards.

I'm a soldier of the year, but I wound up getting a disability from a ruptured

eardrum during gunfire.

So I had to leave what I love.

Moved to Alabama, went straight to work at the post office, and had a pretty

good life going, you know, as far as a second career goes anyway.

I met this lady at the donut shop.

As I was, you know, sitting at my table, and we got acquainted.

Ann was a nurse and a good -looking woman.

I became friends with her, and friends started dating her.

I spent a good bit of time over at her home.

She had two children.

I got along with them quite well.

But she had an ex -husband.

I don't think he too much liked me being around his ex -wife.

He would call her, and she put it on speakerphone so I could hear what was

on.

And, I mean, it was some vicious things this guy was saying.

Who is that in your house, and who the hell is in there, and I'm going to come

in there, and I'm going to kick their ass.

This was becoming a daily event.

One particular night, after we had sat down to eat supper, I heard a pop.

And it was a pretty loud pop, like a big crackle.

And went and looked out of the door.

She just started screaming.

My car's on fire.

Her children were starting to cry.

I really didn't know what to do.

Her car was pretty much engulfed in flames.

My car was on fire also.

I just knew we needed to get out of the house.

I just grabbed a little hand.

I was afraid that the flame might leak out and hit one of her kids.

I could feel the girl shaking as I was carrying her

hand.

And she was like, don't let my dad kill me.

They picked him up that night because they knew he was the one who firebombed

our car.

We went back in the house because there was nowhere to go. The

house hadn't caught on fire.

Maybe two hours later, he called us from the jail, used his one phone call to

call his ex -wife to say,

You bitches aren't dead yet.

He stayed in jail for a week, but they still let him out.

The police came. They gave us a court date.

One of them told me, quite frankly, I'll never forget it.

He said, you have to protect yourself.

You ain't got to tell me but once to protect myself because I'm going to do

that.

started carrying my pistol.

I'm walking outside every night now, checking the perimeter, you know, making

sure nobody's creeping around the windows.

I mean, this guy has me kind of, you know, tight and tense.

I heard the back gate one night.

We didn't know who it was, but more than likely it was him.

This time, though, I was a little bit more prepared for him.

I'm going.

I'm going to catch him in the backyard and wait for the police to come down

and do something about this.

I was getting a little jumpy.

Everything about that night was weird.

Dog barking weird, and just the whole feel of the night was different.

I didn't know what had hit me, but later on I found out it was a brick.

I staggered just a little bit, and then I automatically pulled out.

That's when we had our little incident.

Yeah.

Fired on him.

And fired.

Fired again.

And it was over almost as quickly as it started.

I didn't mean to kill him.

I really didn't mean to shoot him, but when he clocked me in the head with the

brick, it was almost an automatic response.

I was charged with manslaughter.

I had never been in trouble with the law, period.

I told no one in my family.

My mother and father have never been in trouble.

My mother marched with Martin Luther King.

These people were not the kind of people that you just say, Dad, Ma, I'm

in trouble.

I just shot somebody. No.

I couldn't do it. I felt I had to do this on my own.

The post office found out. They put me on administrative leave.

I was waiting on a trial date.

Waiting. Every day, it was too nerve -wracking.

So, that's how I wound up being free when her cousin called.

Hey, Lisa, how you doing?

Ann was like, Lisa wants you?

You know, and I'm like, Lisa? Who is Lisa? You know, she's like my cousin,

Lisa, come on down. I want you to meet Kim.

I had met Lisa at one of Ann's family functions.

Kim was my cousin's girlfriend, and my cousin is a girl. Nice to meet you. Hey,

and this is my aunt.

I didn't have any judgments or whatever.

It wasn't my lifestyle, you know, and I knew that very clearly because I like

men.

But I was very cordial to my cousin, and I was very cordial to her friend.

She seemed to be a nice enough girl.

And I was like, hmm, all right, give me the phone, you know.

And I was like, hello?

Hey, Kim.

And she just started talking like we were chums.

How you feeling? You okay? I was very aware of the situation that Kim was

involved in. I'm doing good, considering the circumstances.

I know it's a big mess.

She was like, well, you know, everybody in the family knows what you're going

through, and I just thought I'd call and check on you. Make sure you're all

right, hanging in there.

I just began to talk to her about if you had an opportunity to get away from

here and travel and go someplace so you can get your hair together, do you think

that would be a good idea for you? Do you think that would be great for you?

She said, well, I got a trip that I'm going on. I'm trying to get my nail

business off the ground.

I told Kim, this is what I told Kim.

In Asia, they have a product that when you put it on your nail, The product is

so hard that it won't break.

Right. I need to go to Thailand.

Thailand. And see if I can find that product.

I didn't want to go alone.

That's what I told her. I didn't want to go alone.

Really? Because it's a foreign country.

She knew I'd been in the military. She knew I'd travel.

I need somebody to go with me.

That's what I told Kim.

I remember that now.

I don't mean to laugh about it, but I was really sick.

Mm -mm. I couldn't tell her all the details.

Because then that meant that I would have to admit to somebody that I was in

drug business, and that was not going to happen.

Three months previous, I had a nail client who knew that I was in a really

situation.

I had $12 ,000 worth of debt from when I was married, and it was more than I

could manage.

Because I was a single parent, working part -time, taking care of three

by myself.

My nail client told me that he had a friend who had some businesses,

and maybe her friend could give me some part -time work.

Zuna was Nigerian.

She carried herself like a businesswoman.

She appeared to be doing very well.

Zuna told me that sometimes she uses people to go to other countries to bring

back products and different things like that. That was the word, to bring back

products.

Then she asked, would I be interested in going to Thailand?

Yes, I would be very interested in going to Thailand.

Even though I knew that it could be drugs, I didn't care what it was. I was

very desperate, and I just went for it.

The first trip, I would be accompanying somebody who would be bringing back some

products to the United States.

It was kind of like an on -the -job type training to see how it was done.

The second trip was going to be a really big deal because I would be the person

carrying the drugs, and I would get paid.

This business opportunity would give me $15 ,000.

Duna was supposed to organize a companion for me because two people

together looked less suspicious.

But you couldn't find a person that would be free.

Hey, Kim.

I wanted to go.

It meant a chance for me to get away from the normality of what had happened.

But I had a problem.

I can't go nowhere with you.

I have bond.

I was on bond at the time.

You don't leave from the state.

And if you leave from the city, you have to tell your lawyer.

This trip is really short. It's just one or two days.

Two days.

I thought it would be no problem to go to Thailand just for two little days.

Michael, when are we leaving?

I'll call you. Soon.

What does she want?

I think I mind a little bit me going, but I didn't care.

I was ready to get out of Alabama.

I left my kids with my mother. She took good care of me so she could take good

care of them.

I remember my kids saying, Mommy, don't go.

Mommy, please don't go.

I said, I'll be back soon.

I'll be back.

It was a good day.

I was getting up out of Alabama and on my way for a little adventure.

impression of High Jive?

Busy, bustling.

People on bicycles and motorcycles and dirt bikes.

I had never seen so many people in one place at one time.

The food was good.

I made sure every time I went past one of the vendors, it looked like they had

something good. I was getting it.

We were having a jolly old time.

That night, I thought we would get to know each other a little bit better.

I thought she might talk to me a little bit more, but she didn't.

I was very nervous because I was supposed to be in charge of everything.

And so I just wanted to get this done, pick this package up.

so that I could get home.

The next day, I decided I wanted to venture out on my own.

The weather was beautiful.

I had forgotten about Alabama.

I had forgotten I was even in trouble.

I needed the trip. I needed to break away.

Mentally, I had been drained, but this was fun so far.

When Kim was out sightseeing, I was at the hotel waiting for a phone call.

Nobody called me. The Nigerian person who was supposed to come and see me or

whatever didn't contact me.

When I got back to the hotel, Lisa was agitated.

I felt like I had to explain something to Kim, so I just explained to her that

these are supposed to be business people.

I'm spending money with these people. I'm trying to get the product. They

be here on time. I don't know what kind of business these people are operating.

Kim didn't expect anything else was going on because I kept saying my

I kept talking about my nail business.

Hello? When he finally called me, he said, I'm supposed to meet you and bring

you a package. And I was like, yes, I've been waiting on the package. Are you

coming? Are you calling to say you're on your way with the package?

And he was like, no, it's going to be a few more days.

A few more days?

We don't have a few more days.

I have to be back home.

He just made me so angry that I just threw the phone down.

I'm not talking to these people anymore. I really don't care.

We're going to have to get up out of here pretty soon.

I'm thinking about my pending manslaughter trial.

My lawyer calls me faithfully, and I can't miss that call.

I picked up the phone, and I'm like, hello, this is a friend of Lisa's.

How you doing?

Kim had no idea that she was talking to a major drug smuggler.

And at that moment, I was kind of like, she might find out what's going on.

He's like, hello, ma 'am.

I'm like, are you guys coming?

I didn't know in a minute if he was going to say, I'll be there with the

or I'm bringing the drugs.

I said, this is a fit.

And, you know, she's ready for her product.

What was really amazing about it is that she kept saying, you're supposed to

bring this woman's product.

Are y 'all bringing this product?

She came here to get product, and she just kept saying that product. She never

said anything else. She's ready for the product today, man.

He was like, we're coming, and don't worry.

And I was like, okay.

Well, good.

Okay. After Kim had talked to him, she just said, they bring me your product.

And I was like in my mind thinking, thank you, Jesus.

I'm serious.

The next morning, he came to the hotel room. He knocked on the door.

He was tall.

I recall him being sweaty.

And he seemed like he was in a rush.

Ready? Well, where is it?

He didn't have any luggage.

Bangkok.

Bangkok? We need to go.

I was told that I wasn't going to Bangkok.

I started to feel like something is not right about this trip.

Do you even have our tickets to America? Yes, they're in Bangkok.

She was still angry.

She had been frustrated for a couple of days, and I wasn't frustrated.

Because this guy was there trying to get us to our destination.

And that's all I cared about at this point, because I had more.

present issues that was always you know not far away from my thoughts

we flew from high jai to

bangkok we just went wherever he told us to go and we went to his hotel room

He tells me he has to go and he'll be back. We have to go. We have a flight to

catch. My sister, you know be late. My sister, don't worry.

Everything will be okay. You won't miss your flight.

He said I'll be back shortly. Relax.

Enjoy the room. Get something out the fridge.

Hey, I don't have a problem with that.

She can sit there on the bed looking mopey.

I'm going to the refrigerator.

But it was hours and hours past.

I was really starting to wonder, is this guy really legit?

He came eventually back to the hotel room for us.

And I said, you have the product.

And he said, yes, I need to pack this in your suitcase.

And I was fine with that.

He had looked like a mini suitcase.

He put it into Lisa's luggage.

Then he had this duffel bag.

Wait, you have to take this home.

What? You have to take this.

What do you mean I have to take that? You have to take this. I said, I'm not

taking that bag. No, I'm not. That wasn't the deal.

I came to get one bag. I agreed to come here and pick up luggage. I picked up my

luggage, you packed it in my suitcase, and that's all I'm going to do. Lisa

went off.

Right about now, I'm about fed up with all of this.

He said, well, can she carry?

And I was like, no, she's not carrying anything. She's not supposed to carry

anything. She's my traveling companion.

Now Kim probably has an idea. Something is really wrong here.

I didn't understand what was going on, but I had an uncomfortable feeling.

He took out five or six balls that were all wrapped in gray

duct tape.

And it didn't look like nail products.

I don't even know what that is. I can't take that. She can't take that.

I never had an inkling.

that Lisa would be involved in drugs.

But once I realized that she was, it pretty much all started coming together.

I knew then why she was so upset the last couple of days.

It was all really just coming to me, the realization of that this

is something.

I never thought about the repercussions of being caught.

I was thinking about the repercussions of not getting home.

I'm thinking about my pending manslaughter trial.

If I'm not there, how is it going to look?

I knew that I was going to go to prison for it if I didn't get back. I mean, I

jumped on because I'm not in the state.

I'm not in the country.

It really would have looked guilty. What's wrong with you? I'm not taking

bag. Well, don't you understand about I'm not taking that bag?

He is the key to us getting out of Thailand.

I told him that I care.

I just flat out said it. I carried a bag.

And I was like, saying to myself, I can't believe that she's saying that

carry this bag.

It was more important to me to do anything I could to get back

to my home.

Well. Once I agreed to take the bag, things seemed to line up quick.

He handed out tickets then, you know, everything all fine and dandy.

He put the balls in the bag.

He had some towels on the bottom of the bag, then a couple of my clothing

articles.

I think, like, he knew what he was doing.

I don't know at that moment if she knew exactly what she was getting herself

into.

I had no clue of what type of drugs it was. I knew that

it was not Kool -Aid.

Soon after we packed the bags or whatever, it was time to leave to go to

airport. Everything happened so quickly.

Zip. That's it.

Ready to go.

It was time to go, and he told us that we needed to arrive at the airport, not

together, but separately.

Maybe he did it so if one person got caught, the other person could get

I left first.

I was very afraid, very afraid.

I think I would have felt more comfortable if he had gone first and I

behind.

I wasn't thinking about the risk.

I was thinking, she's going to do it.

He's acting like it's okay.

What is it going to kill me to take this bag?

If she can do it, I can do it.

When I arrived at the airport, there was an x -ray scanner, and there was nobody

in line.

And I was very, very nervous at that time.

I tried to act like I was just normal.

I walked up to the scanner,

put my luggage up there,

and just wait for it to scan through.

On the taxi ride over, I only was thinking about getting home.

That's the only thing on my mind.

If I didn't get back to the South, my life

would literally be over as I had known it.

When my luggage went through, I could see my luggage being scanned.

It stopped for a minute, and my heart kind of stopped beating for a

minute.

It just looked like I had a bag of maybe a folded shirt or something. It didn't

look like anything what would make somebody suspicious.

He just looked at me and smiled and told me to walk through.

I felt like, oh, wow, I'm safe again.

I wasn't worried about those balls being seen in the x -ray machine

because the way the African guy meticulously packed it,

I thought it would be secure.

One bag went through, which was my carry -on bag I came with.

The girl who was, you know, checking the bags looked at it, slid it through, no

problem.

The second bag went through, and she checked it.

You know, they have to pause it to check contents or whatever.

Well, it didn't just pause.

It was a stop.

So the only thing I saw was the outline of the ball.

She looked at it.

And I'm kind of trying to, you know, just be cool, calm, you know.

She said, ma 'am.

These are your bags.

And when she said that, I just stood there.

Like a surreal type feeling.

If you could say that, you know, it didn't feel like it was me.

But it was me, all right.

She asked me again.

A little bit more forceful this time, though.

Ma 'am, this is your bag.

There was nobody in line but me.

Who else's bag is it? You know, that's what I'm thinking in my mind, but I'm

like, it's my bag.

And to the ma 'am.

Ma 'am, can you please stand over at the wall?

I thought, well, my goose is cooked.

And the officer grabbed my left arm.

Another guy walked up, put his hand in the small of my back.

He's like, ma 'am, can you come with us, please?

It just went down from there.

I'm walking through the airport like I own the airport.

I have my nice little heels on and my suit on like I'm a professional

businesswoman.

And I'm just thought -hearing through the airport or whatever.

I was expecting to see Kim on the plane. Whenever I got to the plane, I was

expecting to see Kim sitting right beside me.

As we started walking, it wasn't just the two guys anymore.

There was about ten guys walking.

I didn't even see them walk up, and they were just walking, like range walking.

They took me in a room, told me, you know, sit on the bench.

Five or ten more officers came in the room.

They were all standing looking at me.

It was extremely hot.

No fed, no air.

They took stuff out of the duffel bag.

One guy was from Drug Enforcement Agency.

He had like a, I guess it was a pocket knife he pulled out.

And he just popped one of the bags.

Popped it out.

Had powder on it.

That was the first time I saw what was inside.

He had some kind of test tube or whatever and liquid stuff.

I remember it turning blue.

I do recall him saying, this is heroin.

At that point, I'm knowing that I'm caught with drugs.

But I thought about my pending case more than I thought about the dope

on the table.

How am I going to get home next week to answer a lawyer's call?

They weighed.

All the little packages was eight kilos.

It really felt like a

tragedy.

And I guess I could call it a tragedy because it felt very much so like

the end of my world.

I only had 15 minutes and that.

plane was going to be taken off.

I saw these three Thai men walking towards me, and I wasn't really paying

much attention because I was just trying to be professional, look like I had it

all together.

And then finally, when they were close to me, that's when one of them said,

can I see your passport?

My heart started beating really fast.

And he said to me, I need you to come with me.

In my mind, I began to pray, Lord, whatever it is that you want me to do

for the rest of my life, I'm going to do it.

On the outside, I was acting nonchalant, like I was still in control of the

situation or whatever.

But on the inside, I was like.

They got me now.

They got me.

The

custom

officer took this long tool, like a nail -like looking thing, and he just began

to do this.

Powder started coming out. Poked it again, and powder started coming out.

They start saying, heroin, heroin.

And I jumped up. Who put that there?

Who put that there? And the little Thai man kept saying, you know, you know. And

I said, no, I don't know. Who put that there? Who put that there? And he just

kept saying, you know, you know, heroin, heroin.

And I kept saying, no, I don't know, heroin, heroin.

No, they didn't believe me.

they're getting ready to take me off to jail. That's what I'm thinking.

But they stopped in this room where I saw Kim sitting there.

I was like, damn, the thing I thought, I thought she was already on the plane

gone.

I definitely had a feeling of relief.

I wasn't by myself anymore.

I tried not to look at Kim.

I couldn't face her.

I just couldn't. No, we didn't talk to each other.

I don't even damn know if we looked at each other.

Oh, yeah, we had a camera in our face.

Lisa was argumentative.

And I'm thinking, oh, hell, this is not going to get better.

Because I've already seen how she acts, you know, when she's upset.

And here she's going again.

You know, I'm like, okay, whatever. We just screwed, you know.

On our way walking out of the airport, the custom agent said to me, Lisa

Taylor.

You want me to tell you how I catch you?

When we catch Ms. Hood, I look in computer and I find you.

He traced our whole trip and saw that we had sat beside each other.

I don't know what's going to happen to me. I don't even speak the language in

this country.

I told my family I was going to Chicago.

I'm just going to disappear and nobody's really going to know where I am.

The jail felt like a dungeon.

It truly did.

That was the first time Lisa and I were alone together.

And that was the first time I started questioning Lisa about what

the hell just happened.

And I just started bombarding her with questions.

I told him that I was sorry that I had gotten her involved in all of this. That

was never my intention to get her caught up in this situation.

But that was it.

It definitely was a betrayal of my trust.

But regardless of how she misled me, I had carried it.

She did not force me.

Once you make a decision, you got to live and die

by it.

My first night in the jail, I thought about my manslaughter trial.

I'm thinking about how the authorities would think about me being arrested, and

I knew that those people would think, Maybe she wasn't defending herself.

Maybe she's some big, bad drug dealer. You know, maybe she's some gangster. And

I knew my goose was cooked on that.

We spent four days in the jail.

After that fourth day, they took us to L 'Oreal Women's Prison.

I never imagined that I would be in a place like that.

I never imagined that I would have to deal with anything like that.

The cell that I was going to be sleeping in, it wasn't really big.

And there were like maybe 100 women sleeping on the floor.

And I was like, I can't believe this.

And that's how you slept, you know, on the floor. I mean, it's just unreal,

nasty.

The embassy came to visit.

The lady came and told us they had made contact with our family.

She told me my family already knew because they had heard about it on the

It made me feel sick.

I mean, really.

I was ill, like, head spinning.

You know, it's my parents, my loving parents that I had.

tried desperately to always make proud.

And they learned at the same time that not only was I arrested for

drugs, but I shot somebody.

Definitely, I wish I had told my parents.

Maybe I'd have never left and went on a trip to clear my head.

Maybe I could have cleared my head if I went home.

a serious problem in the beginning with my tummy.

I could hardly eat the food.

They prepared the people food on the ground.

They threw the food on the ground and chopped away. I mean, no, it wasn't

hygienic.

I remember sitting there with that rice, picking out bugs.

so that I could eat.

There was a sewage moat surrounding the inner wall.

I remember the first time I had to take a shower

That was the nastiest thing that I had ever seen.

I remember cold water and human waste is just floating around.

It was just total degradation.

My mother would send me pictures of my children, and

they might have a smile on their face, but then I would look at their

eyes and see something was missing.

I knew that that wasn't the look that they had in their eyes before I traveled

and before I had done this horrible thing.

And I think my daughter went through some depression and different things

that when I was gone.

Because my mother told me that she would just stay in her room and cry. She

cried most of the time.

And I did that to her.

When you go to prison.

Life changes even for the family. And no matter how much I try to protect my

children from the hardship of everything that happened to me, they experienced

all of it. And that's the sad thing for me.

The worst way being incarcerated affected my life is it put a label on

I was convicted of not one but two major felony crimes.

After all this was over, Kim and I never

really stayed in touch with each other.

We've seen each other a few times, and that was it.

I don't like Lisa.

I don't even want to see her ass no more.

I don't want to do nothing with her. Lisa wanted to be a part of my life when

got out.

I let her know, quit. Get the f*** on.

Since I've been home, I've been so busy trying to get my life back in order. I

didn't think about the effect that it had on Kim with her lifestyle after

back and the quality of life that she could have even now.

My life will never be ruined as long as I got breath in my body and God in my

life, but she screwed it up pretty good.

I just want to tell Kim that I'm sorry and her family that I'm sorry for all

hardship and the pain that I caused them and all the suffering that they had to

go through because of me and the poor choices that I made.