Trying to help a buddy

[jambo101]

Friend of mine that i've known for 30 years has gotten himself in a bit of trouble and i'm at a loss as to how to help him,story goes like this..

Met the guy through a mutual friend some 30 years ago,we hit it off pretty good and my wife got along with his wife and my brother being 15 years younger than me was pals with the guys 2 sons,so for 30yrs we did a lot of fishing trips and BBQ's and ultimately went to the same church every Sunday,the guy was always a hard worker,didnt smoke anything and 1 beer was his limit when socializing.
Then about 5yrs ago the police hauled him off to jail where he is still incarcerated seems when he was 18 he mugged some one got caught and spent 4yrs in jail,whilst on parole his PO told him that he would have to go back to jail as he wasnt finding a job fast enough which is when he bolted to Florida,got a new identity and lived a straight up life for the next 30 years until one of his old aquaintences ratted on him and his life came crashing down and back to jail he went.
He's been back in jail now for 5 years and when i ask him when he might get out he says its "a day to life" scenario because for some reason they have him in the mental ward of a jail
He's now spent close to 10 years in total behind bars and i'm thinking he's more than paid his debt to society but there doesnt seem to be any movement on his ultimate release date,its almost as if the penal system has just forgotten about this guy and he may end up spending the rest of his life behind bars for a mugging where no one got hurt some 40 years ago.Wish i could do something,any one got any ideas?

 

[summer2007]

Jambo

I don't know what to tell you. But your friend made one big mistake in life right from the start....he was born a male.

Here in the United States over 93% of the prison population is male.

If your friend was a female she could have committed 1st degree murder and spent 1/100th of the time in jail your friend did.

I hope he gets out very soon!!!

Jim

 

[Walt34]

ACLU? Legal Aid Society?

Call a lawyer, any lawyer, make an appointment and ask about options. Most will charge little or nothing for an initial consultation.

From what you posted it seems the guy is not a threat to anyone and it's a waste of money to keep him locked up.

There are precedents for this type of situation and the trick is to get the issue before a judge with some common sense, which can be a trick in itself.

 

[Martha]

Sounds like you might not know the whole story, but I agree with Walt that having a lawyer look into it makes sense.

 

[Purron]

Sounds like you might not know the whole story, but I agree with Walt that having a lawyer look into it makes sense.

I don't think you know the whole story either. Something just doesn't seem right here. Before I invested in a lawyer, I would consider having a private investigator do a background check on the guy.

 

[Texas Proud]

Not to say you are right or wrong.... it has happened that someone gets stuck once in awhile....

BUT, they usually look for people who they can kick out to keep the population down to a more reasonable overcrowding level...

 

[jambo101]

I don't think you know the whole story either. Something just doesn't seem right here. Before I invested in a lawyer, I would consider having a private investigator do a background check on the guy.

I've asked him several times if there was something else involved and he says no,even though he never told me about his former life 30yrs of knowing him i'll trust his word when he says no.Seems the problem is when you are committed to the mental ward regular prison terms can be extended indefinitely if the management deems you still potentially mentally troublesome,as my buddy says it could be a day or it could be life.
Dealing with this issue is somewhat difficult as i'm in Montreal and he's in Pueblo Colorado.

 

[crazy connie]

It might be educational to research charges online in CO. He may have engaged in more activity while incarcerated and just be too ashamed to fess up. Just a thought.

 

[tuixiu]

The simple robbery might not be 10 years, but maybe the parole violation plus fleeing blew it up into something this big?

 

[jambo101]

The simple robbery might not be 10 years, but maybe the parole violation plus fleeing blew it up into something this big?

Thats what i think happened, add in a few incidents of insubordination or disobeying rules whilst in jail and you can probably keep yourself inside for a long time. Hope one day we can have a long talk about it once he's free..

 

[jambo101]

A bit of Googling comes up with the story
Longest Running Escapee Captured After 35 Years - cbs4denver.com

I'm going to have to have a long talk with him if he ever gets out about some of the inconsistencies in what he's told me and what is reality..

 

[CuppaJoe]

I can't tell from your posts if you are visiting him but I think it's great that you are talking to him. You attended the same church, how does the line go, "when you visited him, you visited me." Jambo, you are a very good friend.

 

[Texas Proud]

A bit of Googling comes up with the story
Longest Running Escapee Captured After 35 Years - cbs4denver.com

I'm going to have to have a long talk with him if he ever gets out about some of the inconsistencies in what he's told me and what is reality..

Well, reading the article.... he is sitting in jail waiting to get charged... so he will sit a long time...

This IS something that happens to people at times.... they get arrested, can not make bail, or no bail (I would think he would not get bail since he escaped).... and it can take years for a trial....

I have read before where this one guy had been rotting in jail, waiting for trial... it kept getting bumped down the road because of either the prosecution or defense not being available at the time.... when it came time for trial, the judge looked at the charges, looked at how long the guy had been waiting and released him... he had staying in waiting for longer then the longest prison term he could get IF he was convicted... can't remember if they let him off or what... but I do remember him getting released...


I assume he will be in jail for another 10 or more years... due to his escape...

 

[jambo101]

I assume he will be in jail for another 10 or more years... due to his escape...

Looks like its going to be a while as he only served a year and a half before he bolted not the 5 he told me,and he's now been in for almost four years so he's still got a year or more before the 6yr minimum sentence is reached then add on his parole violation and his escape and it could be another 6 to 10. I can hope that to save money the system may give him an early parole as he is no threat to society as his 35 years of living a straight up life can attest.

 

[Purron]

You are a good friend Jambo. I tend to look for the negative while you see the positive. Wish I could be more like you.

 

[Nords]

... as he is no threat to society as his 35 years of living a straight up life can attest.

Except for the "lying to his friends" part, anyhow...

 

[jambo101]

I've only spoken to him 4 times since he got himself re incarcerated and those infrequent calls were very short due to timing regulations on personal calls,I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that i might have got a few of the details wrong.All the letters i've sent him have been returned and calling him is not permitted or impossible to accomplish, so he may not be lying to me,in the 30yrs i knew him he never gave me a reason not to trust his word and i can understand why he never told me of his big secret previous life.

 

[Leonidas]

Google leads to additional details. Sorry, but I have a compulsion to check such things, and you probably should know the real scoop:

Davault, whose real name is Garry L. McFall, had been on the run since 1971 for an aggravated robbery he committed March 7, 1969, in Denver County, Colo. McFall was sentenced Feb. 24, 1970, to six to 14 years at the Colorado State Penitentiary.

McFall's arrest history began in the late 1960s, Ruland said. He picked up a strong-arm robbery charge in Colorado in 1966. In 1967, he was placed on probation. He violated his probation by moving to California, where he was arrested on a sexual assault charge, Ruland said.

So, two robberies and a sexual assault charge. And that doesn't mean that there aren't more crimes that are known and unknown, just the ones that are mentioned in the article.

His most recent arrest apparently stems from an incident at MCAS Yuma in 2004 when he attempted to access the base using documents that claimed he was a disabled veteran.

The Marines knew of McFall two years ago when he attempted to enter the air station and presented documentation that indicated he was a disabled veteran, Schultz said. Corrections authorities acknowledged Wednesday that McFall previously had been apprehended in Yuma, Ariz., by the Marines at the Marine Corps Air Station in 2004. However, McFall was not extradited to Colorado because the state did not have a warrant for his extradition out of Arizona. Since then McFall's warrant for escape was amended to permit his extradition nationwide.

The Marines turned him over to Yuma PD who contacted Colorado's Department of Corrections. But Colorado was not in an extraditing mood and YPD let him loose. *

Then he decided to threaten the Marine Corps :

First Lt. Kevin Schultz, who is based out of Yuma's Marine Corps Air Station, said the Marines at the base had received threatening letters from McFall after he was taken into custody by the military in Arizona.

That was just a silly thing to do.

Miffed at McFall's silliness, the Marines decided to deal with him:

Corrections investigators, acting on the Marines' tip, were able to verify McFall's driver's licenses and tracked him to Port Richey, Sanguinetti said.

Sorry if I popped any bubbles for you Jambo. It's a compulsion born of too many years being lied to. Every cop knows that you never ask a crook what he did to get sent to jail/prison for in the past. You ask "what did they say you did when you got arrested last time?" And then you go find a computer and run his name to get the real truth.

* Such things happen - sometimes by administrative-clerical error. More often than not it is a budgetary thing - extraditing costs money and a lot of places put some really strange limits on how far they are allowed to go get somebody. I've unarrested a number of people because someplace like Podunk PD in New York would only extradite from the contiguous counties or some such nonsense.

 

[jambo101]

Good hunting Leonidas,thanks for the additional info.
On my last conversation with Gary he told me that when he finally gets out he will move into his girlfriends place along the Suwanee river and set up a custom car design enterprise,sounds like Gary,always working and always dreaming,not sure how he got a girl friend while he was in jail but i'm hoping his next call is to tell me to drop by,It'll be an interesting visit as we'll have plenty of time to talk about the whole story.