A call for peace
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on June 29, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Craig Doubt Jr. holds up a memorial T-shirt that was made as a tribute to his son and namesake Tuesday at city council as he makes a plea to a group of violent crimes offenders during a GPAC call-in. As he spoke from behind the shirt Doubt said "I'm here to share with you that it don't take much to get here."
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Teresa Cox holds up a newspaper to a group of violent crimes offenders Tuesday night during a GPAC call-in at City Hall. The paper is one of several reminders of the tragic incident that took the life of her son years ago.
Craig Doubt Jr. has seen his name on a tombstone twice.
Once was expected -- his father, Craig Doubt Sr., died of lung cancer at 61.
But the second time was never supposed to happen.
Doubt's son and namesake, Craig Doubt III, was shot in the back of the head from roughly 60 feet away on a Sunday afternoon in September 2008. It was a fatal injury. After being air lifted to Greenville -- there is no trauma center at Wayne Memorial Hospital -- Doubt's son died the next morning.
An act of senseless violence took Doubt's son away from him. Now, his Father's Days and other holidays are filled with pain and the want for isolation so he can process the pain he feels caused by the hole in his life where his son should be.
Because of this, Doubt spoke at Tuesday night's Goldsboro Partners Against Crime call-in to plead with 13 violent offenders to stop committing senseless acts like the one that killed his son.
"It was about 7 o'clock when I finally saw my son in the hospital, and I had all night to watch my son die," Doubt said. "He's 18 years old, had a job working on base and had a three-month-old son. And now it's my job, my responsibility, to watch him go. Breathing tube, things beeping, and all you see is the little boy you brought home. It didn't matter when the chaplain came in and wanted to pray with me -- there was no hope for him."
Doubt was one of three community members to speak to the 13 offenders that were notified Tuesday night.
Being notified means that the 13 men and women that attended the call-in will be watched with intense scrutiny from here on out -- if they are a felon, even possessing one round of ammunition can get them years in a federal prison.
Goldsboro Police Chief Mike West, Capt. Robert Thaxton of the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, Mount Olive Police Chief Tommy Brown, the local and the U.S. district attorneys, officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and a representative from the Wayne County office of Probation and Parole, also addressed the offenders. Each took a turn laying out the role they play in prosecuting cases of offenders who have been notified at GPAC call-in sessions. As soon as a violent offender is notified, law enforcement agencies share information on that person, the court cases against them -- should there be any in the future -- will be fast-tracked and given special attention. Bonds will be withheld so those notified will stay in jail until their trial if they reoffend and if they are convicted of any violent crime in the future, they face lengthy federal prison sentences.
Tuesday night was the second call-in of 2016, and each call-in is an effort to urge the probationers in attendance to turn their life around, stop committing crimes and begin being a productive member of society.
All it comes down to is a choice.
Jose Ochoa, a man in his 40's that recently moved to Goldsboro from Iowa, is an ex-gang member and spent 15 years in prison from when he was 19 until he was 34.
Ochoa made the choice to turn his life around, and now takes care of his children and works a full-time job.
He urged the offenders in attendance Tuesday night to follow in the footsteps he took once he was released from prison.
"I've been out of prison eight years, and that's not really that long, right?" Ochoa said. "I've done eight years, and every day I fight it, but I'm not going to go back. I'm done. It gets easier. I know what it's like. I come from where you guys come from. I come from the hood, the ghetto, the projects. That's all I knew. I thought that was normal. But there's more to life than that."
GPAC organizers told the offenders that resources were available for them if they wished to turn their life around, and they could turn them down at their own peril.
Tuesday night's call-in marked 228 offenders to be notified by the GPAC program since its inception several years ago. Of those 228 that have been notified, 42 have reoffended.