Offenders notified their second chances are up
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on March 22, 2017 10:00 AM
More than a dozen of the 20 offenders notified at the Goldsboro Partners Against Crime call-in Tuesday night at Goldsboro City Hall are parents.
Some have multiple children.
The call-in is an effort to get criminals to steer their life back onto the right track -- a track that will allow them to watch their children grow up.
A track that will allow their children to see them grow old.
Being notified means law enforcement -- federal, state and local -- is letting them know the rules have changed.
They are considered some of the worst offenders in Wayne County. If they reoffend, the punishment and prosecution will be the most severe they've ever experienced.
Outside of law enforcement, three people spoke -- two are parents of children who were murdered, one is a former gang member -- urging them to put down the lifestyle of gangs, drugs and guns, and instead pick up the phone and ask for help.
Goldsboro police Capt. Theresa Chiero, GPAC coordinator, said the 20 people in attendance will be called by the community arm of the organization to be offered help.
But once they are called, they have to tell the community organizers what they need to turn their life around, be it help getting a job, a diploma or getting out of town.
Chiero said 22 people were originally supposed to be notified, but one got locked up before the call-in and the other did not show up until an hour and a half after the call-in began.
Chiero said the late person would be getting arrested and charged accordingly for violating a court order.
Being notified is not a choice -- each person was there under compulsion by a judge or their probation officer.
Of those notified Tuesday night, the youngest was 17, and the oldest was 46.
Jose Ochoa, who is now 48 years old and joined a gang when he was 11, said he got locked up when he was 17.
He did not get back out of prison until he was 34.
"They're not playing," Ochoa said. "They'll lock you up forever. I got a lot of homies that are doing life. They'll never see the streets again. And I've got a lot of homies that are dead from gang violence and all."
Ochoa offered his own experience as an example -- he is now a family man with a full-time job.
"You guys have the opportunity to change your lives, you know, I mean, you really do -- and it's not that hard," Ochoa said. "You just gotta make the choice to do the right thing every single day. I've got a good job. I have a nice home. I have a nice little family -- and that's only eight years old that I've had that."
The other two speakers Tuesday night -- Theresa Cox and Craig Doubt Jr. -- shared their stories of how their sons were killed senselessly because of street violence.
Mrs. Cox lost her son to gun violence in Snow Hill in 2004 -- he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A friend of his had borrowed his car and gone to see a girl one week. Unbeknownst to Mrs. Cox's son, this put his friend in severe danger.
Several days after his friend borrowed his car, Mrs. Cox's son drove his friend back to Snow Hill to see the same girl.
They entered the subdivision where she lived, and gang members blocked the car in and started shooting.
Her son got out and ran.
So did his friend.
Her son caught a bullet in the back, which exited through his heart, killing him.
Her son's friend made it out unscathed.
She has still not seen or heard from that friend to this day.
Ochoa stressed this point -- the people these offenders believe they are so close with will leave them high and dry when put in harm's way, or when facing harsh sentences from law enforcement.
Much better then, Ochoa said, to take the help being offered and do what must be done to get their lives on track.
Doubt lost his son in Fairview Homes one Sunday afternoon in 2008.
The person shot him from across the street, putting a bullet in the back of his head.
Doubt's son did not die instantly.
And he was killed for no reason.
Doubt said the person who shot him was a former friend who decided the two weren't going to be friends any longer.
And over something so trivial, that person took a life and forever tore a hole in Doubt's soul.
Chiero said she could not say how many offenders had taken advantage of the community outreach portion of the program.
"I do not have those stats," Chiero said. "Only because I don't have that part-time community person that could do surveys and things like that. I'm hoping that we'll get that position filled, and that's what their main job is going to be."
The position Chiero referenced is an open slot for a community resource person to assist GPAC in tracking how people do once they are notified.
With Tuesday night's call-in, a total of 258 offenders have been notified since the program began in 2013.