It’s a great opportunity to share my testimony with you and others! Well, as you know my name is Denise Lawyer with three beautiful kids. ..two girls and one son, which they were all babies and now is grown. It’s been 10 ½ years I been locked up and it’s been a learning experience… I started off with no bond sitting in the county jail for second degree murder, I didn’t realize how serious things were until I got to prison. Wait let me slow down a a little and start from the beginning it was a Sunday night and football was on T.V. me and my ex home girl suppose to just went over to my co-defendant to pick up a couple dollars, but instead of my ex homegirl wanted my co-defendant to come with us and went to a strip club in Pompano that wasn’t the plans. So this club was small and it was one way in and one way out. So we got in the club had a few drinks which we had been drinking all day and this man approached me and my co-defendant was getting ready to leave but my co-defendant went to use the bathroom before we were leaving. So this man approached me trying to talk to me and my co-defendant comes out of the bathroom, which I was standing on the wall right next to the bathroom, when my co-defendant came out he as me is Im ready to go and the dude who trying to talk to me must swon on my co-defendant.
Knocking him to the floor and then three more dudes jump into it, without my co-defendant even fighting back. I manage to escape and go out to the car gt my co-defendant gun and try to ring it back in but that didn’t happen. I was drunk and I got the gun from the car after searching for it, walk up to the club door, the bouncer stop me ask me where I was taking the gun and like I said I was drunk I didn’t wasn’t/trying to hide the gun. My attention was to just get the gun to my co-defendant and him out of safely out the club. So told the bouncer were in there jumping my co-deffendnt, not knowing the fight was over. So my co-defendant was busting out the exit door about time, I turned around headed back to the car with the gun. I gave him the gun and I wasn’t aware the guys who jump my co-defendant had already made it out of the club and was prk right in front of the club waiting.. So I hand my co-co defendant the gun and he went crazy shooting the car where the boys were standing killing on of the boys, which a first I was charged with the first degree murdur and it was drop before I could even go to court to second degree murder.
So I spend like 15 months in the county jail with two trials but my trial was a hung jury and the second trial I was found guilty and I only believe because the first trial I got on the stand and the second trial my lawyer told me not to get on the stand which I believe that’s why I was found guilty. Because in reality the jury wanted to hear my sides of the story,. But from there I was sentences to life in prison without parole. I arrived at B.C.I 2007 and started to see if my lawyer put in my appeal, which he didn’t so I took it from there and started putting my belated appeal in because it was to late to put in a regular apparel so it took like two years to get back out to court but I went back out to court 2010 in March and stayed in the county for like a little over two years and its true when people say the longer there better or no new is good new. Because every minute and hour was worth it. And I really didn’t want to come back to prison but everything happens for a reason because people need to keep the truth and know it can be done. So it was coming to the end for my lawyer to come to some kind of agreement for me to take it to trial again and I was ready to take it to trial because I feel like I had nothing to lose.
At first the state tried to offer my 30 years and then they went down to 25 year and 5 years probation. Which I still felt like that was it life sentences. So I was still ready for trial and told my lawyer after court was over I wasn’t taking none of the offers they was trying to give me so he said he’ll be out to the jailhouse to come see me so we can ready for trial. So my lawyer came like a week later telling me the family don’t want to come down anymore but I just kept on praying and then he said he going to see what he can do. So we showed up in court and everything went in my favor! The judge told my lawyer and the state they need to come to some kind of agreement instead of taking it to trial. So my lawyer told me to give him a week and call him so once I call him he answer, he ask me did I want to hear the good or bad new first and I told him it didn’t matter, so he told me the bad new first which was the state wouldn’t come down off my charge because I was trying to get a lesser charge but they came down on my time which was 15 years. So I told him to can my dad to share the good news.
So we got a court date so I could take the 15 years and I had to speak to the family for the third time which that was hurting part of it all because I believe if it was the family decision I would be rotting in here but let God be the glory of it all and he showed me favor because not one time I never claim that life sentence and now I only have 18 months left. So I arrived back at prison and had to get the letter “A” on my tag like this is my second and had to go back through orientation which this is originally my first time in prison. All my propert was deposed and I really didn’t care about anything but pictures I could never get back but I had to look at the situation as I I had to lose something to gain my freedom back. My co-defendant got a life sentence back after going through all those channels trying to play crazy and it was sad because taking all those meds had him looking bad. I forgave everybody who was involved and I’m planning on keeping in touch with my co-defendant when I get out. I hope my letter touch somebody hear to encourage them not to give up and keep the faith.