Name: Sentenced to 50 Years Sheldon Johnson Decided to Turn His Life Around
Uploaded: 2024-02-01T18:17:23.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Sentenced to 50 Years Sheldon Johnson Decided to Turn His Life Around' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-02-01. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Sentenced to 50 Years Sheldon Johnson Decided to Turn His Life Around' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-02-01. Transcript available.

I caught the gun charge that triggered the felony that allowed them to
be able to sentence me the way that they did in 1994. I also caught another
case.
At that time I was what you call giving out consignment on drugs. Two
people in particular I gave consignment to and I ended up getting arrested for
a
case and when I sent someone to go pick up the money from them it kind of just
was like you know man whatever I'm not paying them. So when I came home on one
guy in particular I ran into him with his girlfriend. Did you get that case got
dismissed right? The gun charge? No the one that you were away for. You got
arrested
for something you're in jail. Yes. These guys figure since you're in jail fuck
it
we're not gonna pay him. Yeah I'm not gonna pay. And then the case that you
were
arrested for got dismissed. Got dismissed. I got acquitted. So then you come
home. So then I come home
and you know I need my money. I need my money. I'm just just it's just me being
honest this is being straight. You know I gave you something and we had an
understanding that you were gonna pay me. And when I came home when I finally
located this particular individual he had his girlfriend with him. And this guy
owed me five thousand dollars for some drugs that I gave him on consignment. I
gave him an eighth of a kilo which is 125 grams of cocaine. And when I saw him
he had a
bunch of jewelry on. He was with his girlfriend. She had a bunch of jewelry on.
I
said hey man. Where's my money at? Oh y'all I was gonna pay you. As far as I
was
concerned his jewelry was we was even. So I robbed him. And I took his jewelry.
And his
girlfriend happened to be there. And unfortunately she got caught up in the
situation. I had a bunch of young guys with me. And they robbed her as well.
And he
got hit in the head with the gun right here on the side of his head. And he got
two stitches. And they gave me 25 years for that case. Did you hit him in the
head? No.
One of the guys that I was with hit him in the head. And he identified me in a
photo
array unbeknownst to me. He identified me in a photo array. This guy you know
as far as I
was concerned he was in the streets just like I was. So I didn't really
understand
that you know. Like I said we go back to morals and values and principles and
how
warped they can be right? In my mind at the time this is a guy who I gave
something
to. He's living an illegal life. I'm living an illegal life. So as far as I was
concerned at that time it was fair game. In hindsight as I as I moved on and I
became more mature and I began to reevaluate myself I realized how wrong that
was. But
that was later on. At this time I committed the crime and I just kept moving.
Another
guy that I ran into he also owed me some money. He owed me $7,000 and it kind
of went along
the same ways. He was selling drugs out of an auto parts store. He was a
Spanish guy. I got
word that this is where he was at and he was selling drugs and I was going to
get
my money. And the same circumstances kind of ensued. Saw him. Hey what's going
on? You
know. Reading in between the lines and outside the margins without really going
into all of
the details I robbed him. Because he owed me $7,000.
Did he get physically hurt? No. He didn't get touched. Got roughed up a little
bit but
there was no physical there was no physical harm. Nothing. Going back to morals
and values and
principles right. In my mind he was fair game. He's selling drugs. I'm selling
drugs. You owe me
money. I came to take what you have. In that world that was considered as permissible.
These are one of the
rules of something that was permissible. In that world. Long story short in
December
1997 I get arrested for both cases. Really for one of them. For the one with
the guy and
the girl. And then the other case drops with the auto parts store. The guy that
I said
they were selling drugs out of the auto parts store. I am in the process of
going to
court. I'm going back and forth to court. I'm on Rikers Island at the time. It's
just crazy
on Rikers Island. That's when the gangs was involved. Prior to that a year
before that I
had got involved with the gangs. I was blood. I was a gang member. This is
where the cut
come from on my face. I have a bunch of stab marks from just being in those
environments and being on
Rikers Island and just warring with other rival gangs. Mostly Latin Kings and
Inetas. My final
offer before trial was 23 years. Which kind of blew me away because my lawyer
kept telling me that my
maximum sentence was 25 years if I went to trial. So on my mind I it just didn't
make no sense to me.
Why would I forfeit my rights to an appeal if there's only a two year
difference? I told the judge I would
take 15 years right now. I acknowledged that I had that I had made some
mistakes and I had
done some things that that were wrong and I said I'll take 15 years right now.
He refused to accept my
plea offer. And I went to trial and then I ended up getting 50 years, 5-0.
So they give you 25 for each case?
25 for each case, consecutive. And I remember like blowing trial and just not
really understanding like what was
being there but not like it was like almost surreal. And I remember when I went
and got sentenced and the
50 years now mind you I had a black lawyer, a black judge and a white
prosecutor.
And I remember when he said 50 years. He said he went into all of these reasons
why he was sentencing me the way that he was sentencing me.
There was never no post, uh, there was never no, uh, uh, uh, they're supposed
to do a report prior to your sentencing
and it's called a post supervision interview. Um, pre-sentencing investigation
is called the PSI,
pre-sentencing investigation. There was never no pre-sentencing investigation.
There was never no mitigating
evidence presented on my behalf to, you know, highlight why I may have made
some of the decisions that I made, um,
and he just called me a menace to society and he just, he gave me 50 years.
And I remember when I, um, when I first got to Downstate, which is a processing
facility, and they give you what they call is a time computation sheet.
And on the time computation sheet, it gives you all of the numbers, like the
beginning of your bid,
how much jail time you have. Um, and I would just remember 2049. That's all I
kept looking at.
And I was like 2049. Are they fucking serious? This is 1998, 1999.
And I'm trying to do the math and I'm just like 2049. I'm like, that's 50 years
from now.
And I remember going to the law library and, um, I forget how I get the World
Almanac.
And something just says, look up the life expectancy. And I look up my life
expectancy.
And as an African-American man, my life expectancy at that time was 67 years
old. And I did the math.
And I said, I'm going to die in prison, man.
I just really believed that I was going to die in prison.
Um, one thing I learned really, really quickly when I got to prison was that
prison does two
things to you. It brings out the best or it brings out the worst. And what I
saw was,
I saw individuals who were at their worst, and I saw guys who were at their
best.
Um, the guys who were at their best were guys who were involved in education,
post-secondary
education programs. They were running the program. They was running the
violence groups.
They was running the substance abuse groups. Um, and I remember saying to
myself, I want that.
And I remember just being involved in so much
bullshit because I was in a gang and, um, I was, I was, I was top of the food
chain.
I had my own nation. I wasn't just like the random gang member. I had a whole
nation under me.
Um, and I was just in and out the box, in and out the box, solitary confinement,
which has been considered as unconstitutional now. Um, and I remember just
having these moments of
reflection and just asking myself like, what are you gonna do? Can you spend
the next 48 years living like this?
And I said, I couldn't do it. And I, um, I had lost all my privileges. They
took everything from me.
I was in Southport at the time, which is closed now. Uh, it's a solitary
confinement facility in New York State.
And, um, I was on a loaf, which is also unconstitutional now. So the loaf is a
dietary
restriction that they give you. It's a chunk of bread and it has cabbage and
carrots in it.
And they give you like a quarter of a cabbage and they give you a cup of milk.
When they can't take
any more of your privileges, this is what they would give you. Six days out the
week on the seventh day,
you would get a hot meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And then it would go
back for 21 days.
They would do this six and one, six and one, six and one. And it was at that
moment where I really said,
I have to change my life. I have to change my life. I just can't do this. Um, I
had a wife,
I had family still. My son was growing up. Um, he was hearing stories about my
so-called, uh,
notoriety. And, um, I just didn't want to, I just didn't want to be that dad.
Like I really was looking at myself and really evaluating and asking myself
like,
yo, what the fuck are you doing? I was still smoking a lot of weed at the time.
I was drinking, um,
jailhouse hooch. Um, and I was at my worst.
And I, and I had to really, I had to figure out how to get to my best. So I
decided to,
when I got out of solitary confinement, um, I did 42 days on a loaf. I went
from two being 210 pounds
to like 168 in like a matter of seven months, deflated me. Um, and when I got
out, I made a
decision that I was going to walk away and I didn't care about what the
consequences was.
And I said to myself, I've been doing bad for so long. I'm going to try to do
something good.
If all else fails, I could always go back to doing bad, but let me try. Let me
give it a shot.
Um, and I ended up getting to school program. I got my GED. Um, I left the
gangs alone,
which was a benefit for them because, you know, I was what you call an
authoritarian. I was a rule
guy. I'm still a rule guy. I like rules. You know, I like rules. I like
structure. I like things to be a
certain way. Um, and it was to their advantage to get rid of me anyway. Plus I
knew a lot of the guys
who were at the top. Why was it to their advantage to get rid of you? Because I
was the type of person
who would say, you're doing that for what reason? No, you can't do that. The
rule says that you
can't do this. You can't do this. This is what the rules say. And I was rules
of the prison or
the rules of the gang, the rules of the street. Yeah. There was rules. Give us
a for instance.
Okay. So for instance, uh, I could be in a whole nother facility. Let's say I'm
in
Green Haven and a guy's in Attica and they want to do something to him because
they feel like
he's not sharing his proceeds of drugs that he's bringing into the facility.
The rules say you can't do that.
That's his property. That's his belongings. So I was a rule guy and they just,
you know,
it was to their advantage to get me out of the way. So when I decided to take a
step back,
they were like, yes. And it was to my advantage as well. Um, and this was in
2005.
So there was no resistance. None. And at that time, this is where a lot of the,
uh,
what they call set tripping began. Uh, the, the, the organization began to implode
on itself.
The gang organization. The gang organization. There was a lot of infighting
sets against sets. And I was just always against that. Um, and it was time for
me to go. And I,
I didn't care whatever the consequences was. I was fortunate that there weren't
any consequences. Um,
but I didn't care what the consequences was. I just walked away.
And then that begins your journey. This begins my journey. I got into school. I
got my GED.
Um, from there, I got involved in, um, correspondence courses. I started
interacting with guys who were
teaching ART, aggression replacement training. And I started to begin to
understand how these concepts
work. What's positive visualization is, um, deep breathing, how to remove
yourself, conflict resolution,
all of these ideas of, of change began to take place with me. Um, substance
abuse. I stopped smoking
weed. I stopped smoking cigarettes. I was smoking like 30 cigarettes a day. I
was, I mean, I'm literally
having chest pains from smoking cigarettes. And I realized that I wanted to
live. And the only way
that I was going to be able to live and walk out of prison was to remove myself
from these substances.
Thank you.

Sentenced to 50 Years Sheldon Johnson Decided to Turn His Life Around

I caught the gun charge that triggered the felony that allowed them to
be able to sentence me the way that they did in 1994. I also caught another
case.
At that time I was what you call giving out consignment on drugs. Two
people in particular I gave consignment to and I ended up getting arrested for
a
case and when I sent someone to go pick up the money from them it kind of just
was like you know man whatever I'm not paying them. So when I came home on one
guy in particular I ran into him with his girlfriend. Did you get that case got
dismissed right? The gun charge? No the one that you were away for. You got
arrested
for something you're in jail. Yes. These guys figure since you're in jail fuck
it
we're not gonna pay him. Yeah I'm not gonna pay. And then the case that you
were
arrested for got dismissed. Got dismissed. I got acquitted. So then you come
home. So then I come home
and you know I need my money. I need my money. I'm just just it's just me being
honest this is being straight. You know I gave you something and we had an
understanding that you were gonna pay me. And when I came home when I finally
located this particular individual he had his girlfriend with him. And this guy
owed me five thousand dollars for some drugs that I gave him on consignment. I
gave him an eighth of a kilo which is 125 grams of cocaine. And when I saw him
he had a
bunch of jewelry on. He was with his girlfriend. She had a bunch of jewelry on.
I
said hey man. Where's my money at? Oh y'all I was gonna pay you. As far as I
was
concerned his jewelry was we was even. So I robbed him. And I took his jewelry.
And his
girlfriend happened to be there. And unfortunately she got caught up in the
situation. I had a bunch of young guys with me. And they robbed her as well.
And he
got hit in the head with the gun right here on the side of his head. And he got
two stitches. And they gave me 25 years for that case. Did you hit him in the
head? No.
One of the guys that I was with hit him in the head. And he identified me in a
photo
array unbeknownst to me. He identified me in a photo array. This guy you know
as far as I
was concerned he was in the streets just like I was. So I didn't really
understand
that you know. Like I said we go back to morals and values and principles and
how
warped they can be right? In my mind at the time this is a guy who I gave
something
to. He's living an illegal life. I'm living an illegal life. So as far as I was
concerned at that time it was fair game. In hindsight as I as I moved on and I
became more mature and I began to reevaluate myself I realized how wrong that
was. But
that was later on. At this time I committed the crime and I just kept moving.
Another
guy that I ran into he also owed me some money. He owed me $7,000 and it kind
of went along
the same ways. He was selling drugs out of an auto parts store. He was a
Spanish guy. I got
word that this is where he was at and he was selling drugs and I was going to
get
my money. And the same circumstances kind of ensued. Saw him. Hey what's going
on? You
know. Reading in between the lines and outside the margins without really going
into all of
the details I robbed him. Because he owed me $7,000.
Did he get physically hurt? No. He didn't get touched. Got roughed up a little
bit but
there was no physical there was no physical harm. Nothing. Going back to morals
and values and
principles right. In my mind he was fair game. He's selling drugs. I'm selling
drugs. You owe me
money. I came to take what you have. In that world that was considered as permissible.
These are one of the
rules of something that was permissible. In that world. Long story short in
December
1997 I get arrested for both cases. Really for one of them. For the one with
the guy and
the girl. And then the other case drops with the auto parts store. The guy that
I said
they were selling drugs out of the auto parts store. I am in the process of
going to
court. I'm going back and forth to court. I'm on Rikers Island at the time. It's
just crazy
on Rikers Island. That's when the gangs was involved. Prior to that a year
before that I
had got involved with the gangs. I was blood. I was a gang member. This is
where the cut
come from on my face. I have a bunch of stab marks from just being in those
environments and being on
Rikers Island and just warring with other rival gangs. Mostly Latin Kings and
Inetas. My final
offer before trial was 23 years. Which kind of blew me away because my lawyer
kept telling me that my
maximum sentence was 25 years if I went to trial. So on my mind I it just didn't
make no sense to me.
Why would I forfeit my rights to an appeal if there's only a two year
difference? I told the judge I would
take 15 years right now. I acknowledged that I had that I had made some
mistakes and I had
done some things that that were wrong and I said I'll take 15 years right now.
He refused to accept my
plea offer. And I went to trial and then I ended up getting 50 years, 5-0.
So they give you 25 for each case?
25 for each case, consecutive. And I remember like blowing trial and just not
really understanding like what was
being there but not like it was like almost surreal. And I remember when I went
and got sentenced and the
50 years now mind you I had a black lawyer, a black judge and a white
prosecutor.
And I remember when he said 50 years. He said he went into all of these reasons
why he was sentencing me the way that he was sentencing me.
There was never no post, uh, there was never no, uh, uh, uh, they're supposed
to do a report prior to your sentencing
and it's called a post supervision interview. Um, pre-sentencing investigation
is called the PSI,
pre-sentencing investigation. There was never no pre-sentencing investigation.
There was never no mitigating
evidence presented on my behalf to, you know, highlight why I may have made
some of the decisions that I made, um,
and he just called me a menace to society and he just, he gave me 50 years.
And I remember when I, um, when I first got to Downstate, which is a processing
facility, and they give you what they call is a time computation sheet.
And on the time computation sheet, it gives you all of the numbers, like the
beginning of your bid,
how much jail time you have. Um, and I would just remember 2049. That's all I
kept looking at.
And I was like 2049. Are they fucking serious? This is 1998, 1999.
And I'm trying to do the math and I'm just like 2049. I'm like, that's 50 years
from now.
And I remember going to the law library and, um, I forget how I get the World
Almanac.
And something just says, look up the life expectancy. And I look up my life
expectancy.
And as an African-American man, my life expectancy at that time was 67 years
old. And I did the math.
And I said, I'm going to die in prison, man.
I just really believed that I was going to die in prison.
Um, one thing I learned really, really quickly when I got to prison was that
prison does two
things to you. It brings out the best or it brings out the worst. And what I
saw was,
I saw individuals who were at their worst, and I saw guys who were at their
best.
Um, the guys who were at their best were guys who were involved in education,
post-secondary
education programs. They were running the program. They was running the
violence groups.
They was running the substance abuse groups. Um, and I remember saying to
myself, I want that.
And I remember just being involved in so much
bullshit because I was in a gang and, um, I was, I was, I was top of the food
chain.
I had my own nation. I wasn't just like the random gang member. I had a whole
nation under me.
Um, and I was just in and out the box, in and out the box, solitary confinement,
which has been considered as unconstitutional now. Um, and I remember just
having these moments of
reflection and just asking myself like, what are you gonna do? Can you spend
the next 48 years living like this?
And I said, I couldn't do it. And I, um, I had lost all my privileges. They
took everything from me.
I was in Southport at the time, which is closed now. Uh, it's a solitary
confinement facility in New York State.
And, um, I was on a loaf, which is also unconstitutional now. So the loaf is a
dietary
restriction that they give you. It's a chunk of bread and it has cabbage and
carrots in it.
And they give you like a quarter of a cabbage and they give you a cup of milk.
When they can't take
any more of your privileges, this is what they would give you. Six days out the
week on the seventh day,
you would get a hot meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And then it would go
back for 21 days.
They would do this six and one, six and one, six and one. And it was at that
moment where I really said,
I have to change my life. I have to change my life. I just can't do this. Um, I
had a wife,
I had family still. My son was growing up. Um, he was hearing stories about my
so-called, uh,
notoriety. And, um, I just didn't want to, I just didn't want to be that dad.
Like I really was looking at myself and really evaluating and asking myself
like,
yo, what the fuck are you doing? I was still smoking a lot of weed at the time.
I was drinking, um,
jailhouse hooch. Um, and I was at my worst.
And I, and I had to really, I had to figure out how to get to my best. So I
decided to,
when I got out of solitary confinement, um, I did 42 days on a loaf. I went
from two being 210 pounds
to like 168 in like a matter of seven months, deflated me. Um, and when I got
out, I made a
decision that I was going to walk away and I didn't care about what the
consequences was.
And I said to myself, I've been doing bad for so long. I'm going to try to do
something good.
If all else fails, I could always go back to doing bad, but let me try. Let me
give it a shot.
Um, and I ended up getting to school program. I got my GED. Um, I left the
gangs alone,
which was a benefit for them because, you know, I was what you call an
authoritarian. I was a rule
guy. I'm still a rule guy. I like rules. You know, I like rules. I like
structure. I like things to be a
certain way. Um, and it was to their advantage to get rid of me anyway. Plus I
knew a lot of the guys
who were at the top. Why was it to their advantage to get rid of you? Because I
was the type of person
who would say, you're doing that for what reason? No, you can't do that. The
rule says that you
can't do this. You can't do this. This is what the rules say. And I was rules
of the prison or
the rules of the gang, the rules of the street. Yeah. There was rules. Give us
a for instance.
Okay. So for instance, uh, I could be in a whole nother facility. Let's say I'm
in
Green Haven and a guy's in Attica and they want to do something to him because
they feel like
he's not sharing his proceeds of drugs that he's bringing into the facility.
The rules say you can't do that.
That's his property. That's his belongings. So I was a rule guy and they just,
you know,
it was to their advantage to get me out of the way. So when I decided to take a
step back,
they were like, yes. And it was to my advantage as well. Um, and this was in
2005.
So there was no resistance. None. And at that time, this is where a lot of the,
uh,
what they call set tripping began. Uh, the, the, the organization began to implode
on itself.
The gang organization. The gang organization. There was a lot of infighting
sets against sets. And I was just always against that. Um, and it was time for
me to go. And I,
I didn't care whatever the consequences was. I was fortunate that there weren't
any consequences. Um,
but I didn't care what the consequences was. I just walked away.
And then that begins your journey. This begins my journey. I got into school. I
got my GED.
Um, from there, I got involved in, um, correspondence courses. I started
interacting with guys who were
teaching ART, aggression replacement training. And I started to begin to
understand how these concepts
work. What's positive visualization is, um, deep breathing, how to remove
yourself,