The Loverboy (21 page)

two weeks later and laid out the trial for her. The judge was a
tough one and the evidence against her was overwhelming. She had
been caught with the drugs and in trafficking charges that alone
was usually sufficient. She inquired if the statement she had
signed could be thrown out because it hadn‟t been complete but
he didn‟t think it could. He would check. He also explained to
her that since she was an American, they would make an example
of her for other Americans that were considering drug
trafficking as a way to make quick buck. The penalty could be
between ten and twenty five years. She gasped and he gave her a
look as reassuring as he could muster. She was young he
explained and even though her story was unconfirmed it might
still hold some weight. Her young age might get her off on the
shorter side of the spectrum. Ten to fifteen years he estimated.
Fifteen years max he assured her. With parole she could be out
in seven or eight years. She could be out by age twenty five.
That was plenty of time to start over.
Twenty five was still young he assured her and after she
thought about it she agreed. She wasn‟t happy about the prospect
but it had an end. Twenty to twenty five years was only given to
the most hardened of criminals, which she certainly was not.
When he left he promised to visit her again soon. She told her
friend about the meeting and they all comforted her with the
sentiment that the prospect of being out in seven years was
pretty good. After all she had already been there almost half a
year and that would mean only six and a half more to go. As
depressing as it had seemed at first she started to feel some
hope again. After everything she had been through and knowing
that there had been a force working against her, she thought
that she could easily start over. Without someone to sabotage
her it would be easy and she would not be so gullible anymore.
She thought about her mother and Ally and missed them more
than ever knowing that it might be a long time before she would
see them again. For five days she worked on a letter to them in
the evening. After five days she had a ten page letter and she
read it over and over. It was perfect she thought and then she
threw it in the trash. She wanted her mom to come see her and
comfort her but she couldn‟t bear putting her through more
misery than she had already caused and decided that letting her
mom know where she was would be selfish and cruel. It was best
if her mom didn‟t have to worry.
She also decided it would not be fair to Ally. Ally would
be a freshman in high school now. She would need her mom and not
have her mom running off to Mexico to visit her loser daughter.
Again she was on her own and she was going to get this resolved
but she was still quietly hoping that the judge would see her
side of things and see how she had been the victim of an
unspeakable evil. After that he would have to let her go. But
she realized those were just dreams and reality was that she was
going to have to do the ten years, behave and be out in seven.
After that they might require her to stay in Mexico for a while
but more likely she would be deported back to the United States.
Why keep a criminal longer than you need too?
Two weeks before the trial and Nicandro came by again. The
trial was going to be a judge only trial. No jury.
“Is this good?” she asked.
He shrugged and admitted that he didn‟t know. It could be
good or bad. A judge meant you only had to convince one person
instead of a group. However he told her that the judge also was
part of the prosecutorial team and that he too worked on
building the case against her. This made her fearful. She
inquired if he had tried to contact Jake again but he hadn‟t.
Neither of them thought there would be any merit to contacting
him but she asked him anyway and he agreed feeling bad for her.
Who knew maybe Jake had gotten a sudden conscience and would
admit that she was innocent? Not likely but she would try
anything at this point in time. He had done so much harm that
she hoped he might actually do the right thing but from what
Laura had told her that would not be the normal operating
procedure for loverboys.
The day of the trial came and she was collected immediately
after breakfast. A bus similar to the one that had brought her
there was parked just inside the gate and there were twenty
other prisoners waiting to get on. She recognized one girl from
the kitchen staff and moved closer to her hoping she would be
chained to her rather than some complete stranger. Unfortunately
it was not to be, the guards started chaining inmates together
at random and she was shackled to a women in her mid thirties
that was going to court for a hearing on a possession charge
while in prison. Some guards had found a small amount of pot in
her cell.
Drugs were everywhere in the prison. It was almost easier
to get them in the jail then outside of it but Kim had stayed
away from drugs and didn‟t want anything to do with them and had
no interest in finding out how they got in there. She figured
that some of the guards were involved as visitors were always
searched. The woman was friendly enough and they chatted on the
way to the court house and when they arrived they were led into
the basement again where the holding cells were located. There
they were finally separated from each other and put into the
cells until their case was up.
Hers had been the last case of the day and it wasn‟t until
four that she was called. She arrived in the courtroom and the
district attorney started by reading the accusation. The judge
looked at her intently over his reading glasses with no sign of
emotion whatsoever. Then he asked for certain documents which
the district attorney produced. Then he spoke to her lawyer and
he produced some documents. He read everything intently while
everyone just stood there. It was very strange. There were no
witnesses, no objections over documents or any of the theatrics
that she had seen so many times on Law and Order. It was in fact
really boring.
After about thirty minutes of watching the judge read
documents he called the hearing to an end and excused himself.
Her lawyer explained that the district attorney had submitted
the case documents and he had submitted documents to get the
statement excluded because it wasn‟t complete. They would
reconvene next week for further deliberation. She asked about
the proceedings and he explained to her that in Mexico it was
mostly through written documentation and applying the law based
on that rather than on the theatrics of the attorneys. Next week
the judge would decide on the motions made and then request more
documentation.
They said their goodbyes and she was led outside as the
last to get on the bus. It was nice to be the last one since
they didn‟t shackle her up to anyone like they did the rest. She
sat by herself trying to make sense of how the courts worked but
never having seen it before she couldn‟t make much sense of it.
The week came and went and soon she found herself back in the
bus again en route to the courthouse. This time she was shackled
to a fat twenty some year old that looked way too big for what
they served in the prison so she assumed the woman was new to
the prison. She had not slept well the night before due to a
concert of screaming kids that had seemed to wake each other up
just as one was able to go to sleep. It had almost seemed like a
well trained relay team.
She didn‟t mind it too much and actually just felt sympathy
for the mothers trying to keep their kids quiet. Some mothers
didn‟t seem to care though and those she did not feel sympathy
for. Just for the kids, they deserved better parents. No kid
deserved to go to prison though but the kids didn‟t know any
better and seemed content. But her tiredness limited her
conversation this time. She was in no mood for chit chat and
just zoned out. The bus always followed the same route, through
a short stretch of country side where there were some run down
homes and then into the city. It was far from the Mexico she had
seen in the resort where she and Jake had stayed. Soon she was
in the holding cell again and this time her case was handled in
the late morning.
More documents were passed back and forth, mostly
statements from officials at the airport. Her attorney told her
the motion to exclude her statement had been denied as the
incompleteness should have been discovered before signing.
Arguments that it had been in Spanish did nothing. The hearing
lasted for almost an hour when it was discontinued again because
the next trial was scheduled to start and a new date was set for
the following week again to give the judge time to consider all
the paperwork.
This went on for several weeks and each time it was
discontinued and moved to next week. After about five more
hearings the district attorney and Nicandro both claimed to have
presented all their documents and the judge exclaimed he would
go over them again and would come to a verdict next month. The
month went by without incident and she found herself chained to
yet someone else. She had thought that it was done at random but
as time went on she figured out that the same people were never
chained together twice and they avoided chaining people together
from the same block. Sometimes they had to chain people from the
same block together but then they were careful not to select
people that knew each other better than a passing “hi”.
Her case was at the end of the day again and after the
hearing started the judge addressed her for the first time. He
spoke with a stern voice and looked down at her over his
glasses. After reading the charges again for good measure as if
she might have forgotten what she was there for he started going
on and on about the animosity he felt for Americans like her
that abused his beloved country for the vile and disgusting act
of drug trade. He had no sympathy for an American that was just
looking to party and would abuse their legal system to provide
the means for it. His tirade went on for at least twenty minutes
and Kim felt herself getting smaller with each passing minute.
When he was finally done he told her that he had no option but
to sentence her to the maximum he could for her grave crimes.
She would serve twenty five years with no opportunity for
parole.
Kim‟s jaw dropped to the floor in shock as did her lawyer‟s
while the district attorney received congratulations from
several of his colleagues. Shocked Nicandro quickly told her he
would fight for an appeal and would come see her soon as she was
hurried out. On the bus she just sat in silence thinking about
her future or lack there of. She would not get out until she was
forty three years old. Twenty five years, she thought. That was
longer than she had been alive. When they arrived at the prison
she went to her cell and fell into a ball on her bed. Rose found
her there twenty minutes later and sat with her all night. It
felt good having someone care but when would the misery end?
Less than two years ago she had been a Junior in high
school. Since then she had been raped, turned to prostitution,
lost her family and now been convicted to twenty five years in
hell. What else could go wrong?
Chapter 25:
She woke up the next morning still nestled in Rose‟s arms.
Rose had sat with her all night and had fallen asleep sitting
straight up with Kim in her lap. Kim still couldn‟t believe that
this was going to be her home for the next twenty five years.
News spread quickly about the verdict and everyone was quick to
admit it was a ridiculous verdict. They all said that the judge
was playing politics and wanted to send a message to the
Americans and make a hard stand against crime coming from
America to further his political career.
In the afternoon she received word from a guard that there
was a visitor. She was excused from her kitchen duties and
headed to the visitor center. Nicandro was waiting for her and
when she came in he apologized profusely. He had not seen this
coming and had never expected the maximum to be handed out to an
eighteen year old on her first offense. They would appeal the
verdict and he would get on it right away. He would fight hard
for her. The verdict had awoken him and now he felt guilty not
giving the case his full attention. It hadn‟t been his fault as
he was overloaded but he felt sorry for her and vowed to correct
the situation. He would file the appeal first thing tomorrow
morning but she had to be patient. Appeals took time and were
often denied but he promised he would keep filing until they got
one. Kim nodded and gladly grasped hold of the small sliver of
hope Nicandro was offering her. She felt better about his
commitment for her case now even though it could very well be
too little too late.
As time went on she started to see the verdict as another
speed bump but would not accept it. She continued her studies
and had contact with Nicandro almost every other week, even
though most of the time he didn‟t have much news and was just
checking up on her. The appeal had been filed and usually it
took at least four months to even hear back from it but he had
been zealous and had bugged the court administrator on a weekly
basis. He had been feeling guilty about how ridiculous the
verdict had been considering the circumstances and had promised
her he would do anything he could to fix it and he had kept his
word. Kim didn‟t expect any results but was appreciative for the
friendship.
She had a lot of friends inside now but it was always good
to have some contact with the outside world and she looked
forward to his visits. A year later and after three requests for
an appeal had been denied he had stopped by to inform her that
he had filed another appeal. He had nothing new to add to the
appeal but still, it couldn‟t hurt and just maybe the request
would hit a judge‟s desk on the right day when the judge was in
a good mood. Actually he was hoping for the more likely scenario
where the judge would get fed up with the requests and just