My name is Joshua Palmer, CDCR #B66703 and in June 2018 I was sentenced to Life Without the Opportunity for Parole-LWOP. When I was sentenced the judge said, “you are a broken unredeemable person who is unsafe to live in society.” She was right. When I committed my...
Their Stories
To submit your loved one’s story please fill out the form by clicking ‘Submit Story Here’
Luis Lopez #K50826 ASP
Hello there.. My name is Luis. I’m very excited for this opportunity to be able to share my life story with everyone in society. The recovery experiences and the rewarding life I live today. Let me say this about me, I was sentenced to a life sentence…,I was hopeless...
Tony Leater #C95357 ASP
My name is Tony Leater I’m serving the sentence of Life Without Parole, Thirty-four years ago with distorted beliefs, I cowardly participated in the heinous crime of 1st degree murder. My life didn’t start off with bad behavior, For I was raised with two loving...
Thai Tran #V71300 ASP
My name is Thai Tran. I am fourty-nine years old and for most of my life I had forgotten my name and who I was. I went by a nickname and an image of who I thought others wanted me to be. I abandoned myself, made horrible choices, lied to myself, and therefore I didn’t...
“WHO I WAS AND WHO I AM TODAY”
by Naseli Tagoai #H82876 ASP My Story: I should start by who I had been in my family.., Then who I thought and believed I was.., And should be, to and in a lifestyle I’d chosen to live, and the very destructive antisocial core belief system and dysfunctionally warp...
William Douglas Mello
I am 54 years old & of Indigenous Tribal decent (Indian) and Cantonese Chinese. I have been incarcerated since 1987. I was 18 years old. I am serving “LOWP” sentence and am presently at Calipatria State Prison and am house on “D” yard, where many (most) of us...
Kelsey Thomas
I want to first Thank You for taking the time out to read my story. My name is Kelsey A. Thomas, CDC number D-83629, and I was arrested in 1986, at the age of 28, for Robbery Murder. I was charged with First Degree Murder Special Circumstances, in 1986. In 1988, I was...
Nathaniel Criss
Hope is a Process by Nathaniel J. Criss How can I deliver hope to someone who has the sentence of life without parole? I quickly found the answer to this questions within my own life experience of having LWOP. Nobody "delivered" hope to me. I found it over a period of...
Jeffrey Roberts
The most important part of my story is the memory of Mr. Diyet Dinh Vu, his family, Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Alterman and their family, as well as the countless others I have victimized in my lifetime. They did not deserve to be treated in such a violent callous way and to...
Harlan King
Dear FUEL Brothers and Sisters, My name is Harlan Bayard King. CDCR# C-75234, commitment date June 7th, 1982. I was 10 days past my 21st birthday when I fell. I am now 61. I spent 30 in CDCR before I interstate transferred to my home state of Oklahoma in 2012. My four...
Carlos Contreras
Hello I am Carlos Contreras who wants to participate in your organization. I am part of the Redemption Row California-a Prison Project. I’ve heard promising support and efforts in helping us inmates to come home through legal activism. Plus, you allow our families to...
Billy Kornafel
I am in great hope that Senate Bill 94 will pass. This is my first time ever being in prison. But the sad part of it is that I've been locked up sine 1985 at the age of 25.1 am now 63. 64 in May. Please know in no way am I using excuses for anyone losing their life....
Thomas Marston
My name is Thomas Marston and I am serving a Life Without the Possibility of Parole (LWOP). This is my story. At a young age I was easily influenced by my older siblings and their friends. We travelled all the time due to our father. We moved to different states every...
Steven Allee
My name is Steven Drew Allee. I’m 37 years old and I’ve been sentenced to LWOP, plus a consecutive 25 to life, plus 8 years to serve first. During the month of May 2015, my drug use combined with the surrounding circumstances of my life at the time caused me to lose...
Samuel Thomas McCauley
Greetings, my name is Samuel Thomas McCauley, Jr. In 2006, when I was 22 years old, I perpetrated a vicious crime spree where I shot 3 men during 2 separate robberies over the course of 2 days. This resulted in 2 men losing their lives and a 3rd being permanently...
Ruhani Bustamante
My name is Ruhani Bustamante. By the age of eleven, I experienced incarceration; throughout my teens Juvenile Hall had become my home, although occasionally I came home, one month here, two months there. Freedom as a teenager as far as I can recall are snapshot...
Ronnell Ross
I’ve been in a prison for 43 years with a sentence of life without the Possibility of Parole/LWOP. In 1978 at the young age of 22, I made a terrible, life altering mistake. In believing I was protecting my home from intruders, I shot and killed an undercover,...
Rollin Denem
I am Rollin Denem. I ‘m putting a little bit of my story on paper because I want you all out there to know not only who I was, but who I am today. I am originally from South Central, LA. At the time of the crime I am incarcerated for; I was 18 years old. None of my...
Susan Clevenger
My name is Susan Clevenger and in August 2000, I was sentenced to three Life Sentences without the possibility of Parole(LWOP) for attempted kidnapping and murder of Bradley St. Clair. I was not there when my co-defendant/boyfriend killed Brad. I do not say that to...
Peter Carmorlinga
My name is Peter Carmorlinga; I’m a 39-year-old high school graduate, and the youngest of three. I come from a loving family and was highly regarded by my peers, teachers, and my community. Then, in 2000 I was convicted of first-degree murder and received a sentence...
Zachary Flanders
I am sitting down today and write a letter to FUEL & others in order to portray the life of an inmate with a sentence of LWOP, a sentence where the word hope does not exist and the light at the end of the tunnel is hard to see. A condemnation signifying one cannot...
Norman Williams
I made a tragic decision in 1995, involving a drug deal negotiation gone wrong. It ended in a tragic incident and a human being losing his life. I was blind to see how my poor decisions would not only cost someone his life; those decisions would severely affect his...
Lester Polk
My name is Lester La Mount Polk I am serving Life Without the Possibility of Parole (LWOP). I have now been incarcerated for 26 years. I was arrested 2 days after my high school graduation for a senseless crime motivated by greed, anger and my reckless impulsivity....
Kajuana Irving
My name is Kajuana Irving. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. During my early years my father was incarcerated and my parents eventually divorced. I lived with my mother, my eldest sister, and my two younger brothers. Life got rough because by the age...
Julian Gonzalez
My name is Julian Gonzalez. I was born and raised in Visalia and am 27 years old, I have been incarcerated since I was 18 years old. I am serving a LWOP sentence for my part in a gang related murder. Although my bullets were not the ones that killed the victim, I was...
Malinda Jones
I am Malinda Jones, a 65-year-old Grandmother with an LWOP Sentence. I live with a mountain of regrets and a heart full of remorse, but I can’t change the fact that a young man lost his life. What I can do is explain the “WHY” of that horrible night. None of what I am...
Virgil Clarke III
My name is Virgil Clarke III. I’m serving a sentence of life with no possibility of parole plus 6 years for aiding and abetting in the murder of Mrs. Catherine Tucker. Even before this, I felt so guilty for my actions leading up to this senseless act. I’ll be the...
Juan Toscano
My name is Juan Toscano. I was born in Guerrero Mexico. I am the 2nd of 4 boys and one girl. For all my childhood I lived in Mexico, I came to the United States in the beginning of 1994. When we moved here, I was 13 years old, we were living in South Central LA. At...
Joshua Anthony Blount
My name is Joshua Anthony Blount. I am 35 years old of Hispanic descent and have been incarcerated since I was 22 years old. I am serving an LWOP sentence at Calipatria State Prison. I am housed on the Delta Yard, where many of us lifer’s and inmates are trying to...
Joshua Acosta
Joshua Acosta shares his story, his remorse and his determination to make amends. My name is Joshua C. Acosta, I am currently twenty-three years old and I'm serving out a sentence of Life Without the possibility of Parole. Before the commission of my crime, I achieved...