🔵 By David Breaux. Photo by lauragrafie.
I arrived at Statesville in the spring of 1975.I had “copped out” (pleaded guilty) to killing Brenda and a couple of counts of armed robbery. They gave me 5 to 15 for the armed robberies after threatening to take me to trial for them and giving me 15 to 35. They were pissed over the inquest verdict that reduced my murder charge to manslaughter. The detective that was there at my inquest hearing came over to me while the jury was still in their box, and put his finger in my face and while shaking it he said: “Nigga, young nigger, you did it again, but I got news for your Black ass, you won’t beat those armed robberies if I have to fix them myself!” and that’s exactly what he did.
When I went back to court, my public defender came back to the “bullpen”(holding area in the courthouse) and said to me: “David, I don’t know what you’ve been doing or why the police are so pissed off but I have been told to inform you that you either “cop out” to the 5 to 15 for the armed robberies, they don’t give a fuck about the murder anymore, because the inquest verdict determines cause of death and their manslaughter verdict automatically got the murder charger thrown out.
Then the P.D. (Public defender) told me: “If you don’t cop to the 5 to 15 for the armed robberies they are going to take you to trial for those and they promise you get 15 to 35!” The detective from the inquest came up with witnesses I knew weren’t there, and had even moved one of the armed robberies. So I took the 5 to 15 plus 3 to 10 for involuntary manslaughter. There had been a massive escape of about 70 to 80 inmates just before I got sentenced, and a second escape that I knew was in the making because I was offered a spot. But because of the first escape, Warden Winston Moore ordered any and all inmates who had been sentenced to be shipped out immediately. So I was sentenced on a Wednesday and shipped that Friday. 7 White inmates escaped after I left.
So, “orientation” at Statesville for new arrivals was held in a building referred to as “The Corner”. It was the old death row building. The “electric chair” had been removed. You spent 10 days to 2 weeks in orientation before being assigned to a cell house and sent in to the main “population”. As we walked through the tunnel to our assigned cell houses, I could smell this foul ass stench and kept wondering what it was. When we got to my assigned cell house, E-house, the stench was even stronger.
When we came in to E-house the Lieutenant told us to drop our bags against the wall and go eat since they were in the middle of serving lunch, so we did. You didn’t have to worry about guys stealing your shit back then because if you got caught stealing, they would make you hold on to the inside of the cell door frame and slam your fingers in the door. The alternative was worse! Picture what a human pin cushion would look like and you’ll get the drift.
We dropped our stuff and got in line and that is when I realized what was stinking up the joint! It was the roast beef they were serving, that was literally 5 different colors and spoiled as hell. Of course I passed on lunch and waited for dinner. I came down for dinner and they were serving I learned what was called “Mulligan’s Stew”. Which they served every Friday. Now, I would find out later that the stew consisted of all the leftovers from the entire week, and of course the spoiled and rotted beef from lunch was now in the evening stew, and anyone whose 5 senses had not been dulled from serving time could smell it.
So I asked the worker for some extra salad/lettuce and went to go sit down at a table with 2 inmates I knew from the streets, one called “Green Giant” (because of his height) and a pimp brother I knew. I sit down, pick up a large leaf of lettuce and just as I bring it up to my mouth this rather large cockroach climbs up from the back side and starts chewing on the lettuce. All I can do is shake my head and sit the lettuce back on the tray, of course the roach kept munching away.
So of course I get up, expecting to at least show it to the food supervisor but as I got to the tower, the officer grabs me by the arm and tells me to “go sit back down!” Now there are two Lieutenants standing at the top of the ramp just outside the Sgt’s office and I know they see this. I pull away from the officer, show him the roach still chowing down on my lettuce and he says to me: “I don’t care, once you sit down you don’t get up until you’re told.” I looked at him in disbelief and I point to the roach again and say: “I just want to let the supervisor…” and he cuts me off and says to me: “I don’t give a fuck. Once you sit down you don’t get up, eat the fucking thing. I’m ordering you to sit back down!” I turned and walked back to the table, looked down at the roach that was still feasting on the lettuce, that is when Green Giant said: “Big Dave, it ain’t worth it.” I looked over at him and said: “I’d rather be fucking dead!”
I got up to go see the Lieutenant, this time both of whom I know had been watching and just as I reach that same officer, he tried to stop me and I shoved his ass so hard against the tower door the bang echoed through the cell house. The tower officer, who was armed and watching the chow line, hears the bang and walks around the tower to see what’s going on. It’s a good thing I was right underneath the tower or I’d probably would have gotten shot. The officer I shoved was in shock and a punk-bitch as I had thought, and before he could recover I headed, tray still in hand, straight toward the two Lieutenants. (One Black one White.)
As soon as I get to the top of the ramp where they are still standing, the Black Lieutenant who is in charge of the cell house says: “Breaux, have you lost your fucking mind?” I realized he’d called me by my name which made me pause for a brief moment but then I said: “No, but that bitch down there has!” I followed him and the other Lieutenant into the Sgt’s office, he took a seat, the other Lieutenant posted up against the wall, and I sat the tray down in front of him.
The roach hasn’t moved and is still chowing down on the lettuce. (I think to myself that the cockroach has more balls than his officer.) when I point to the cockroach and I tell him: “That bitch told me to sit my ass down and eat that fucking roach!”, and I point to the roach and tell him what I said to Green Giant: “First – I’d rather be fucking dead. Second – fuck that bitch ass officer, this roach got more balls than he does and third – fuck anybody who is gonna co-sign that cocksucker telling me to eat a fucking roach!”
He looks at me and asks: “My officer told you to eat that roach?” My response was simple. “Do I studder?”
Long story short, he called the officer to the office, asked if he said what I accused him of. (of course he studdered.) Being the punk he was he admitted he had. He was told to get the fuck out of the cell house and report to the Captain’s Office, and to my surprise I got off with a very serious and stern warning but a warning none-the-less, instead of being taken to segregation or a beatdown or both. The Lieutenant had the audacity to ask if I wanted to go back and get something else to eat or go to my cell. Of course I went to my cell, and to bed hungry!