BACK THEN TO NOW
The Story of Vegas Don
I was raised by my grandmother,
my parents although living played
a very small part in my life. My
grandmother was very poor, but
she did the best she could. At times
we had nothing to eat yet she still
managed to keep our spirits up. In
school, I was popular, an above
average student, and considered
multi-talented. I lived in a house at
times that didn’t have electricity or
hot water. Which was very difficult
and extremely embarrassing. So as
a source of survival at age 12,
I started snatching pocket books
and committing petty crime.
This continued until age 16, when
I got arrested for purse snatching.
I was taken to jail and was told that
I was going to be sentenced to 20
years in prison. By me never been
involved with the law, I believed it
and I was scared to death. I ended
up getting sentenced to 3 years
probation. Unfortunately, I did not
learn my lesson. I continued to live
the life of a criminal, and formed a
gang called the North Durham Vice.
By street standards,we were
ranked #1, as being the ruthless
gang in Durham.
However, our biggest rival gang,
The Few Crew wanted the #1 rank.
So they went out on rampages
robbing, stealing, and even killing
just to be the most feared gang. Our
gang the “North Durham Vice”
wasn’t going to lose our rank so we
started going on our own rampages.
That’s how ignorant we were. We
were willing to hurt innocent people
just for some stupid street rank. At
age 18, I was deep into fast money,
fast cars and fast women.
And at age 15, my younger brother
became heavily involved in my
gang activities. He became my
sidekick and the streets named us
Frank and Jesse James. We didn't
even know anything about them
but what we heard, all we knew
that they carried a lot of guns and
hurt a lot of people. We loved the
thought of being compared to
them. Alcohol and drugs became a
big part of our life. We would get
drunk, snort coke and then we'd go
places looking for trouble which
we seemed to always find.
"ALL MY LIFE PEOPLE USE TO TELL ME THAT I WOULD NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING.
"
Amazingly, I still managed to
graduate. My only reason for doing so was
to grant my grandmother's only
wish of me. Back then graduation
was a very big accomplishment, especially to
the older generations. Although
I was this reckless street hoodlum,
for the love and respect that I had
for my grandma I graduated. To
my disappointment, my grandmother
died on the same morning of my
graduation. I was devastated and
extremely furious but most of all
mad at God. How could he do this
to me? How could he take the only
person in my life that showed me
love? That night of her death, my
best friend at that time Mark Peaks
(now deceased) and I sat on a
sidewalk, drank thunderbird wine
and cried like babies. That night I
vowed to hurt anyone that
crossed my path. I hated the
world!
My street life continued filled with
drug selling, drive by shootings,
stick ups, shoot outs and fights. My
younger brother got locked up for
murder, and was serving a 17 year
sentence. By age 20, almost every
police officer in Durham knew me by
my first name. I had numerous felony
charges and four different court
dates. My charges ranged from drug
selling to attempted murder. Whenever
I went to court the court room
would be packed with the NDV gang.
My girlfriend also came to court with
my four month old baby boy. I was
on trial for shooting two guys in the
leg outside a local night club. I expected
that I would get some time
but not much, since I hadn't killed
anyone. The verdict was guilty and
before the judge sentenced me he
stated; "I see
that you have a lot of
followers and because of that fact,
I'm going to
make an example out of you."
The judge sentenced me to 30
years in prison.
At that time, I blamed the judge, the
DA and my lawyer. I felt like they put
me in a jam but in reality I did it to myself.
I thought prison was the worst
thing that could ever happen to me
but as I look back at my life. Prison
was the best thing that happened to
me, it saved my life. All the gang members that
I ran the streets with are now dead, most of them
brutally murdered or either drug addicts.
While serving my 30 year sentence,
I went on a mission to get my time
reduced. I knew prison wasn't where
I was suppose to end up. So I
received assistance from a appellant
defender and pleaded my case to
the U.S Supreme Court. Before my
sentence reduction, all my so-called
friends, girlfriends and most of my
family had wrote me off as gone. It
took nearly three years to get the 30
year sentence reduced to 10 years.
I ended up serving 5 years and it
took me 4 years of those 5 for me to
finally see life for what it truly is.
I was release at age 26, but
before I was released I had made plans and
one of them was to
never go back to prison. I've been
released for over
a decade now. For the past four years, I've run
my own business:
"PHATNUM Music & Videos."
I manage professional boxers
and music entertainers. I
also have a local TV show titled,
"PHATNUM LIVE." I have
been fortunate to have made acquaintances
with a lot of famous people.
I credit my success because
I surround myself around successful
people. On two different
occasions, I've been shot, once in
the head. In two other different
incidents, I've been stabbed, each
time someone was trying to take
my life. I strongly believe that God
has spared my life, so that I might
save someone else life. I've struggled,
I know pain and I've been at
the very bottom. No matter how
much of a lost cause someone
may seem to be, they can turn
their life around.
This is my story........what's yours?
- Mr. Otis R. Lyons, Founder of C4C
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