Deferred Adjudication

   It was October sometime in the year of 1969, and I had only been paroled less than five months when I picked up another felony charge for burglary of a business and assault with intent to do bodily harm. I can still remember that day at my dad's house that evening as I partied with my brothers friends and my brothers David and Sam. My dad had abandoned ship and left the house to get away from his five crazy sons and left us temporarily to stay at his house and pay our own bills. I had just turned 20 years old and I was free now and getting into the rhythm of talking to girls and working. I had found a job at a furniture making factory here in my neighborhood but it paid very little for the demanding hard work so I quit within a month. I had met a beautiful tall Mexican girl from a neighborhood we called La Victoria and I started dating her until I met Irma Reyes who lived at The Dunbar neighborhood here in San Marcos too. Irma really was not interested in me but there was something about her that messed me up over her and I kept nagging her up until that day that I was at this party. I remember that there were a lot of guys there that day but no girls. There was a lot of beer and no drugs. At that time we were not into weed or heroin, or cocaine, no drugs at all. We had Tejano music on and everybody was having a good time because most everyone there was just getting out from either prison or the Reform School in Gatesville. And here at this party a friend who lived in a house right behind our house whose name was Julio Alaniz is visiting with me and talking about his first prison experience at T.D.C.. Julio had been to the reform school four times since 1964-'67. In 1968-'69 he was at The Clements Unit and Retrieve Unit. So, both of us had just got our parole about the same time. And just like at most all of these get togethers and where there is heavy drinking, something is gonna hit the fan soon enough, we just don't know when. And on this day..., violence and committing crimes was the last thing on my mind because I had Irma Reyes on my mind and nothing else. I was just waiting on that blanket of darkness to cover over the evening sky and I was gonna head out to the Dunbar neighborhood to talk to the girl of my dreams, whether she wanted to talk to me or not. I remember that I was desperately trying to get her hooked on me that I would walk past in front of her house late at night as she and her sisters watched t. v. and would let out my best rendition and croon one of my favorite Mexican songs titled "Alas de Plata."  I remember later that her mom would scold her out because she didn't like me either and tell her, "Oi, ay va a quel tonto cantando de vuelta." And that was what was on my mind that evening. But little did I know what was really on Julio's mind as we talked out on the front porch that crazy day. The inside of the house was packed and so were the front and back yard as well. And I remember that a friend was leaving and saying goodbye to everyone and he was really happy. And as this friend of ours who doesn't have a criminal history but has grown up with my brother David is walking down the steps, Julio follows him and calls him by his name and demands his car keys. Well, our friend starts to plead with Julio that he doesn't want any trouble but Julio will not listen to him nor to us to leave him alone. So our friend dashes to get in the driver seat of his car but Julio pulls him out and demands the keys. Our friend then starts to run from Julio and Julio chases him around the car and finally overtakes him and demands the keys. But our friend refuses, and so to scare this guy, Julio threatens to rape him. So our friend gives Julio the keys and runs away back to town. We all look at Julio like damn man, you just messed this party up. Then Julio, who we called "Piggy" or "Marano" asked if anyone wanted to go and break into a beer joint out on the county line later and go for a ride now. It was dark now so no one volunteered to go with him and everyone left because we didn't know if our friend was gonna call the police. And as I stood there looking at my pathetic friend Julio with his sad look on his face because no one wanted to go with him, I said to "Piggy" vamonos vato, I'll go with you." So we rode until just past midnight that night and broke into a beer joint and went back home and hid everything in a field nearby. The next morning about 6 in the morning the police surrounded our house and I could hear Julio screaming from a police car and saying in a loud voice, "Ruben, don't tell them shit!" Then the police came into the house where all the five brothers were passed out drunk and presented the warrant against me. And the first thing that came to my mind was how did they find out about me? It wasn't me who attacked our friend for the car keys, so how did anyone know that I was with Julio afterwards? That only left Julio! So at jail I confronted Julio about all that shit about Ruben, don't say nothing. And he said that he didn't want to go down alone. And we were best of friends and we even had made a pact ceremony for becoming Blood Brothers by cutting the inside of our forearms with a knife when we were much younger so I left it alone. And since San Marcos Police deferred their charges against us to New Braunfels, Texas County Sheriffs because the beer joint was in Comal County, we were locked up there in their county jail. San Marcos did not drop their charges, they just let us be jailed in New Braunfels while we awaited trial. I was all heart broken because I had just met the woman who was gonna have my babies and now I was up creek again with no paddle and facing more time in prison. And when we were put in The Comal County jail, this place was a new experience because it was an old thing then. But the cooks and jailers there treated us with respect and dignity. They were an older White German couple and they brought us the food for the time that we were there which was 4 months. They would bring our drinks in an used 8 or 10 ounce tin can where foods came in and served us our morning and evening black unsugar coffee in them. Their food was good and I loved to eat their scrambled eggs in two slices of bread sandwich with slice tomato and with lettuce and mayonnaise. This was a first time experience with a sandwich like that for me and it was great. And I continue to eat it even today. I am going to enjoy it while I am still alive if I can. And, Julio and I were assigned to a cell together in a four man cell with another local young Mexican guy from New Braunfels. The guy there was a handsome light skin tall Mexican Chicano who had beaten his brother in law because he had beaten up his wife who was this young man's sister. And his name is Antonio Madla who is called El Dickie. So this is the first time that I met him and afterwards we became good friends even until now into 2023. And all three of us went to court on the same day sometime in January of 1970. The Comal County deputy sheriffs were always telling Julio and I that we would be going up in front of a notorious hard nose District Judge who didn't like criminals and that our asses were cooked when we would go before him. And all this time I kept thinking about how my great love for Irma Reyes was shot too. And to be honest I have to say that the other young Mexican girl from La Victoria neighborhood was much more beautiful and sculpted better than my Irma Reyes, but you also know that when you meet the "Right One" for you, you know it! And there's no doubt about it. And no other woman will do..., just that one! And now having met the right one, I lost her, and losing her was the most depressive feeling ever in my life. Dolcinea from Man of La Mancha said, "I was born in a dung heap to die in a dung heap." Hell!, I felt the same way that morning in court too. As I looked around the courtroom I saw the friend who Julio stole the car from and his family was with him there sitting at the front pews. There were many people there that morning. The Beer Joint owner was there and his family also. I felt like all these people came to see a Hanging or at least a Firing Squad shoot us down before their eyes as they ate and smacked their fingers and lips with their favorite snacks. And when our appointed lawyer was asked "How do you plead?" Well, he got up and had nothing to say on our defense other than that we were guilty. Then The Judge in his Black Robe who's name was Mr. Terry Jacks handed down his verdict and said to Julio and I who stood up at the front bench and said, "I hereby sentence you to The Texas Department of Corrections for 12 years each." Oh you can imagine how we felt when we heard that sentence. I knew now that we were in the big leagues and this was not the reform school that we were being sentenced to. Then the Judge threw everybody into a loop and called Julio and I over closer to him and said to us in a loud voice, " You young boys have had a hard life I know because since you were younger you have been behind bars. So boys..., I want to offer you a deal of your life time, and if you agree to my offer I will defer adjudication and suspend your sentence for two years if you only agree to sign up for The U.S. Military Draft within two weeks from now and bring written proof of that registration to this Court, and you do not get into any more trouble in those two years. Of course Julio nor I understood a word he said but we agreed. And after that the accusers were angry and Julio and I headed to the Greyhound Bus Station walking and bought us one way tickets to San Marcos. And just across the bus station was a store that sold beer and wine and we got us a fifth of Gallo and drank it con gusto. The next day I took off looking for a Draft Board that I could register at. But San Marcos sent me to Lockhart, Texas to register there and so I did. And after I registered I asked those guys there how long before they came to take me to the Military. And they said that it depended on when my number was called up. So I asked them, how long does that take? And they said that it could take years or never. Then I said to them, "You mean to tell me that you guys are not gonna take me now? Then they got frustrated with me and told me," If you want to join... you can Volunteer, but you have to go to your Recruiting Station in San Marcos and go through them to get in, not us." Keep in mind guys, I don't know diddly about none of this Military stuff. I don't know what Viet Nam War is or is about and don't really care because all I want to do is get away from San Marcos. Moreover, in the Reform School we were never allowed to watch the News of any kind nor to receive our local newspapers. And I hardly ever got mail from home. And if someone in the family did write to me it was to say hello and I wish you well, Ruben you know I would send you money if I had some, but I don't, and goodbye until I write again. Shit Ruben, don't hold your breath for that next letter. So truly, Ruben didn't know about Race Riots going on out here or Draft Dodging, or anything about Politics and The Hippies, sex, drugs, or Psychedelic music.  In the reform School I loved to listen to Black Soul music when we were allowed to listen to the old record player. But no one there was allowed psychedelic music  So finally I talked to a Recruiter in San Marcos and he got me started on my next leg of a highly charged anxious and depressive journey. It seemed that every step that I have taken to get myself right with myself and with others has proved futile and meaningless. And also keep in mind that I never talked to "God" about helping me change my evil ways before this time. I thought that one day things would change on their own for the better in due time, but I was wrong. After Julio and I got out and we got to San Marcos at our Greyhound Station downtown, Julio went his way and I went mine.  And  as for Julio, he goes back to prison two more times, and we will meet again much later. And as for El Dickie from New Braunfels he goes into the U.S. Marines for four years and gets an Honorable Discharge. He was on The U. S. S. Vancouver Navy ship in 1975 and beached near Cambodia to rescue American Officials and Cambodian Friendlies. A few months later Dickie was still on the The Vancouver with a Navy Fleet Led by The U. S. S. Enterprise, and landed near Saigon Viet Nam to rescue more American Officials and Vietnamese friendlies at The Fall of Saigon. When a Psychiatrist recently evaluated him and she heard his story, all she could say to him was, "Mr. Madla, you have been through hell sir!" However, after he got out from the Marines, some people got him mad in New Braunfels and he shot two people dead and he got sentenced to 75 years at T.D.C.. He served 22 years and was parole about 14 years ago. He is doing very well now and has mellowed out a great deal. He still has a short fuse but he is still on parole and has cancer. I will meet him again much later also, and his younger brother Robert Madla. And as for me, I head off to San Antonio's Induction Center at The Afees Station. I have told that story before and this is the Segway to that one. This concludes this story about how and why I got into the U. S. Army. It was actually an idea an Act of then Defense Secretary Robert McNamara under U.S. President Lyndon Johnson who when under deep pressure to win the War in Viet Nam in 1969 had to resort to the bottom of the barrel as they put it because America couldn't recruit the American young people to join voluntarily. Our American History records this Act by Robert McNamara and Lyndon Johnson for recruiting felons like us as "McNamara's Idiots!" Shit! Most everybody then was dodging the Draft. If it meant running for the hills in Canada or elsewhere, these Americans didn't want to go to War and Die for a Cause that they didn't believe in. However, many of these Draft Dodgers became Politicians and a few became U.S. Presidents afterwards and started Wars themselves and proudly wore U.S. Military Regalia to show off their War Hawk Patriotism. I never understood this Draft Dodging thing because I always believed that at least here we can own a house and work and pay our way through regardless of all the corrupt business ways. And for some strange reason I always believed that if we are afforded this limited freedom here, that we should at least fight for it. So I never cared for bunch of Plastic Toy Soldiers! And many people who have never served to fight for their Country still look down on people like Mr. Antonio Madla and my other U.S. Marine friend in San Marcos, Texas Mr. Ezekiel Enriquez Senior, and myself. But we didn't dodge anything except flying bullets. And it never entered my mind to Desert either or go AWOL. And our Drill Sergeants were proud of us. However, in Viet Nam and unbeknown to us, we were sprayed with 16 of America's own deadly Chemical Agents that were intended to destroy the jungles, and they knew it was deadly to us too, but they did it anyway. And the rest of my stories from The Army and especially Viet Nam are revealing because of the crazy turbulent times when everyday was living a life of danger everywhere. It didn't matter if it was in the country, city, small town, or under the bridge. Finally, a great Thanks to "God" for allowing District Judge Mr. Terry Jacks to preside over my case that day..., "God" bless his Soul. I hope he knows now how much he has Blessed me as a result of his Deferred Adjudication and Suspended Sentence in my Case back in October of 1969. So let us sleep on that for now. Thanks again guys.                                                                                                                                                                                                         Respectfully,                                                                                     Ruben N. Gutierrez

ReplyForward