June 26, 2025 • 40 mins
In the season finale, we give you part one of Andrea's story, where she opens up about how she met her incarcerated husband, Cage, and the unexpected path their love story has taken.
From navigating the initial reactions of family and friends to building an unbreakable bond despite distance and prison walls, Andrea shares what it really means to love without borders. She talks about the emotional reality of visiting behind glass, the moment she finally had her first in-person visit, and the challenges of maintaining a relationship across international lines. Andrea's love and devotion for Cage is palatable; her admiration of his strength and dedication to growth and knowledge despite his circumstances is truly heartfelt and real.
Plus, hear the beginning of her honest reflections on being featured in the reality show Prison Brides and what the cameras didn’t capture.
Are you as curious as we were about Andrea and Cage after watching the show? If so, you won't want to miss this episode!
Join us in September for part two...
Follow Andrea on TikTok or Instragram @andreea.cage
Follow Jae's husband Nicholas Ely on Facebook "More Than An Inmate" or the Facebook group "End Felony Murder Rule in Nebraska"
Follow the show on TikTok @morethananinmatesgf or Instragram @podcast_prisongf
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Welcome to another episode of More Than an Inmate's
Girlfriend. I'm your host Jay, and today is
a very exciting episode. I'm very excited to introduce
the guests that we have today. Most of you that are prison
wives, I'm sure have seen different reality TV shows and
watch different guests go on them.
And for me personally, the firstshow that I had watched when I
(00:33):
first started talking to Nick was Prison Brides.
And I loved it because I found that it was a little bit more
realistic than love during lockup and love after lockup.
And there was a few people that were on the show that I really
love, and I connected more with some of them than others, which
is normal. And one of the couples that was
on the show, I really felt like I didn't get enough information
(00:54):
about them. I really wanted to know more
about them. And I didn't really feel like I
knew. I knew that he had a long
sentence, but I didn't know why,and I really didn't think that
the show really went into it. So I went on a deep dive last
year trying to find out more information, and I found a
little bit more. But with the podcast starting,
we reached out to this person and they have accepted to come
(01:16):
on here and talk a little bit more about it.
So I'm really excited and I think a lot of people would be
really curious to learn more about Andrea and Cage.
So Andrea, welcome. Thank you for having me.
It's a pleasure and it's so exciting.
Yeah. Finally share.
More. I'm so excited to hear more
about this. So for those people that didn't
watch Prison Brides, can you talk about how you guys first
(01:38):
met? What happened?
How did you cross paths with Cage?
Oh yeah, Around 2020, I just downloaded TikTok.
I didn't have the app on my phone, and it was around the
time when we were all having to stay home and we couldn't leave
the house. It was all fresh.
So at the time I was working on myself.
I was closer to God, I would say, because I did lose my faith
(02:01):
over the past years. I was at an age where I grew up
in a very religious family. Somehow I ended up pulling
myself away. So I was just finding myself.
I was being very aware. I was just getting to know
myself. Like exploring?
Yeah. Exploring I was single for a
while I wasn't trying to be in arelationship.
(02:22):
I was focusing on my career and just being myself wanting to
travel, save money to do more things crazy.
So I I just got TikTok and I wasbored so I just decided to just
scroll scroll. It was very boring.
I had to stay home. I was forced to stay at home and
(02:43):
around end of May I came across this girl that popped on my for
you page and it was an American girl.
I forgot her name and she had the background of the website
Write a prisoner and she was talking how she is temples with
someone and I really wasn't listening.
I just saw the website and honest to you, I didn't even
(03:06):
know the definition of a pen pal.
I'm like, I've never heard of what is this?
I was intrigued. I was curious by nature, a very
curious person. And obviously you can read write
a prisoner. So obviously I can understand
that. But I'm like, I've never seen
such thing like what is this? So I just went on the website
and I clicked on it and I started scrolling and I'm like,
(03:29):
Oh my God, what is this? But I saw like, it's something
like, this is not a dating website or something like that.
Yeah. And I was scrolling and I came
across Cage's profile and I did go through a few profiles and I
could read a little about themselves.
I came across Cage and not only the picture of him, I'm like,
wow, his hands. Not only that, I really loved
(03:51):
what he wrote about him. And he was saying how he grew up
by the beach and I loved the beach.
Like, I want to die by the beach.
Yeah. And he was saying how he is
passionate about and how he loves to read books and what
type of music he likes to listen.
I don't know. I was very drawn to him for some
reason. I just felt I want to know more
(04:11):
about him. And obviously, you can see the
crime he committed, the time he's in prison, how long he's
going to be in there for. And I saw that, and I saw why
he's in prison. And I'm like, this doesn't make
any sense. Yeah.
Any other person I would tell about this, they'll be like he
must have committed murder or hemust done something terrible in
(04:34):
order for him to receive 50. Years.
Yeah. And I wanted to know more about
his story. Obviously the main thing, it
wasn't just me writing him. Like, hey, like I want to know
why. No, that came naturally.
I wrote him a pretty large letter to be on and that was the
first letter ever I wrote to someone.
So it's like handwritten. You hand wrote him a letter.
No, so I had to create a jpg. The website instructed me what I
(04:58):
need to do. I had to create a profile.
Were you nervous? I remember I freaking out when I
did. No, honestly, no.
This is something that even now,it felt so natural.
I never even for the moment of all worrying that this person is
going to have my address or he's.
A Me too. I didn't.
Know I didn't feel that way either.
When you win, Yeah. Being a part of this community
(05:21):
now, you hear a lot of women talking how it was the first
time when they went to prison. Send Cage's mom, she said when
she first went to visit him, shefelt like the way they were
cutting her down and think, I don't know what it was now, if
I'm thinking ever going to prison, visiting someone else, I
would probably feel different tobe honest with you.
But with him, I've never had that feeling.
(05:43):
That's interesting. So I wrote him, Yeah, I wrote
him and I didn't receive an answer.
Like, yeah, I thought because ofthe mail longer.
Yeah, I said OK, maybe I thoughtthat they're gonna take a while
for them to approve my account or whatever reason.
And then I ended up finding out that he didn't receive my
(06:04):
address. So when I created the account, I
put my address down on JPEG. However, he couldn't see it
because at the time they didn't have tablets back in 2020.
So Texas didn't have tablets. So what they would do is I would
send the e-mail and they would print it out.
But obviously I didn't know backthen.
So I tried to find that girl back on TikTok and I said, hey,
(06:25):
like I broke someone. But.
And then she said, what state ishe in?
If he's in this state, he doesn't have a tablet.
So you would have to insert the address in.
So then I took a paper and I wrote it down letter by letter,
the same. Letter.
I love it. Or And I went to the post office
with my mother. Actually, she came with me.
(06:45):
And I know want to. Make sure he receives it.
So your mom knew that you were doing this from the beginning?
Yeah. He knew from the beginning, wow.
And so I wrote him and he was the first man ever that I
reached out to like ever, ever. And it wasn't like I was
interested to start anything, but it's just me talking to men
I'm usually approached by. And so time started passing by
(07:09):
now. In the meantime, afterwards, I
found out that he was asking hismother to lookout for me because
he didn't have my address. And he had his friends, his mom,
his dad lookout for me on socialmedia with my first and last
name. Social media, I didn't even have
my last name had a. Different name, yeah.
(07:30):
So they couldn't and a lot of occasions friends at the time
they said, oh, she's catfishing you because I sent some pictures
of myself and they're like, she's not even real, she's
catfishing you whatever. So after I heard back from him
in July. Oh wow.
Yeah, so it took months. Well, you know, I already told
you he got my letter the very next day, but it took a while
(07:53):
for me to decide. Two weeks after that, I wrote
him a real letter and all that on.
So it took a while. So I woke up one day and my mom
tells me, oh, you received a letter from that boy and.
I'm like. But oh, do you know my whole
most change? I was really curious to see what
he's gonna say. I, yeah, really wanted to hear
from him, but at the same time Iwas waiting.
(08:15):
I'm like, what is it taking so long?
Even those two weeks prior, me knowing that he doesn't have my
address to write me back, I'm like the audacity this boy has.
Fine, you don't want to talk to me.
So when I messaged Nick, he didn't answer me the first day
and I was like, afterwards he answered me the next day, but
like I didn't even think it was a possibility.
(08:36):
And he laughs at me. I'm like, I didn't think that
anybody would not get a response.
I thought everybody would just answer anyone who reaches out to
you. But no, that's obviously not the
case. But I was so naive.
It's dating. Some people are gonna answer
you, some people aren't. But I thought I did something
wrong. But no, he just didn't answer me
for 24 hours. I know I was.
(08:58):
Like what? What is going on?
You know what? I was just trying to be nice,
this and that. And yeah, you're just trying.
OK, fine. I don't care.
But when I heard that he sent mea little, my whole day changed.
I don't know. For some reason I was really
waiting for him. To get back.
At me, which is embarrassing because I'm like I get
approached by guys and do the. Other.
(09:19):
Yeah. And that's not even what you're
looking for. We're even looking for that.
So why are you feeling like that?
I feel the same way. It was the same thing with me.
It was what I was looking for atall, but yet here I was getting
excited when I'd see a message from him or whatever.
So I know exactly what you mean.Yeah, and for us it was
different because I only could hear back from him with letters.
I'm like, okay, so then I received that letter and he was
(09:43):
telling me about his siblings and how he grew up a little bit
more about himself, and I just wanted to hear more from him and
from them. We could have phone calls and we
could. And we hit it off.
We were talking non-stop as muchas we could.
Was falling for that boy withouteven realizing.
Yeah, falling for him. But in my mind, I knew that we
(10:03):
cannot have anything. I knew that there cannot be any
type of relationship between us because I was aware of the
situation. Yeah.
And yeah, yeah. Did you look up his charge or
did you just see what was on right of prisoner?
You did. Yeah, so on right of prisoners,
you cannot really see my. See, in Cage's case, it's
(10:25):
aggravated robbery. OK, That's all you can see for
him. At least that's how it was at
the time. Obviously, I searched his name
on Google and I saw all the files.
I saw the court documents, I sawall the articles that were at
the time how the judge called him a monster thinks that he
(10:45):
wasn't allowed to do. Yeah, yeah, I did my research
overall. Yeah.
Obviously I didn't know a lot ofextra information that
afterwards I found out from his family, from himself, but we
didn't really talk about his case from the very.
Beginning. Yeah, I was gonna ask.
Yeah, We were getting to know each other.
We were just enjoying each day. And I didn't really want to ask
(11:07):
him up until I wanted to know. I'm going to be honest.
Yeah, But I wanted him to feel comfortable to do that.
I wanted him to be happy. He didn't want to be the person
like, hey, tell me about this and that.
I didn't want to play like the yeah.
Police investigation. No, I just, yeah, I wanted him
to be comfortable. And now sometimes it's hard for
him to talk about it. And it's heartbreaking because
(11:30):
he wasn't that close to all of them.
Oh, he was close to one person. So yeah, we were just talking.
We were just enjoying each other's presence.
I was sending him a lot of pictures of literally everything
like I have in my phone. I'm not even exaggerating.
Like all 60,000 pictures at the moment.
Yeah, I would take pictures of trees or London or traveling to
(11:54):
different countries. I was taking him with me every
single place I went to. Whatever my eyes saw.
He is so too. Yeah, even though it was through
a picture. What was it about him that was
different for you? Like obviously there was
something that attracted you to him versus the other guys that
you've met out here. So I really loved the way he saw
(12:15):
life. First of all, I have, I've
always been a very positive, optimistic person.
And in my life I love to be surrounded by such people.
But most of the time find myselfin the situation where people
around me are not so positive. And I am always the friend
that's going to pick you up. I'm always that friend that's
never sad or upset or I'm alwaysgoing to lift you up.
(12:38):
I'm going to make you see the good things in life and I'm
going to make you happy or at least try my hardest.
And for me, when I saw that him and he was so effortless, like
the way he was just positive andI'm like, wow, he is where he's
at. He is in a cell in a small, tiny
cell. He's having not a very good.
(13:00):
Life. In there and he is positive he's
not doing any drugs. He's not.
He was with me 24/7. So as much as people say, hey,
you cannot know a person when you're with a person 24/7, you
talk to them all the time and you get to see.
Trust me, there's only so much some people can hide.
He was always Korean, like Korean.
(13:21):
He's so intelligent. His brain, I got attracted to
his brain and his personality hard.
He's way better than I am. And he's in prison and I'm here.
Honestly, I'm a BITCH comparisonto him, honestly.
It's the same thing with me. Like Nick is so positive and I
feel like he and same thing withKate.
(13:42):
They were given really bad dealsin life.
And yet despite all that, here we are complaining about like
regular day-to-day, the snow, the weather, and here they are
stuck and they're smiling and they're laughing and they're
making you happy. It's crazy.
It's really something and I think not everybody in prison is
like that, but I find the ones that are growing.
(14:04):
And that's what I want to emphasize them because talking
to them and being with them, youget to hear a lot about prison.
And then you see that there's 80% of the people there, maybe
even 90. They are at it.
I'm not going to blame because maybe I would be in the same
situation. Not everybody can be as strong.
But I have such admiration for the people that are dealing with
(14:28):
sad faith like they are and theystill wake up and they still
better themselves and they stillsay, I'm not going to say the
hard part. But it is.
It's harder, yeah. Nick wasn't doing the right
things. He wasn't doing drugs, but he
was not doing great things in there.
And it's just recently that he grew up and was like, hey, I
(14:49):
don't want to do this. But he's like, I fight it every
day because it's all around me. And every day I have to remind
myself what I want out of my life and who I want to be, what
kind of person I want to be. You're fighting because you're
in this situation. And rehabilitation in the
American justice system is not really prevalent.
It's. Not really rehabilitation.
Yeah, they have to do it themselves, so it's even harder,
(15:10):
yeah. They don't get help and it's so
sad because I was just reading the other day about Texas
inmates. I don't know about other states.
A lot of the inmates have mentalproblems, yes, and they are sent
to prison instead of sending them to mental facilities where
they could actually get help. Yeah, they don't even assess
(15:30):
them when they come in. It doesn't make any sense.
I know this sage is brother was incarcerated.
They both got incarcerated at the same time.
Cage's brother is his Co defendant.
I don't know if a lot of places know this so this is information
coming by for me. I probably have spoke about it
in the past. And he's autistic.
They never gave him medicine forit.
(15:51):
He has also a very rare disease has to do with a blood clot.
They also never gave him medication for that.
He was in prison for 10 years and he's one of the main reasons
Cage got in trouble. He didn't want to leave his
brother alone because he was autistic.
Even though his brother is olderthan him.
He was always trying to be protective and he ended up in a
(16:14):
big mess. Yeah.
So with all this going on, so you said your mom knew about it.
Did everybody else in your family know?
Like how did they feel about it?So the night that I wrote him, I
right away texted my best friendand I was like, hey, guess what?
I just wrote someone that's in prison and I can't wait to hear
(16:34):
back from him. Are you out of your mind?
What's wrong with you? I'm like, hey, don't be mean.
She's like, you don't even know him.
But I was very defensive. Don't speak bad.
I'm not going to let you talk bad about him.
And this is my best. Friend, I did the same thing.
And I didn't even speak to him or hear back from him.
Like, he could have been an asshole.
He wasn't. And look, I've always had a stop
(16:56):
up for him because he was a child.
Yeah, as much as they trying to paint him as a criminal and yes,
he did very wrong things. He was still very young.
The brain wasn't developed. And I felt terrible for him.
And we've all done 10 bad thingsin our past.
But we evolve. We grow.
And I'm not saying everybody does evolve, but in his
(17:17):
situation, yeah, I see that in him.
I don't know the old cage. I can't vouch for the old cage.
I just know the one that he is today and I'm proud of him.
Yeah, I understand completely. It's true.
We all make mistakes and we all have that opportunity that maybe
we could have done something that could have gotten us.
I was talking to my mother aboutit a couple days ago and she was
like, I've done things that could have gotten me down a bad
(17:38):
path that it just didn't happen.I didn't get caught or whatever.
And maybe it's not to the extentof these men, but regardless,
we've all done stuff as young adults that we regret.
I totally agree. Totally agree.
And then to be given these sentences that are basically
life, Nick's given life. But 50 years is a very long time
for someone who how old was he? 16 technically Life.
(17:59):
Yeah. Exactly.
It makes no sense, but so yeah, what did your best friend say
when you were being defensive over him?
Said I'm out of my mind. I'm crazy, but I'm crazy anyway,
so it's not like something unexpected.
Yeah, but she's like, what are you doing?
I'm like, listen, I'm not even going to speak to you about it.
I'm just telling you what. Not looking for opinions.
(18:20):
Yeah, and then I also told one of my friends, he also had the
same reaction. We used to go to school together
and he's like, Andrea, you're crazy.
Yeah, I guess I am. My mom knew because I told her.
I don't remember if I told her the very same day I wrote him,
probably the next or whatever. And then obviously she knew
because she came with me at the post and I was telling her.
(18:43):
She didn't think nothing bad about it.
She recently now she was saying how she thought I'm doing the
good deed because she saw that Iwas taking pictures.
When we started talking, she gotto speak on the phone with him
and she could tell he was a goodinfluence.
He had a positive influence in my life.
I was partying a lot before the lockdown came and I told you I
(19:07):
didn't want anything serious or whatever.
And my families are the type where they're very not
conservative, but in a way, theydon't smoke, they don't drink.
They I'm more like the black sheep of the family.
Or I was, or maybe I still am because I'm dating someone in
prison. I'm married to someone in
prison. But he obviously had a good
influence on you so. Yes, he really did.
(19:27):
And I got so much closer to God since I met.
And that's another thing that I loved about him.
He studied theology and he had such love for his grandmother
that passed away. And it was the same with me.
I was raised by my grandmother. She was the love of my life and
we connected with that. We had a connection because he
(19:49):
was the youngest, I was the oldest, the 1st in my family,
the first niece. He was the youngest, but he
always loved his grandma more than anything.
Home. Yeah, we had certain things that
we had in common. And we connected and like, we
just click instantly. We just clicked yeah.
And this is obviously very far away.
He's very international to you. Is it the first time you've ever
(20:11):
dated someone? Long distance relationship?
No. So my first ever serious
relationship with my eggs, we were together for five years and
he was my first everything, knowwhat I mean?
Yeah, He lived in Romania, so I did not grow up in Romania, but
when my grandmother passed away in 14, I met him then when I was
(20:35):
there. So I was obviously still in
school and college and all that.So we started dating and we
would do long distance. I would go on holiday to
Romania, he would come over hereto London.
Yeah. I've done it before as well and
I found this time for some reason it's way easier and I
don't know why but for some reason it just feels I don't
(20:58):
know. I don't know if a lot of people
say that long distance is reallyand I found it very hard in my
previous relationship. But in this relationship I don't
know why and I haven't figured that out yet, but I found it so
much easier. Maybe because I know that it's
not possible to see him or? No, that's, I'm thinking that
maybe it's the subconscious thattelling us we don't have to
worry where they're at. First of all, we know obviously
(21:21):
we do worry about what's going on about their safety.
That's a. Daily thing.
Yes, goes without saying. It's just very different because
the relationship we have with this man, it's all based on
emotional connection. We connect with them in ways
where I've never, I have the audacity to say that I've never
(21:42):
knew love or what love was untilI met Cage.
And mind you, I we didn't get tospend time together physically
being intimate with each other. It's just flows like we have
such chemistry. It's just unbelievable to this
day to me way I can love this man without even being physical.
And I know we haven't done that and I know a lot of
(22:05):
relationships don't work when they come home, but it's a risk
I'm willing to take because I'm happy.
I'm genuinely happy. He makes me happy.
And I'm the friend that is always going to tell you do what
makes you happy. Do what you feel is right for
you, yes, and just follow your heart.
Just whatever you want to do, just do it.
I tell people all the time, samething, my relationship is now
(22:28):
not planning for the future. Yes, I would love for him to win
an appeal for them to change thelaws or whatever.
And I really do hope that and wework on that.
But at the end of the day, my relationship today, tomorrow,
yesterday, I feel fulfilled, I feel good, I feel happy.
He makes me happy in the moment.So we don't even know what's
gonna happen in the future. But regardless, actually I'm
happy now. So even if it ends later, I'm
(22:48):
not holding out hope and sad andwaiting for my relationship to
start. It's already started and.
Yeah. And yeah, it's true.
It's what you wanted to do is what made you happy.
Hopefully things change in the future.
Where we gonna have them home? And there's people out there
that you see charge us for beingin this relationship.
But there's a lot of people thatare in marriages that are very
(23:11):
unhappy or that don't even get to spend much time with their
spouses. And I don't want to say it, but
it's real. Like we get to spend more time.
We are more connected to this man that are actually locked up
than others in the free world. Yeah, yeah, I feel like I know
him. I've been closer than him
emotionally, mentally than I've ever been in any relationship
(23:33):
before. He knows me better than every
single person. And I've lived with people like
I've had relationships where I've lived with the men and they
don't know me as well as he does.
And funny story, someone that's related to me was telling me how
he'd just gotten divorced after 25 years of marriage.
And he was at his son's hockey game.
And his ex-wife now had said, hey, I'm going to get a coffee,
(23:54):
do you want one? And he said, yeah.
And then she said, what are you taking it?
And he's like, we were married 25 years.
You don't know what I take in coffee.
Like perspective. Yeah.
You could be married and not know.
Yeah. And not know that person at all.
So because it's so far away, youprobably don't get to see him
that much. How do you make that work in
terms of actually seeing him? I obviously work and at the
(24:16):
moment I am studying for my masters, which is a lot of work
that I'm doing. So I try to go see him every few
months and I just want to see him in January and I'm planning
to go for his birthday, which isin April hopefully.
But in prison always things are happening in their lockdowns.
For lockdowns, we still get visits, but there's always
(24:39):
something that could happen. Has it ever happened that you've
gone there and then weren't ableto see him because it's such a
flight and. Thank God.
No. Lucky.
I've never had such experience. Yeah, it would be heartbreaking.
And I know it's happened. A lot of ladies that I see, they
travel for many hours by car, They get there and they just get
denied pencil. So yeah, I've never had that
(25:02):
happen to me. Thank God.
And I'm most curious because this is something that I haven't
experienced, but I think you have in Texas, you can't touch
them until you're married. Is that correct?
Yes, that's very correct. In February 2023 was the first
time I got to see him in person.I would always ask for my visit
a month prior. OK, so as soon as we had visit
(25:24):
next month, I'm planning to go see him again.
I have to e-mail the warden because I don't have access to
the website and since it's a special visit, I have to get in
touch with the warden in order to get it approved and all that.
So the warden already has seen that I was visiting him.
It was all behind glass. I visited him like 10 times
behind glass of those visits. We would only get two hours each
(25:47):
day. It would fly by.
And he saw that we had no trouble.
We were just normal, minding ourbusiness.
And I asked the word and I said you came like, hey, we're
planning to get married. We've been planning for a while.
I don't know when it's gonna happen, but is it possible for
us to have a contact visit sinceI'm coming from so far away and
(26:08):
I got lucky And he said yes. So the next two visits were in
person. Yeah.
What was that like? It was.
One of the best days of my life.Imagine the first time I saw him
and I just wanted to grab him and kiss him, and he was through
a glass. So we were just touching the
glass, touching each other. And when it was in person, it
was like it was happening all over again.
(26:28):
But this time I'm like, Oh my God, I'm gonna touch him.
Like, actually, yeah, didn't really hit me up until that day.
And I was getting like, Oh my God.
But yeah, obviously we have sometrouble.
They wouldn't let me go in dressed the way I was dressed
and they didn't want to give us those visits.
And on the weekends, usually thewardens are not there and we got
(26:49):
in. So I got all happy because I'm
always so happy. It's a good day.
I'm visiting my men, so I'm not going to let anybody bring you
down with my mood. That's it, period.
And I get in there all happy. They said about my outfit.
OK, So I said, you know what? I got some leggings in the car.
I'm just going to put them undermy dress and that's it.
OK, We got past that. I get in the visitation room and
(27:09):
they tell me, oh, no, you don't have a contact visit.
I'm like, I'm telling you have acontact visit.
You don't have to tell me. I know what I thought.
Hello. And there was the PO.
Oh, no, ma'am, he was not approved by, you know, whatever
because he has to ask. And I'm like, I don't care who
you're saying he was not approved by.
(27:31):
He was approved by the word, theword and confirmed it with me.
You might as well go ahead and call the word and ask him is not
here. Yeah, the warden is not here.
And I'm like, I don't care. Just get in touch with him.
And I said, listen, I don't wantto speak to you and no
disrespect. Can you call somebody that
higher up? And yeah, because imagine if I
(27:52):
was attacked, like, I was like an anxious person, someone that
would get intimidated my own rights, I wouldn't be able to
get a contract because I would listen to the CEO because
apparently he weren't there. And he called down the Sergeant.
And I'm like, look, this is whathappened.
I spoke to the warden. The warden said yes, do you have
the e-mail? And I said, yes, ma'am, I do
have the e-mail. In fact, can you please go?
(28:13):
And I said, I don't have my phone on me.
I was trying to be as smart as well.
She's like, obviously. And I'm like, should I bring it
back in so I can show you? She says no, Oh, you can just
forward it. OK.
So go back to the car. It was hot outside.
This was June 23, and it was so warm.
And I'm like, my makeup, my hairthat I'm running, doing like
cardio. So run back outside, go in the
(28:34):
car, forward the e-mail and thenrun back, go through security
again, all that. And yeah, I come back and she's
like, yes, ma'am, you're right. You have your contact today and
tomorrow. And I'm like, thank you.
I know. And yeah, the CEO was the one
bringing him in. And I'm like looking at him
like, yeah, what did you say? You said no.
Right. Yeah.
Who won? Who won this time?
(28:56):
Yeah. Oh my gosh, I'm.
So sad because some people they get so anxious and they just
don't want to upset them. But when you feel right, don't
let them intimidate you. I'm not saying to be
disrespectful in any way. What's yours?
And if the warden says yeah, it's like that should say it
all. Yeah, for sure.
I'm one of those people that really gets nervous going in
(29:17):
there because obviously it's my first time and they've been
respectful so far. Like obviously behind the scenes
they hate me and whatever, but the actual Cos that are there
haven't ever been disrespectful.But I can't imagine and I've had
sometimes where inside some of the people that work there not
Cos have been really rude and disrespectful for no reason.
(29:37):
We had a mix like that. We've had a little bit of both.
We had some people that were super nice and some other people
that were hateful. So there was this specific
person. I got all those types of
questions right from the beginning for even entering the
gate, The people that were outside, they would ask, hey, if
you don't mind me asking you like, why do you come on this
way for him? And I'm like, because I love
(29:58):
him. Yeah.
And like, I would answer back then if they would ask him on
the other side. Oh, like, who are you?
Why are they coming to see you from so far?
She's from this country and she's coming to see you.
Like very disrespectful. There was this other man at one
time that was trying to cut our visits off like by half an hour
all every single time. And for us, imagine it's all we
(30:21):
got. We don't get to do that every
weekend. Why are you taking it out on us?
And you go to the guy that's next to Cage and you're like,
hey buddy, how's your visit going?
Like why? Why in our faces?
It's not like that. It's just a Moody person.
We can clearly see that you dislike us for a reason.
So unnecessary. Yeah, it's so unnecessary
(30:43):
because both me and him, we justcare about each other.
We don't care about what's goingon around the visitation room.
Sometimes if I'm waiting for him, I might be, I don't really
look around, but I might be overhere.
But it's certain things that nowI have learned, like I don't
really look at people. Cage has explained to me this
(31:05):
disrespectful, this and that. So like some prison rules that
obviously I wasn't aware. For example, I had a bottle of
water that I was drinking and the cup of the bottle fell and I
bent over. But I'm not even trying to be
sexy for me. I literally just over and he's
like, don't do that, you're gonna get me in trouble because
there might be yeah, weird people that would be doing weird
(31:27):
things. And there's a lot of people that
I know that got in trouble for protecting their loved ones.
Not that they would do anything to me, but they would do you
know what I mean? Yes, yes.
How do you think? And so yeah, he's super, super
protective. But obviously now I'm like a OG
like I. Know you've been there a minute.
Yeah, but it is a huge learning curve.
I agree. It's a huge learning curve,
(31:50):
things that you don't think about that are real in there.
Yeah. So you talked a little bit about
how, and you talked on the show too, about how you travel, quote
UN quote with him and you go travel and you take lots of
pictures and send it to him and that's how you guys connect.
What else do you do or what can you recommend people who are
overseas from their loved ones that are incarcerated to keep
(32:12):
that relationship going? Yeah, we haven't been reading
much lately. We both love to read and we were
read the same book. For example, I love to read self
developing books, but Cage does not believe in that specifically
to be honest. So we would read like romance.
I got him to read self developing books, but he
(32:33):
believes in his own philosophy. He's like why should someone
tell me to do this? I know all these things by
myself, but I love that. I love reading self developing
books. So I got him reading romance
with me. Watching romance movies, Yeah.
I have the opposite problem. Nick loves self development and
he lies me all these books and sends them to me and then I have
(32:54):
to read all these self development books.
Yeah, I find it interesting. There's one specific book that
really changed my life. In my perspective on life, it
holds the Power of Mao by OK, and that really changed my
perspective on a lot of things. I read that way before I met
Cage, but yeah, that had a good impact.
We read The Ultimate together. We read various books.
(33:17):
We would watch movies together. The first movie we've ever
watched was A Star Was Born withBradley Cooper and Lady Gadda.
Yeah. And he was crying and he was
trying to hide it. And I'm like, hey, did you get
emotional? He's like, no, I don't do that.
I love it I. Said yes.
It did, and it was like you're on the phone.
(33:39):
But I can hear. I'm like, I can hear it.
We would also read books sometimes.
And he would send instructions on the letters at what time to
read which chapter. So we would do that.
Yeah. He he's very thoughtful in that
way. He was being transferred, I
believe or something like that in 2021 or 2022.
(34:01):
And he wrote his mom pages with instructions on what to tell me
randomly at 3:00 PM my time, forexample, he would be like, hey
mom, like at 3:00 PM you messageher this specific message.
That's so cute. Yeah, we try to.
Like I said, we try to grow every time.
Right now we are both studying. He used to help me study.
(34:23):
I even had to do some sort of presentation, but it was like a
recording and I had to record a businessman.
Obviously, I chose my husband asa businessman, but the people
from the university didn't know.Oh, I.
Love it, that's hilarious. Yes.
So, yeah, we find ways to work with what we have and it's not a
(34:43):
lot, but yeah, the little that we have, yeah, yeah.
So prison brides, I don't know how much you can share, but
there's a lot of people that yousee online that are thinking
about going on a show or they don't know.
Can you just give a little bit of your experiences and if you
recommend or what you wish you would have known before going on
it? OK.
What I wish I would have known is no matter how much research
(35:07):
you do, there's always going to be advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages for us where that we got to meet a lot of wonderful
people. Disadvantages where?
I don't know if I want to call them disadvantages, but so for
me, I'm a strong person. I don't care what people think.
I respect everybody's opinion. And I don't expect everybody
(35:28):
just to be on like, oh, wow, yeah, she's married to an inmate
while I'm clapping my hands for her.
Well done. No, I get it.
I get everybody else's point of view, but it doesn't affect me.
Even if I get some ugly messages, I don't let it bother
me. Now there's people that struggle
with mental health and obviouslyI would recommend to make sure
that you're prepared mentally toreceive a lot of backlash.
(35:52):
A lot of things that happened, Iwas very genuine when it comes
to TV productions and TV and allthat I didn't know.
I was very genuine and I believed everything I was told
and I was being told and I wish they would have shared more of
Cage's case is the reason why I went on there in the 1st place.
(36:13):
They will tell you what you wantto hear.
And at the end of the day, you have to remember that it's all a
business for them, for you. You're trying to do it for your
loved one. Who knows, maybe some people do
it for the money. I don't know.
In our case, I did it purely because I was not a social media
girl. I didn't have, and I still don't
(36:33):
have a big following, but I never shared our relationship
online because I was a very private person.
And I took this opportunity as ascience.
Like I said, I'm religious and Ibelieve in science and I believe
in God. And I said, maybe this is a good
chance for us to get some help, get help with things that we
don't know. Maybe there are some laws where
(36:54):
maybe there's lawyers out there,which I believe there are people
that know more than we do. And yeah, do your research, but
just know they'll tell you what you want to hear.
Now, you have to be aware that they're going to be editing and
they might try to faint you in away that is not true or
whatever. For me, I didn't really care
much because I know who knows me.
(37:16):
They know what kind of person I am.
And for me, that's all that matters.
I just wish they would have showed a little more about Cage.
Yeah, I agree. Story and just being
straightforward with how long it's been passed over the floor.
And and that is where we are going to leave it for the
(37:37):
season. Come back and join us in
September in the season premiereof Season 2.
We will get to hear the rest of Andrea's story.
And let me tell you, the rest ofit is good, it is juicy, and it
is all of the questions that I wanted to ask her when I first
found out that she agreed to interview.
They're all coming out in the second part of this interview.
(38:00):
So something to look forward to.Yay.
Season 1 is done. I'm so grateful.
AJ is so grateful for everyone that has joined us.
Everyone who has taken the time to listen to these stories, has
joined the community and supported us in any and all
(38:21):
ways. This has been the craziest
experience but so good on so many levels and I cannot wait
for you guys to hear Season 2 and what we've got planned.
There's more, there's difference.
Crazy like so much fun is about to happen in September, but I
(38:43):
also am very much looking forward to the summer.
If you follow me on social media, you know that I am
starting to work more seriously on getting laws changed and
getting more awareness in Nebraska around felony murder
law. So I'm going to ask you, if you
are in Nebraska, you have a loved one in Nebraska, please
(39:04):
join the group that we've created.
It's called End felony murder rule in Nebraska.
Please join it, support it. We are going to be full throttle
trying to bring awareness to what felony murder is.
I've contacted a bunch of incarcerated individuals that
are severely impacted by felony murder and now serving life
sentences for murders that they didn't commit, that the record
(39:27):
shows they didn't commit. And it's time that people know
there's a lot of states that have changed it already and it's
time for this one too. So please join me, Please join
the group, please support it. That is what I will be working
on this summer at the same time as preparing for next season of
More Than An Inmate's Girlfriend.
(39:48):
So please follow us on TikTok atMore Than an Inmate's GF or on
Instagram at podcast under ScorePrison GF.
We will be still posting. We will be doing lives.
We will be preparing for the next season so that you guys
have more to listen to. Different stories, different
perspectives. It's going to be great.
(40:09):
So thank you again for such an awesome season and I'm so, so
grateful for everything that this has let me down.
Starting this was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
One of the hardest couple monthsin a lot of ways, but definitely
worth it. And cannot wait to continue on
this journey with you guys. So thank you again for joining
(40:29):
me and we will see you in a couple months.
Take care. Bye.
Welcome to another episode of More Than an Inmate's
Girlfriend. I'm your host Jay, and today is
a very exciting episode. I'm very excited to introduce
the guests that we have today. Most of you that are prison
wives, I'm sure have seen different reality TV shows and
watch different guests go on them.
And for me personally, the firstshow that I had watched when I
(00:33):
first started talking to Nick was Prison Brides.
And I loved it because I found that it was a little bit more
realistic than love during lockup and love after lockup.
And there was a few people that were on the show that I really
love, and I connected more with some of them than others, which
is normal. And one of the couples that was
on the show, I really felt like I didn't get enough information
(00:54):
about them. I really wanted to know more
about them. And I didn't really feel like I
knew. I knew that he had a long
sentence, but I didn't know why,and I really didn't think that
the show really went into it. So I went on a deep dive last
year trying to find out more information, and I found a
little bit more. But with the podcast starting,
we reached out to this person and they have accepted to come
(01:16):
on here and talk a little bit more about it.
So I'm really excited and I think a lot of people would be
really curious to learn more about Andrea and Cage.
So Andrea, welcome. Thank you for having me.
It's a pleasure and it's so exciting.
Yeah. Finally share.
More. I'm so excited to hear more
about this. So for those people that didn't
watch Prison Brides, can you talk about how you guys first
(01:38):
met? What happened?
How did you cross paths with Cage?
Oh yeah, Around 2020, I just downloaded TikTok.
I didn't have the app on my phone, and it was around the
time when we were all having to stay home and we couldn't leave
the house. It was all fresh.
So at the time I was working on myself.
I was closer to God, I would say, because I did lose my faith
(02:01):
over the past years. I was at an age where I grew up
in a very religious family. Somehow I ended up pulling
myself away. So I was just finding myself.
I was being very aware. I was just getting to know
myself. Like exploring?
Yeah. Exploring I was single for a
while I wasn't trying to be in arelationship.
(02:22):
I was focusing on my career and just being myself wanting to
travel, save money to do more things crazy.
So I I just got TikTok and I wasbored so I just decided to just
scroll scroll. It was very boring.
I had to stay home. I was forced to stay at home and
(02:43):
around end of May I came across this girl that popped on my for
you page and it was an American girl.
I forgot her name and she had the background of the website
Write a prisoner and she was talking how she is temples with
someone and I really wasn't listening.
I just saw the website and honest to you, I didn't even
(03:06):
know the definition of a pen pal.
I'm like, I've never heard of what is this?
I was intrigued. I was curious by nature, a very
curious person. And obviously you can read write
a prisoner. So obviously I can understand
that. But I'm like, I've never seen
such thing like what is this? So I just went on the website
and I clicked on it and I started scrolling and I'm like,
(03:29):
Oh my God, what is this? But I saw like, it's something
like, this is not a dating website or something like that.
Yeah. And I was scrolling and I came
across Cage's profile and I did go through a few profiles and I
could read a little about themselves.
I came across Cage and not only the picture of him, I'm like,
wow, his hands. Not only that, I really loved
(03:51):
what he wrote about him. And he was saying how he grew up
by the beach and I loved the beach.
Like, I want to die by the beach.
Yeah. And he was saying how he is
passionate about and how he loves to read books and what
type of music he likes to listen.
I don't know. I was very drawn to him for some
reason. I just felt I want to know more
(04:11):
about him. And obviously, you can see the
crime he committed, the time he's in prison, how long he's
going to be in there for. And I saw that, and I saw why
he's in prison. And I'm like, this doesn't make
any sense. Yeah.
Any other person I would tell about this, they'll be like he
must have committed murder or hemust done something terrible in
(04:34):
order for him to receive 50. Years.
Yeah. And I wanted to know more about
his story. Obviously the main thing, it
wasn't just me writing him. Like, hey, like I want to know
why. No, that came naturally.
I wrote him a pretty large letter to be on and that was the
first letter ever I wrote to someone.
So it's like handwritten. You hand wrote him a letter.
No, so I had to create a jpg. The website instructed me what I
(04:58):
need to do. I had to create a profile.
Were you nervous? I remember I freaking out when I
did. No, honestly, no.
This is something that even now,it felt so natural.
I never even for the moment of all worrying that this person is
going to have my address or he's.
A Me too. I didn't.
Know I didn't feel that way either.
When you win, Yeah. Being a part of this community
(05:21):
now, you hear a lot of women talking how it was the first
time when they went to prison. Send Cage's mom, she said when
she first went to visit him, shefelt like the way they were
cutting her down and think, I don't know what it was now, if
I'm thinking ever going to prison, visiting someone else, I
would probably feel different tobe honest with you.
But with him, I've never had that feeling.
(05:43):
That's interesting. So I wrote him, Yeah, I wrote
him and I didn't receive an answer.
Like, yeah, I thought because ofthe mail longer.
Yeah, I said OK, maybe I thoughtthat they're gonna take a while
for them to approve my account or whatever reason.
And then I ended up finding out that he didn't receive my
(06:04):
address. So when I created the account, I
put my address down on JPEG. However, he couldn't see it
because at the time they didn't have tablets back in 2020.
So Texas didn't have tablets. So what they would do is I would
send the e-mail and they would print it out.
But obviously I didn't know backthen.
So I tried to find that girl back on TikTok and I said, hey,
(06:25):
like I broke someone. But.
And then she said, what state ishe in?
If he's in this state, he doesn't have a tablet.
So you would have to insert the address in.
So then I took a paper and I wrote it down letter by letter,
the same. Letter.
I love it. Or And I went to the post office
with my mother. Actually, she came with me.
(06:45):
And I know want to. Make sure he receives it.
So your mom knew that you were doing this from the beginning?
Yeah. He knew from the beginning, wow.
And so I wrote him and he was the first man ever that I
reached out to like ever, ever. And it wasn't like I was
interested to start anything, but it's just me talking to men
I'm usually approached by. And so time started passing by
(07:09):
now. In the meantime, afterwards, I
found out that he was asking hismother to lookout for me because
he didn't have my address. And he had his friends, his mom,
his dad lookout for me on socialmedia with my first and last
name. Social media, I didn't even have
my last name had a. Different name, yeah.
(07:30):
So they couldn't and a lot of occasions friends at the time
they said, oh, she's catfishing you because I sent some pictures
of myself and they're like, she's not even real, she's
catfishing you whatever. So after I heard back from him
in July. Oh wow.
Yeah, so it took months. Well, you know, I already told
you he got my letter the very next day, but it took a while
(07:53):
for me to decide. Two weeks after that, I wrote
him a real letter and all that on.
So it took a while. So I woke up one day and my mom
tells me, oh, you received a letter from that boy and.
I'm like. But oh, do you know my whole
most change? I was really curious to see what
he's gonna say. I, yeah, really wanted to hear
from him, but at the same time Iwas waiting.
(08:15):
I'm like, what is it taking so long?
Even those two weeks prior, me knowing that he doesn't have my
address to write me back, I'm like the audacity this boy has.
Fine, you don't want to talk to me.
So when I messaged Nick, he didn't answer me the first day
and I was like, afterwards he answered me the next day, but
like I didn't even think it was a possibility.
(08:36):
And he laughs at me. I'm like, I didn't think that
anybody would not get a response.
I thought everybody would just answer anyone who reaches out to
you. But no, that's obviously not the
case. But I was so naive.
It's dating. Some people are gonna answer
you, some people aren't. But I thought I did something
wrong. But no, he just didn't answer me
for 24 hours. I know I was.
(08:58):
Like what? What is going on?
You know what? I was just trying to be nice,
this and that. And yeah, you're just trying.
OK, fine. I don't care.
But when I heard that he sent mea little, my whole day changed.
I don't know. For some reason I was really
waiting for him. To get back.
At me, which is embarrassing because I'm like I get
approached by guys and do the. Other.
(09:19):
Yeah. And that's not even what you're
looking for. We're even looking for that.
So why are you feeling like that?
I feel the same way. It was the same thing with me.
It was what I was looking for atall, but yet here I was getting
excited when I'd see a message from him or whatever.
So I know exactly what you mean.Yeah, and for us it was
different because I only could hear back from him with letters.
I'm like, okay, so then I received that letter and he was
(09:43):
telling me about his siblings and how he grew up a little bit
more about himself, and I just wanted to hear more from him and
from them. We could have phone calls and we
could. And we hit it off.
We were talking non-stop as muchas we could.
Was falling for that boy withouteven realizing.
Yeah, falling for him. But in my mind, I knew that we
(10:03):
cannot have anything. I knew that there cannot be any
type of relationship between us because I was aware of the
situation. Yeah.
And yeah, yeah. Did you look up his charge or
did you just see what was on right of prisoner?
You did. Yeah, so on right of prisoners,
you cannot really see my. See, in Cage's case, it's
(10:25):
aggravated robbery. OK, That's all you can see for
him. At least that's how it was at
the time. Obviously, I searched his name
on Google and I saw all the files.
I saw the court documents, I sawall the articles that were at
the time how the judge called him a monster thinks that he
(10:45):
wasn't allowed to do. Yeah, yeah, I did my research
overall. Yeah.
Obviously I didn't know a lot ofextra information that
afterwards I found out from his family, from himself, but we
didn't really talk about his case from the very.
Beginning. Yeah, I was gonna ask.
Yeah, We were getting to know each other.
We were just enjoying each day. And I didn't really want to ask
(11:07):
him up until I wanted to know. I'm going to be honest.
Yeah, But I wanted him to feel comfortable to do that.
I wanted him to be happy. He didn't want to be the person
like, hey, tell me about this and that.
I didn't want to play like the yeah.
Police investigation. No, I just, yeah, I wanted him
to be comfortable. And now sometimes it's hard for
him to talk about it. And it's heartbreaking because
(11:30):
he wasn't that close to all of them.
Oh, he was close to one person. So yeah, we were just talking.
We were just enjoying each other's presence.
I was sending him a lot of pictures of literally everything
like I have in my phone. I'm not even exaggerating.
Like all 60,000 pictures at the moment.
Yeah, I would take pictures of trees or London or traveling to
(11:54):
different countries. I was taking him with me every
single place I went to. Whatever my eyes saw.
He is so too. Yeah, even though it was through
a picture. What was it about him that was
different for you? Like obviously there was
something that attracted you to him versus the other guys that
you've met out here. So I really loved the way he saw
(12:15):
life. First of all, I have, I've
always been a very positive, optimistic person.
And in my life I love to be surrounded by such people.
But most of the time find myselfin the situation where people
around me are not so positive. And I am always the friend
that's going to pick you up. I'm always that friend that's
never sad or upset or I'm alwaysgoing to lift you up.
(12:38):
I'm going to make you see the good things in life and I'm
going to make you happy or at least try my hardest.
And for me, when I saw that him and he was so effortless, like
the way he was just positive andI'm like, wow, he is where he's
at. He is in a cell in a small, tiny
cell. He's having not a very good.
(13:00):
Life. In there and he is positive he's
not doing any drugs. He's not.
He was with me 24/7. So as much as people say, hey,
you cannot know a person when you're with a person 24/7, you
talk to them all the time and you get to see.
Trust me, there's only so much some people can hide.
He was always Korean, like Korean.
(13:21):
He's so intelligent. His brain, I got attracted to
his brain and his personality hard.
He's way better than I am. And he's in prison and I'm here.
Honestly, I'm a BITCH comparisonto him, honestly.
It's the same thing with me. Like Nick is so positive and I
feel like he and same thing withKate.
(13:42):
They were given really bad dealsin life.
And yet despite all that, here we are complaining about like
regular day-to-day, the snow, the weather, and here they are
stuck and they're smiling and they're laughing and they're
making you happy. It's crazy.
It's really something and I think not everybody in prison is
like that, but I find the ones that are growing.
(14:04):
And that's what I want to emphasize them because talking
to them and being with them, youget to hear a lot about prison.
And then you see that there's 80% of the people there, maybe
even 90. They are at it.
I'm not going to blame because maybe I would be in the same
situation. Not everybody can be as strong.
But I have such admiration for the people that are dealing with
(14:28):
sad faith like they are and theystill wake up and they still
better themselves and they stillsay, I'm not going to say the
hard part. But it is.
It's harder, yeah. Nick wasn't doing the right
things. He wasn't doing drugs, but he
was not doing great things in there.
And it's just recently that he grew up and was like, hey, I
(14:49):
don't want to do this. But he's like, I fight it every
day because it's all around me. And every day I have to remind
myself what I want out of my life and who I want to be, what
kind of person I want to be. You're fighting because you're
in this situation. And rehabilitation in the
American justice system is not really prevalent.
It's. Not really rehabilitation.
Yeah, they have to do it themselves, so it's even harder,
(15:10):
yeah. They don't get help and it's so
sad because I was just reading the other day about Texas
inmates. I don't know about other states.
A lot of the inmates have mentalproblems, yes, and they are sent
to prison instead of sending them to mental facilities where
they could actually get help. Yeah, they don't even assess
(15:30):
them when they come in. It doesn't make any sense.
I know this sage is brother was incarcerated.
They both got incarcerated at the same time.
Cage's brother is his Co defendant.
I don't know if a lot of places know this so this is information
coming by for me. I probably have spoke about it
in the past. And he's autistic.
They never gave him medicine forit.
(15:51):
He has also a very rare disease has to do with a blood clot.
They also never gave him medication for that.
He was in prison for 10 years and he's one of the main reasons
Cage got in trouble. He didn't want to leave his
brother alone because he was autistic.
Even though his brother is olderthan him.
He was always trying to be protective and he ended up in a
(16:14):
big mess. Yeah.
So with all this going on, so you said your mom knew about it.
Did everybody else in your family know?
Like how did they feel about it?So the night that I wrote him, I
right away texted my best friendand I was like, hey, guess what?
I just wrote someone that's in prison and I can't wait to hear
(16:34):
back from him. Are you out of your mind?
What's wrong with you? I'm like, hey, don't be mean.
She's like, you don't even know him.
But I was very defensive. Don't speak bad.
I'm not going to let you talk bad about him.
And this is my best. Friend, I did the same thing.
And I didn't even speak to him or hear back from him.
Like, he could have been an asshole.
He wasn't. And look, I've always had a stop
(16:56):
up for him because he was a child.
Yeah, as much as they trying to paint him as a criminal and yes,
he did very wrong things. He was still very young.
The brain wasn't developed. And I felt terrible for him.
And we've all done 10 bad thingsin our past.
But we evolve. We grow.
And I'm not saying everybody does evolve, but in his
(17:17):
situation, yeah, I see that in him.
I don't know the old cage. I can't vouch for the old cage.
I just know the one that he is today and I'm proud of him.
Yeah, I understand completely. It's true.
We all make mistakes and we all have that opportunity that maybe
we could have done something that could have gotten us.
I was talking to my mother aboutit a couple days ago and she was
like, I've done things that could have gotten me down a bad
(17:38):
path that it just didn't happen.I didn't get caught or whatever.
And maybe it's not to the extentof these men, but regardless,
we've all done stuff as young adults that we regret.
I totally agree. Totally agree.
And then to be given these sentences that are basically
life, Nick's given life. But 50 years is a very long time
for someone who how old was he? 16 technically Life.
(17:59):
Yeah. Exactly.
It makes no sense, but so yeah, what did your best friend say
when you were being defensive over him?
Said I'm out of my mind. I'm crazy, but I'm crazy anyway,
so it's not like something unexpected.
Yeah, but she's like, what are you doing?
I'm like, listen, I'm not even going to speak to you about it.
I'm just telling you what. Not looking for opinions.
(18:20):
Yeah, and then I also told one of my friends, he also had the
same reaction. We used to go to school together
and he's like, Andrea, you're crazy.
Yeah, I guess I am. My mom knew because I told her.
I don't remember if I told her the very same day I wrote him,
probably the next or whatever. And then obviously she knew
because she came with me at the post and I was telling her.
(18:43):
She didn't think nothing bad about it.
She recently now she was saying how she thought I'm doing the
good deed because she saw that Iwas taking pictures.
When we started talking, she gotto speak on the phone with him
and she could tell he was a goodinfluence.
He had a positive influence in my life.
I was partying a lot before the lockdown came and I told you I
(19:07):
didn't want anything serious or whatever.
And my families are the type where they're very not
conservative, but in a way, theydon't smoke, they don't drink.
They I'm more like the black sheep of the family.
Or I was, or maybe I still am because I'm dating someone in
prison. I'm married to someone in
prison. But he obviously had a good
influence on you so. Yes, he really did.
(19:27):
And I got so much closer to God since I met.
And that's another thing that I loved about him.
He studied theology and he had such love for his grandmother
that passed away. And it was the same with me.
I was raised by my grandmother. She was the love of my life and
we connected with that. We had a connection because he
(19:49):
was the youngest, I was the oldest, the 1st in my family,
the first niece. He was the youngest, but he
always loved his grandma more than anything.
Home. Yeah, we had certain things that
we had in common. And we connected and like, we
just click instantly. We just clicked yeah.
And this is obviously very far away.
He's very international to you. Is it the first time you've ever
(20:11):
dated someone? Long distance relationship?
No. So my first ever serious
relationship with my eggs, we were together for five years and
he was my first everything, knowwhat I mean?
Yeah, He lived in Romania, so I did not grow up in Romania, but
when my grandmother passed away in 14, I met him then when I was
(20:35):
there. So I was obviously still in
school and college and all that.So we started dating and we
would do long distance. I would go on holiday to
Romania, he would come over hereto London.
Yeah. I've done it before as well and
I found this time for some reason it's way easier and I
don't know why but for some reason it just feels I don't
(20:58):
know. I don't know if a lot of people
say that long distance is reallyand I found it very hard in my
previous relationship. But in this relationship I don't
know why and I haven't figured that out yet, but I found it so
much easier. Maybe because I know that it's
not possible to see him or? No, that's, I'm thinking that
maybe it's the subconscious thattelling us we don't have to
worry where they're at. First of all, we know obviously
(21:21):
we do worry about what's going on about their safety.
That's a. Daily thing.
Yes, goes without saying. It's just very different because
the relationship we have with this man, it's all based on
emotional connection. We connect with them in ways
where I've never, I have the audacity to say that I've never
(21:42):
knew love or what love was untilI met Cage.
And mind you, I we didn't get tospend time together physically
being intimate with each other. It's just flows like we have
such chemistry. It's just unbelievable to this
day to me way I can love this man without even being physical.
And I know we haven't done that and I know a lot of
(22:05):
relationships don't work when they come home, but it's a risk
I'm willing to take because I'm happy.
I'm genuinely happy. He makes me happy.
And I'm the friend that is always going to tell you do what
makes you happy. Do what you feel is right for
you, yes, and just follow your heart.
Just whatever you want to do, just do it.
I tell people all the time, samething, my relationship is now
(22:28):
not planning for the future. Yes, I would love for him to win
an appeal for them to change thelaws or whatever.
And I really do hope that and wework on that.
But at the end of the day, my relationship today, tomorrow,
yesterday, I feel fulfilled, I feel good, I feel happy.
He makes me happy in the moment.So we don't even know what's
gonna happen in the future. But regardless, actually I'm
happy now. So even if it ends later, I'm
(22:48):
not holding out hope and sad andwaiting for my relationship to
start. It's already started and.
Yeah. And yeah, it's true.
It's what you wanted to do is what made you happy.
Hopefully things change in the future.
Where we gonna have them home? And there's people out there
that you see charge us for beingin this relationship.
But there's a lot of people thatare in marriages that are very
(23:11):
unhappy or that don't even get to spend much time with their
spouses. And I don't want to say it, but
it's real. Like we get to spend more time.
We are more connected to this man that are actually locked up
than others in the free world. Yeah, yeah, I feel like I know
him. I've been closer than him
emotionally, mentally than I've ever been in any relationship
(23:33):
before. He knows me better than every
single person. And I've lived with people like
I've had relationships where I've lived with the men and they
don't know me as well as he does.
And funny story, someone that's related to me was telling me how
he'd just gotten divorced after 25 years of marriage.
And he was at his son's hockey game.
And his ex-wife now had said, hey, I'm going to get a coffee,
(23:54):
do you want one? And he said, yeah.
And then she said, what are you taking it?
And he's like, we were married 25 years.
You don't know what I take in coffee.
Like perspective. Yeah.
You could be married and not know.
Yeah. And not know that person at all.
So because it's so far away, youprobably don't get to see him
that much. How do you make that work in
terms of actually seeing him? I obviously work and at the
(24:16):
moment I am studying for my masters, which is a lot of work
that I'm doing. So I try to go see him every few
months and I just want to see him in January and I'm planning
to go for his birthday, which isin April hopefully.
But in prison always things are happening in their lockdowns.
For lockdowns, we still get visits, but there's always
(24:39):
something that could happen. Has it ever happened that you've
gone there and then weren't ableto see him because it's such a
flight and. Thank God.
No. Lucky.
I've never had such experience. Yeah, it would be heartbreaking.
And I know it's happened. A lot of ladies that I see, they
travel for many hours by car, They get there and they just get
denied pencil. So yeah, I've never had that
(25:02):
happen to me. Thank God.
And I'm most curious because this is something that I haven't
experienced, but I think you have in Texas, you can't touch
them until you're married. Is that correct?
Yes, that's very correct. In February 2023 was the first
time I got to see him in person.I would always ask for my visit
a month prior. OK, so as soon as we had visit
(25:24):
next month, I'm planning to go see him again.
I have to e-mail the warden because I don't have access to
the website and since it's a special visit, I have to get in
touch with the warden in order to get it approved and all that.
So the warden already has seen that I was visiting him.
It was all behind glass. I visited him like 10 times
behind glass of those visits. We would only get two hours each
(25:47):
day. It would fly by.
And he saw that we had no trouble.
We were just normal, minding ourbusiness.
And I asked the word and I said you came like, hey, we're
planning to get married. We've been planning for a while.
I don't know when it's gonna happen, but is it possible for
us to have a contact visit sinceI'm coming from so far away and
(26:08):
I got lucky And he said yes. So the next two visits were in
person. Yeah.
What was that like? It was.
One of the best days of my life.Imagine the first time I saw him
and I just wanted to grab him and kiss him, and he was through
a glass. So we were just touching the
glass, touching each other. And when it was in person, it
was like it was happening all over again.
(26:28):
But this time I'm like, Oh my God, I'm gonna touch him.
Like, actually, yeah, didn't really hit me up until that day.
And I was getting like, Oh my God.
But yeah, obviously we have sometrouble.
They wouldn't let me go in dressed the way I was dressed
and they didn't want to give us those visits.
And on the weekends, usually thewardens are not there and we got
(26:49):
in. So I got all happy because I'm
always so happy. It's a good day.
I'm visiting my men, so I'm not going to let anybody bring you
down with my mood. That's it, period.
And I get in there all happy. They said about my outfit.
OK, So I said, you know what? I got some leggings in the car.
I'm just going to put them undermy dress and that's it.
OK, We got past that. I get in the visitation room and
(27:09):
they tell me, oh, no, you don't have a contact visit.
I'm like, I'm telling you have acontact visit.
You don't have to tell me. I know what I thought.
Hello. And there was the PO.
Oh, no, ma'am, he was not approved by, you know, whatever
because he has to ask. And I'm like, I don't care who
you're saying he was not approved by.
(27:31):
He was approved by the word, theword and confirmed it with me.
You might as well go ahead and call the word and ask him is not
here. Yeah, the warden is not here.
And I'm like, I don't care. Just get in touch with him.
And I said, listen, I don't wantto speak to you and no
disrespect. Can you call somebody that
higher up? And yeah, because imagine if I
(27:52):
was attacked, like, I was like an anxious person, someone that
would get intimidated my own rights, I wouldn't be able to
get a contract because I would listen to the CEO because
apparently he weren't there. And he called down the Sergeant.
And I'm like, look, this is whathappened.
I spoke to the warden. The warden said yes, do you have
the e-mail? And I said, yes, ma'am, I do
have the e-mail. In fact, can you please go?
(28:13):
And I said, I don't have my phone on me.
I was trying to be as smart as well.
She's like, obviously. And I'm like, should I bring it
back in so I can show you? She says no, Oh, you can just
forward it. OK.
So go back to the car. It was hot outside.
This was June 23, and it was so warm.
And I'm like, my makeup, my hairthat I'm running, doing like
cardio. So run back outside, go in the
(28:34):
car, forward the e-mail and thenrun back, go through security
again, all that. And yeah, I come back and she's
like, yes, ma'am, you're right. You have your contact today and
tomorrow. And I'm like, thank you.
I know. And yeah, the CEO was the one
bringing him in. And I'm like looking at him
like, yeah, what did you say? You said no.
Right. Yeah.
Who won? Who won this time?
(28:56):
Yeah. Oh my gosh, I'm.
So sad because some people they get so anxious and they just
don't want to upset them. But when you feel right, don't
let them intimidate you. I'm not saying to be
disrespectful in any way. What's yours?
And if the warden says yeah, it's like that should say it
all. Yeah, for sure.
I'm one of those people that really gets nervous going in
(29:17):
there because obviously it's my first time and they've been
respectful so far. Like obviously behind the scenes
they hate me and whatever, but the actual Cos that are there
haven't ever been disrespectful.But I can't imagine and I've had
sometimes where inside some of the people that work there not
Cos have been really rude and disrespectful for no reason.
(29:37):
We had a mix like that. We've had a little bit of both.
We had some people that were super nice and some other people
that were hateful. So there was this specific
person. I got all those types of
questions right from the beginning for even entering the
gate, The people that were outside, they would ask, hey, if
you don't mind me asking you like, why do you come on this
way for him? And I'm like, because I love
(29:58):
him. Yeah.
And like, I would answer back then if they would ask him on
the other side. Oh, like, who are you?
Why are they coming to see you from so far?
She's from this country and she's coming to see you.
Like very disrespectful. There was this other man at one
time that was trying to cut our visits off like by half an hour
all every single time. And for us, imagine it's all we
(30:21):
got. We don't get to do that every
weekend. Why are you taking it out on us?
And you go to the guy that's next to Cage and you're like,
hey buddy, how's your visit going?
Like why? Why in our faces?
It's not like that. It's just a Moody person.
We can clearly see that you dislike us for a reason.
So unnecessary. Yeah, it's so unnecessary
(30:43):
because both me and him, we justcare about each other.
We don't care about what's goingon around the visitation room.
Sometimes if I'm waiting for him, I might be, I don't really
look around, but I might be overhere.
But it's certain things that nowI have learned, like I don't
really look at people. Cage has explained to me this
(31:05):
disrespectful, this and that. So like some prison rules that
obviously I wasn't aware. For example, I had a bottle of
water that I was drinking and the cup of the bottle fell and I
bent over. But I'm not even trying to be
sexy for me. I literally just over and he's
like, don't do that, you're gonna get me in trouble because
there might be yeah, weird people that would be doing weird
(31:27):
things. And there's a lot of people that
I know that got in trouble for protecting their loved ones.
Not that they would do anything to me, but they would do you
know what I mean? Yes, yes.
How do you think? And so yeah, he's super, super
protective. But obviously now I'm like a OG
like I. Know you've been there a minute.
Yeah, but it is a huge learning curve.
I agree. It's a huge learning curve,
(31:50):
things that you don't think about that are real in there.
Yeah. So you talked a little bit about
how, and you talked on the show too, about how you travel, quote
UN quote with him and you go travel and you take lots of
pictures and send it to him and that's how you guys connect.
What else do you do or what can you recommend people who are
overseas from their loved ones that are incarcerated to keep
(32:12):
that relationship going? Yeah, we haven't been reading
much lately. We both love to read and we were
read the same book. For example, I love to read self
developing books, but Cage does not believe in that specifically
to be honest. So we would read like romance.
I got him to read self developing books, but he
(32:33):
believes in his own philosophy. He's like why should someone
tell me to do this? I know all these things by
myself, but I love that. I love reading self developing
books. So I got him reading romance
with me. Watching romance movies, Yeah.
I have the opposite problem. Nick loves self development and
he lies me all these books and sends them to me and then I have
(32:54):
to read all these self development books.
Yeah, I find it interesting. There's one specific book that
really changed my life. In my perspective on life, it
holds the Power of Mao by OK, and that really changed my
perspective on a lot of things. I read that way before I met
Cage, but yeah, that had a good impact.
We read The Ultimate together. We read various books.
(33:17):
We would watch movies together. The first movie we've ever
watched was A Star Was Born withBradley Cooper and Lady Gadda.
Yeah. And he was crying and he was
trying to hide it. And I'm like, hey, did you get
emotional? He's like, no, I don't do that.
I love it I. Said yes.
It did, and it was like you're on the phone.
(33:39):
But I can hear. I'm like, I can hear it.
We would also read books sometimes.
And he would send instructions on the letters at what time to
read which chapter. So we would do that.
Yeah. He he's very thoughtful in that
way. He was being transferred, I
believe or something like that in 2021 or 2022.
(34:01):
And he wrote his mom pages with instructions on what to tell me
randomly at 3:00 PM my time, forexample, he would be like, hey
mom, like at 3:00 PM you messageher this specific message.
That's so cute. Yeah, we try to.
Like I said, we try to grow every time.
Right now we are both studying. He used to help me study.
(34:23):
I even had to do some sort of presentation, but it was like a
recording and I had to record a businessman.
Obviously, I chose my husband asa businessman, but the people
from the university didn't know.Oh, I.
Love it, that's hilarious. Yes.
So, yeah, we find ways to work with what we have and it's not a
(34:43):
lot, but yeah, the little that we have, yeah, yeah.
So prison brides, I don't know how much you can share, but
there's a lot of people that yousee online that are thinking
about going on a show or they don't know.
Can you just give a little bit of your experiences and if you
recommend or what you wish you would have known before going on
it? OK.
What I wish I would have known is no matter how much research
(35:07):
you do, there's always going to be advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages for us where that we got to meet a lot of wonderful
people. Disadvantages where?
I don't know if I want to call them disadvantages, but so for
me, I'm a strong person. I don't care what people think.
I respect everybody's opinion. And I don't expect everybody
(35:28):
just to be on like, oh, wow, yeah, she's married to an inmate
while I'm clapping my hands for her.
Well done. No, I get it.
I get everybody else's point of view, but it doesn't affect me.
Even if I get some ugly messages, I don't let it bother
me. Now there's people that struggle
with mental health and obviouslyI would recommend to make sure
that you're prepared mentally toreceive a lot of backlash.
(35:52):
A lot of things that happened, Iwas very genuine when it comes
to TV productions and TV and allthat I didn't know.
I was very genuine and I believed everything I was told
and I was being told and I wish they would have shared more of
Cage's case is the reason why I went on there in the 1st place.
(36:13):
They will tell you what you wantto hear.
And at the end of the day, you have to remember that it's all a
business for them, for you. You're trying to do it for your
loved one. Who knows, maybe some people do
it for the money. I don't know.
In our case, I did it purely because I was not a social media
girl. I didn't have, and I still don't
(36:33):
have a big following, but I never shared our relationship
online because I was a very private person.
And I took this opportunity as ascience.
Like I said, I'm religious and Ibelieve in science and I believe
in God. And I said, maybe this is a good
chance for us to get some help, get help with things that we
don't know. Maybe there are some laws where
(36:54):
maybe there's lawyers out there,which I believe there are people
that know more than we do. And yeah, do your research, but
just know they'll tell you what you want to hear.
Now, you have to be aware that they're going to be editing and
they might try to faint you in away that is not true or
whatever. For me, I didn't really care
much because I know who knows me.
(37:16):
They know what kind of person I am.
And for me, that's all that matters.
I just wish they would have showed a little more about Cage.
Yeah, I agree. Story and just being
straightforward with how long it's been passed over the floor.
And and that is where we are going to leave it for the
(37:37):
season. Come back and join us in
September in the season premiereof Season 2.
We will get to hear the rest of Andrea's story.
And let me tell you, the rest ofit is good, it is juicy, and it
is all of the questions that I wanted to ask her when I first
found out that she agreed to interview.
They're all coming out in the second part of this interview.
(38:00):
So something to look forward to.Yay.
Season 1 is done. I'm so grateful.
AJ is so grateful for everyone that has joined us.
Everyone who has taken the time to listen to these stories, has
joined the community and supported us in any and all
(38:21):
ways. This has been the craziest
experience but so good on so many levels and I cannot wait
for you guys to hear Season 2 and what we've got planned.
There's more, there's difference.
Crazy like so much fun is about to happen in September, but I
(38:43):
also am very much looking forward to the summer.
If you follow me on social media, you know that I am
starting to work more seriously on getting laws changed and
getting more awareness in Nebraska around felony murder
law. So I'm going to ask you, if you
are in Nebraska, you have a loved one in Nebraska, please
(39:04):
join the group that we've created.
It's called End felony murder rule in Nebraska.
Please join it, support it. We are going to be full throttle
trying to bring awareness to what felony murder is.
I've contacted a bunch of incarcerated individuals that
are severely impacted by felony murder and now serving life
sentences for murders that they didn't commit, that the record
(39:27):
shows they didn't commit. And it's time that people know
there's a lot of states that have changed it already and it's
time for this one too. So please join me, Please join
the group, please support it. That is what I will be working
on this summer at the same time as preparing for next season of
More Than An Inmate's Girlfriend.
(39:48):
So please follow us on TikTok atMore Than an Inmate's GF or on
Instagram at podcast under ScorePrison GF.
We will be still posting. We will be doing lives.
We will be preparing for the next season so that you guys
have more to listen to. Different stories, different
perspectives. It's going to be great.
(40:09):
So thank you again for such an awesome season and I'm so, so
grateful for everything that this has let me down.
Starting this was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
One of the hardest couple monthsin a lot of ways, but definitely
worth it. And cannot wait to continue on
this journey with you guys. So thank you again for joining
(40:29):
me and we will see you in a couple months.
Take care. Bye.
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CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.