February 19, 2021 • 34 mins
In this Bonus episode, Nacoe and Vanassa Brown tell the story of the bank robberies and their personal love story.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Somebody Somewhere is a production of Rainstream Media Incorporated. This
podcast investigates the unsolved death of federal Prosecutor Jonathan Luna
in two thousand and three. It is a true story,
but the opinions of the hosts and interviewees are simply
that opinions, not facts, and the credibility of the witnesses
and what they say is to be determined by the listener.
(00:27):
Everyone is presumed innocent until proven otherwise in a court
of law.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
We hope you have enjoyed this third season of Somebody Somewhere.
If you haven't listened to our other two seasons, we
promise they will not disappoint. Season one was about the
unsolved murder of another federal prosecutor, Tom Wales in two
thousand and one, and season two explores the arrest and
trial of three teenage brothers for a mass shooting at
(01:01):
a Seattle homeless encampment in twenty sixteen. Every story Jody
and I have produced has introduced us to people with
compelling life stories, and this season was no exception. And
the undisputed heavyweight title for most interesting backstory this year
goes not surprisingly to Naco Brown. I was captivated with
(01:24):
the choices and actions of his life. How did this
man go from preacher to prisoner and back again. So
for those of you with some of the same questions,
I want to share more of Nako's life story. This
is Bonus Episode ten, From the Prison to the Palace.
I'm your host, David Payne. It's been ten years since
(01:55):
the federal prosecutor was found edmond Burgh, Leicester County.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
We will find out who did this.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Going to stage some sort of attack and went to
his farm.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
The collegem very cold Brown an inmate. It's sort of
way cool.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Then this color is being recorded and it's subject to monitoring.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
David.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, Hey, Niko, how are you.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
I'm doing great? Good morning. How are you doing over you?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yes, it's good to hear your voice. It sounds like
you're staying positive.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
When I first telephonically met Naico Brown in May of
twenty twenty, it was immediately clear that there was something
different about this guy. You can hear it in his
voice now, mind you. At this time, we're three months
into a depressing worldwide pandemic. Niko has been locked up
for eighteen years on a twenty five year sentence and
(02:57):
yet he exudes positivity, and I couldn't help but wonder
how we maintained that outlook under the harshest of circumstances.
In fact, as our relationship progressed and the virus spread,
I recoiled at the horror of his situation. And as
the summer progressed. It wasn't just COVID that was putting
(03:18):
on the squeeze. Adding insult to injury. The murder of
George Floyd would cost Nako and his cellmates there one
hour of freedom per day as a government drafted prison
officers to police city streets.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
Now, when he started doing the rioting and looting, we
didn't come out for an hour. I think the employed
them to go out and help with the riding and
the protesters, and so they bring us all three meals breakfast, lunch,
and dinner, so we need to show. Once that was over,
(03:57):
then we came back, and we came back and we
sent back to that one hour a day. You know,
you get used to it. You know, when you have
lockdowns in prison, sometimes you don't come out at all.
Every three days you get a shower, and every three
days you used the phone. So just a somewhat not
(04:18):
too bad compare to the complete lockdown.
Speaker 6 (04:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, well it's amazing you keep your head up in
those kind of circumstances because it would drive a lot
of weaker men crazy. I'm sure. I'm sure you're around that.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Right right, once again, prayer, I new prayer and fasting.
I use a loss of time. I write songs, I
write books. You know. Right now I'm teaching my sell
I'm moving to another cell. Actually, this guy he was
having problems, so now I'm teaching him, and so the
(04:55):
time's going back pretty fast doing that as well. So
just up always the co opportunity to keep pushing forward
and not allow certain offensive situations act.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Nico's ability to navigate harsh lockdowns with his insanity and
positivity intact was no doubt enabled in part by the
fact that he had spent most of his adult life
in prison, and the armchair psychiatrist I was wanted to
understand how he got there in the first place.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
I told you I got your book yesterday.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
I started.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I'm only about twenty pages in. But the one thing
I didn't know was that you had been incarcerated when
you were seventeen for the first time. Yes what were
you charged with.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
A robbery but not an all robbery a robbery.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So you were in high school or tell me what happened.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
Well, I was in high school once again, I was
six kids. I was a black seat, so I was
I was going to try them and needed some money.
So I thought I needed some money as I did
peer pressure kind of about what the tellings my peers
and just some robberies went into the system, and just
(06:15):
trying to be numb over the fact I'm going to
male adult person and it was really kind of hard
for me staying a lot of staying focused, saying, you know,
fulking hurt me, fucking harm something I'm not proud of.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
It's a long time ago, and I hope you don't
mind me just asking these questions. I'm trying to get
the arc of your life and understand, you know, from
preacher's kid to black sheep of the family to doing
these robberies, getting incarcerated at seventeen, which is way too
young to go into an adult prison. There is a
lot of trauma and everything about what we just described.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
It's something I want to share with you. I'm not
ready to share right now, but definitely and played a
major year role in that.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Criminal Now, at just seventeen years old, sentenced to twelve
years in an adult prison, you would think life would
look pretty bleak to young Nako, But like Joseph with
the Technicolor dream Coat, Niko was determined not to let
jail break him. So when he got parolled out at
(07:24):
twenty five, he pursued his deferred dreams with abandon.
Speaker 6 (07:29):
We got married. I was twenty nine, he was twenty six.
He's about three year different.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And first stop was Vanessa Minor. Nico and Vanessa would
fittingly begin their courtship in church.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
And so I'm guessing based on the age range that
you're talking about, he must have just.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Gotten out when we met.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
He had just gotten out. Yes after we met and
started talking, and he had come back into the church
and so forth. He was really focused on fulfilling purpose
at that time. He started a choir to singing background
and so forth. He had done a couple of CD
but he was trying to do it in a different
(08:09):
way in which a lot of people didn't understand, and
so I think that kind of hurt the things that
he was doing at the time.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
At twenty five, fresh out of prison, Nico had met
the love of his life and he immediately set about
trying to build both a home and career with her.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
So when I got out, I wanted to really break
into the music industry, and it was kind of hard
for me to do this without me really knowing the system.
So I started just writing my own material and producing
my own material. And so after me and my wife
(08:50):
got married, we came up with this concept did a
concert where we rent a little hole and all the
people we sold the project to, like the cee, we
would sell them tickets and out put a concert on.
And she was actually cooked. She actually cooked. She's actually cooked,
by the way, And so we did that and it worked.
(09:12):
So I had this grand idea to get a dinner theater,
to do the same thing, but do it on a
regular basis. And my idea was to purchase a building,
and you know the building, it would.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Come, you know, And so we had started the Dentist
Theater and which was the first dinner theater in Maryland.
So he was the type of person that when he
has a mission, he is going to get it done.
Speaker 7 (09:41):
Well.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
My wife says, well, you moved too fast, and she
was right, and sure enough, we went and got the
inner theater and we.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
Got into a building and we just took an empty
room pretty much and transformed it into a beautiful dentist theater.
But it would hard getting funding.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
We were trying to get loans and small business programs,
and we came across the same response, which was you
have to have collateral, you have to have an educational degree, and.
Speaker 6 (10:16):
So it was just pretty much a no after no
after no, and it was like, we know, we have
a great idea here, but we just didn't have anyone
that was willing to, you know, take a chance. And
as I said, he's the type of person that if
he starts something, or if he has an idea to
do something, he's going to get it done one way
(10:38):
or another.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
We got enough to run away the place, but we
was like twenty four thousand in the hole, and so
that's what really motivated me throughout the banks there.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Like small business owners all over this country, Vanessa and
Nico Brown hit the proverbial wall it came to turning
their dream into reality. But unlike ninety nine point nine
to nine percent of sbos, Naco chose the worst possible
solution and it would cost him his freedom for decades.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
All right, So I got to push on this point,
which is you had been incarcerated for like eight years,
since you were seventeen years old. It had to have
entered your mind that I don't want to go back there,
exactly right, and.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
No one do anything expecting to get caught. My idea,
in my mind, I was going to get away and
become a success and give the money back and just
anonymously just dropped the money off and with a note.
But also have to be the most dumbest time in
(11:48):
my life to think that I could do something like
that and get away. So I understand why you asked
that question.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
So why why bank robberies sad?
Speaker 5 (12:00):
Because I'm a rational person. I'm a rational person. I'm
not trying to be a drug dealer. I need money
for a company. I felt that since I needed money,
the bank had the money, and I rapped out that
the bank was insured and nobody was going to get
it hurt. And as so as I was concerned, I
(12:22):
needed money, I needed money fans to save the business.
And I got a toy gun because I didn't know
how to get hurt and just studied it, you know,
studied the bank and made sure I've seen the process,
and I went into the bank in the morning or
late evenings and wanted to be the first one, the
(12:44):
other last one there. I got down to lock the
door so it won't be too much Russian. And it
just took what they called the cash cow.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
And four separate banks Saint scenario, toy gun four.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Separate bank Saint scenario. Now, I will say this, it
became addictive, It became a dictive. So whenever I got
down to twenty five thousand dollars in my account or
the business account, I felt that I have to love
a baby.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
And all of the four bank robberies, anybody get hurt, Noga.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
That's one of the reason why we came earlier. Locked
the door so nobody had to be riding, rushing and hurting.
No maga.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Did anybody testify a trial that was in the bank
and talk about the stress of that scenario or what.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
Yeah, that was eye opener for me because I didn't
see it that way. So I got to saw it
that way that I felt really bad for that right.
Once again, we only see it that way when we
got desperate, and when we did anxious.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Where was the cash billing? What was it going to support?
Speaker 5 (13:55):
First of while, I was going to take care of
the lease that I was back four thousands, and then
it was going into furnishing the dinner, the stoles, the tables,
you know, stuff like that. The kitchen is worth close
to fifty thousands. The music and the grown system clearly
(14:17):
can be worth fifty to study five thousand. So it's
a lot of money it's being spent.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
And I'm proving it this because I'm trying to understand
and I want the audience to understand. You're married with
a daughter, You're trying to start a business, and you'd
already been locked up previously and knew what that was, right,
So obviously something is driving you to put all of
(14:45):
that at risk, knowing what the consequences of that are.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
Right.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
I credit some evil forces, some selfishness, and some just
selft ambitions.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
It's an important element to talk about this issue because
I think not every man would have made the choice
to go rout of the bank, and so Nico Brown
made that choice right.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
Just distress and the anxiety of losing everything, and I
just couldn't walk away from it, and the anxiety of
me and the failure. Pride was in a way as well.
Everyone you know, thinking you're knowing so well, you're doing good,
and you're out, you're doing well, and I was doing
well and diego just tests and I failed the test.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Nako is not the first man in history to be
taken down when tested by the deadly sins of pride
and selfishness, and like those other men, the repercussions of
his actions would kreem far beyond his personal orbit.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
I want to take you back to that thirty year
old Vanessa who got married to Naco, and then your
heart had to have been broken when.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
This all happened, definitely, because you know, I definitely didn't
expect things to turn out this way, because I guess
most people have a fairy tale mentality of happily ever after.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
You know, so I didn't expect then, I'm guessing wife
and mother of Jasmine, who was not real happy with
her husband.
Speaker 6 (16:22):
At that point, not really happy. And once again, I mean,
you know, back then it was I think, really a
totally different mindset of what I have now, or the
fact of.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
The wisdom that I have now you seem to have.
I don't know accepted forgiven. I don't want to put
words in your mouth. I'm trying to understand how that
process happened in your life and in your marriage.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
I can't really pinpoint it. It did take a while,
I mean, because there was hurt, there was embarrassment, you know,
and like I said, we all make mistakes. Most people
don't make them to that degree, of course not, but
we all make mistakes. But I think when I began
to see that, he was truly beginning to operate in
(17:10):
integrity and was doing God's will. And so I think
that was really what began to help.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
When Nico was sentenced to prison by Judge Andre Davis
in two thousand and two, something changed. Nico took all
that drive he had used for the dinner theater and
then robbing banks, and he redirected it towards his marriage
and family.
Speaker 6 (17:37):
After he went to prison, and as he reflected, he said,
my kids are going to grow up without me, and
nine times out of tend the streets with consume them.
And so he didn't want that, and so I think
he really decided that he needed to do it God's way.
I think he submitted himself and humbled himself and decided, Lord,
(18:01):
I will do your will and your work if you
will take care of my family.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Nako's commitment to his wife and family seemed remarkable to me,
but it was the reverse that confounded me even more.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I'll tell you a little bit of story, which is,
as we were researching Mako's story, I keep a document
where we put down addresses of people as we're trying
to locate them, and I kept having to change your
address and update it. And it took me a little
while to figure out why.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
Yeah. Well, basically, each time that they would transfer him
and it wasn't within distance where you know, we could
travel comfortably, then we would end up just actually moving.
We were in Maryland and our first move was to
Johnson City. Then we moved to Vermont, and then we
(19:02):
moved to California. And after California, we moved here to
Oklahoma because my son, he was actually getting ready to
start his first year in college, and my daughter she
was already living here with her husband. You know, ow
objective was to keep our family together one and to
(19:26):
you know, visit every week if possible, in order for
him to spend time together as a family, but also
be able to pour into our children to build them up.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
As I heard Vanessa's story, I began to channel Judge
Davis's assessment of Naco Brown. It wasn't just the bank
robberies and the missing money that were remarkable. It was
a perseverance of this couple that drew me in.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
But as I don't know if you know how remarkable
and where it is what you have done and the
sacrifices you've made to support your family and to support
your husband in doing that. So obviously you're somebody of
not only great faith in your husband, but I'm guessing
great faith in someone above.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
Oh yes, definitely, because without God, we know we can't
do anything, and we know that after getting in the situation,
we know that God has to plan for our lives,
and he is such a merciful God that he gives
us chance. That's a chance. So we have to trust
on no matter what you know, we have to.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
But even if God has a plan for our lives, parents,
Naco and Vanessa would need their own plan to properly
raise their two children with Naco in prison. Nako, tell
me how you did that logistically, Like, how would you well?
Speaker 7 (20:53):
Me and my wife shut now and that we were
going to keep the family together. This was not going
to break, this is going to make them. And she
would bring them here. She would come every weekend, or
especially when they were small, every weekend. And so I
sat down with them individually when they could come into
vision room. We had family town kursilaw. We did our
(21:13):
prayer together, we did our devotion together. You know, I
had my individual time with meeting them. We went over
their purpose and how they wouldn't apply their purpose. And
so when it was time for them to go to school,
they already know who they are, so they won't fall
into a peer pressure. They won't go into a crowd
trying to define them and trying to fit in because
(21:36):
they got that from home. I really believe that this
is one of the major solutions for parenting. So we
don't have a lot of time when they come to parenting.
But I did it just on the weekend, and my
kids users and so we came up with a schedule.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Despite the fact that they were only seven and one
when their father went to prison and their mother moved
them from town to town, the Brown children have apparently thrived.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
We have two children together. One is twenty five, our
oldest daughter and our son is nineteen. Actually, our daughter
graduated from or Roberts University and she's been married for
going on two years. In July, our son he just
started or Are You? And so this will be his
second year. He's into track. He's a very good athlete.
(22:27):
He likes to write actually when he sings as well.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
I wanted to be intentional with my kids and giving
them principles that they can go into the crowd of
their kids with. And I had that peer of pressure,
but also I gave him the purpose as well, So
imaging a secure under these circumstances, being told that she's
going to be an actress. So these are the principles
(22:53):
that you have to live by if this is going
to come into fruition. When her peers say, hey, let's
do this, well, I can't do that because that goes
against my purpose.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
In an age old story, Niko's extraordinary efforts to raise
his children from prison no doubt overcompensated for what he
perceived as his own father's failures. And as I was
just starting my inquiry along those lines, Fate intervened.
Speaker 7 (23:26):
To celebrate victory.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
No Bishop Hagging.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
In June of twenty twenty, Niko's father would die and
the judge would not let him out of prison for
the service, so it was left to me to be
his outside eyes and ears.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
But I wanted to first express my condolences on your father.
I watched a large part of the service. It was
quite moving. I don't know if you had a chance
to listen to it or see any of it.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
No, not yet.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
They had a full formal ceremony for him, and they
had the horses and carriage it out. I mean, it
was really well.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
I look forward to seeing it.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Did you want to say anything about your father or
And I'm really just.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
Waiting to get out to really kind of grief for
the ones to get lost since I've been in, because
you know, I really don't want to release that in here.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
I never really want to do that around for in
your family, you know, Yeah, I understand, so, so I.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Try not to talk about. But he's a great father
and he never missed to be no one mister be
you know, always therefore us always a good example of
what a father should be and what a man should be.
And that's one of the things that I really wanted
to give him an opportunity to see me matures and
(25:02):
see a class from the thresholds that he was teaching us.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Nico Brown would never get an opportunity to show his father,
a well known Baptist bishop in Baltimore, the man he
had become in prison. And for someone steeped in the
reconciliation principles of the Bible, there had to be both
emotional scars and theological significance.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Were you able to maintain a relationship with him since you've.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
Been in Yes, yes, he didn't visit much, but I
I'll call you know touch basis. You know, I have
some of the resentments at first, because I knew that
I was missing the hands on with him that I
needed from him.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Did you forgive him for the things that cause that resentment?
And did he forgive you for whatever he felt?
Speaker 4 (26:01):
Did he come to that piece, Yes, sir, yeah I did.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
I let him know and I forgave him, and I
asked him to forgive me. He said he did. But
once he came from that generation where he loved you
by showing you so I really love W heard him
take you know I love you, but he definitely demonstrate
it with everything he did. Provided for us and was
there for us.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Despite Niko's obviously complicated relationship with his father, a man
who had a hard time telling his son he loved him,
Niko would follow in his footsteps, finding his own flock
and forming his own ministry in prison.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
How did you start your ministry?
Speaker 5 (26:48):
He had to first start with me. I had to
face some reality, and once I did, I understand that
these men had an opportunity to see no light, and
one of those things was they was in bed to
make bad choices. But they weren't bad people, and given
an opportunity with the right to I think they're making
(27:09):
a better decision. And that's why applications it's so important
to me right now. It's one thing you know, is
another thing do.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
As I listened to Naco describe his journey, I couldn't
help but wonder what his life would have been like
if he had had these insights earlier. But I never
once heard Naco or his wife Vanessa ever look at
things that way. Theirs was everything happens for a reason.
Faith and their life mission, which has largely been codified
in NACo's writings, could not have happened without the trials
(27:39):
and tribulations they have been through.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
What is Divine Royalty Publishing.
Speaker 6 (27:45):
Divine Royalty Publishing is the ministry that God gave my
husband and I twenty six years ago. Basically, he's written
at least fifteen books and they are pretty much self
help books to help people to understand who they are,
to understand that they need a relationship with God and
to know that that's the only way that they will
(28:07):
ever be who God created them to be, and to
have a successful life and to be happy and so forth.
But when you tap into the purpose that God has
given you and operate and allow the Holy Spirit to
help you get it done, it's like nothing can really
stop it.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So in February of twenty twenty one, right before we
launch this season, I caught up with Niko again at
his home in Oklahoma.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Mega.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Yes, sir, all right, you're there.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
How are you.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
Good?
Speaker 5 (28:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Tell me about what's going on with your wife and
your family.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
So normally on some of these we used to come together,
and since I've been out, we come together and we
do Bible class and then we take to pass Over
and so it's just amazing just to sit around the
table with my son in law and my wife and
my kids, and sometimes we just can't believe that we're
(29:17):
in the same room with no officers around us saying okay,
that's enough. So it's just a blessing to have ad.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
It from the prison to the palace.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
To the prison to the palace. You got it. You
might be joseph Generation biggest fan.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
It's good to hear Nako laugh while he has his
freedom now, there is no doubt that the road ahead
is as daunting as it ever was, and he will
need every ounce of his big faith to navigate it.
Of course, he wouldn't be Naco if he didn't also
have big dreams. He's working on a movie project based
on one of his books, Divided Nation, and he remains
(30:05):
in a hurry.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
We got a chance to celebrate celebraty. I loved Celebrat
of America, and then it was it was time to
get to work, so regranting the website and getting in
contact with my editor and the graphic artists, and just
touching base with the people who have helped me down
through years. I have a multi million dollar ideas, but
(30:29):
you know how it is, you need money to do that.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
So, as you know, I set up a go fund
the page for you, and I wonder if you can
articulate what will you use that money for.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Well, I want to really focus on helping guys that
is incarcerated. We want to reach back, but we also
want to a success out here too. We want to
contribute to the community and bring the solution as we
(31:04):
know it to the problem. And so that takes me
sources as well.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
And what about for you personally? What should comes through
from the telling of your story. Well, you know, I
know what it means to have a dream, have American dream.
Speaker 8 (31:23):
You know, And I'm quite sure there's a lot of people,
particularly right now today when you see so many small
businesses closing and people losing their jobs because of the
COVID nineteen in.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
The crisis that we are in to day. So I
can identify with wanting something so bad and just wanting
to live American dream, want to be successful, but do
it the wrong way. I know what it means. We'll
go into a banking and come up with hundreds of
thousands of dollars I mean the classic bake Robber movie,
(31:57):
but that money didn't solve my problems. So, you know,
if I could give the message of Wow, you may
lose the house, you may lose the business, you may
lose the car, but you got your freedom. Don't jepar
out your freedom. You've got relationships, You got people who
still believe that. You cherish those relationships just in the game.
So now I'm released, and now I'm on this world
(32:20):
of more than the redemption, but recovery and restoration. And
I got to do it the right way. Now I'm
a door it right way. And when i think I'm
not moving fast enough, I remember this.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
I am free.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
I'm free. I'm free.
Speaker 9 (32:55):
There goes the devil telling me it's a lie, says
I'm around me sales. It's all right to Britain.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
That you can get more done.
Speaker 9 (33:11):
You give.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Somebody Somewhere is a production of Rainstream Media Incorporated. Sound design,
editing and mixing has been provided by Resonate Recordings. Original
score and voiceover work provided by Hallie Payne. Artwork provided
by Evan McGlenn and Kendall Payne. If you have any
information regarding the Jonathan Luna case, please contact us via
(33:36):
our website sbswpodcast dot com. And finally, if you enjoyed
this podcast, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.
It really helps and we really appreciate it. Thank you
for listening.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
Here.
Speaker 9 (33:54):
God, hey Sami, would I just wann the love ever?
Don't still love? Need more money
Somebody Somewhere is a production of Rainstream Media Incorporated. This
podcast investigates the unsolved death of federal Prosecutor Jonathan Luna
in two thousand and three. It is a true story,
but the opinions of the hosts and interviewees are simply
that opinions, not facts, and the credibility of the witnesses
and what they say is to be determined by the listener.
(00:27):
Everyone is presumed innocent until proven otherwise in a court
of law.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
We hope you have enjoyed this third season of Somebody Somewhere.
If you haven't listened to our other two seasons, we
promise they will not disappoint. Season one was about the
unsolved murder of another federal prosecutor, Tom Wales in two
thousand and one, and season two explores the arrest and
trial of three teenage brothers for a mass shooting at
(01:01):
a Seattle homeless encampment in twenty sixteen. Every story Jody
and I have produced has introduced us to people with
compelling life stories, and this season was no exception. And
the undisputed heavyweight title for most interesting backstory this year
goes not surprisingly to Naco Brown. I was captivated with
(01:24):
the choices and actions of his life. How did this
man go from preacher to prisoner and back again. So
for those of you with some of the same questions,
I want to share more of Nako's life story. This
is Bonus Episode ten, From the Prison to the Palace.
I'm your host, David Payne. It's been ten years since
(01:55):
the federal prosecutor was found edmond Burgh, Leicester County.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
We will find out who did this.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Going to stage some sort of attack and went to
his farm.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
The collegem very cold Brown an inmate. It's sort of
way cool.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Then this color is being recorded and it's subject to monitoring.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
David.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, Hey, Niko, how are you.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
I'm doing great? Good morning. How are you doing over you?
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yes, it's good to hear your voice. It sounds like
you're staying positive.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
When I first telephonically met Naico Brown in May of
twenty twenty, it was immediately clear that there was something
different about this guy. You can hear it in his
voice now, mind you. At this time, we're three months
into a depressing worldwide pandemic. Niko has been locked up
for eighteen years on a twenty five year sentence and
(02:57):
yet he exudes positivity, and I couldn't help but wonder
how we maintained that outlook under the harshest of circumstances.
In fact, as our relationship progressed and the virus spread,
I recoiled at the horror of his situation. And as
the summer progressed. It wasn't just COVID that was putting
(03:18):
on the squeeze. Adding insult to injury. The murder of
George Floyd would cost Nako and his cellmates there one
hour of freedom per day as a government drafted prison
officers to police city streets.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
Now, when he started doing the rioting and looting, we
didn't come out for an hour. I think the employed
them to go out and help with the riding and
the protesters, and so they bring us all three meals breakfast, lunch,
and dinner, so we need to show. Once that was over,
(03:57):
then we came back, and we came back and we
sent back to that one hour a day. You know,
you get used to it. You know, when you have
lockdowns in prison, sometimes you don't come out at all.
Every three days you get a shower, and every three
days you used the phone. So just a somewhat not
(04:18):
too bad compare to the complete lockdown.
Speaker 6 (04:22):
You know.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, well it's amazing you keep your head up in
those kind of circumstances because it would drive a lot
of weaker men crazy. I'm sure. I'm sure you're around that.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Right right, once again, prayer, I new prayer and fasting.
I use a loss of time. I write songs, I
write books. You know. Right now I'm teaching my sell
I'm moving to another cell. Actually, this guy he was
having problems, so now I'm teaching him, and so the
(04:55):
time's going back pretty fast doing that as well. So
just up always the co opportunity to keep pushing forward
and not allow certain offensive situations act.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Nico's ability to navigate harsh lockdowns with his insanity and
positivity intact was no doubt enabled in part by the
fact that he had spent most of his adult life
in prison, and the armchair psychiatrist I was wanted to
understand how he got there in the first place.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
I told you I got your book yesterday.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
I started.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I'm only about twenty pages in. But the one thing
I didn't know was that you had been incarcerated when
you were seventeen for the first time. Yes what were
you charged with.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
A robbery but not an all robbery a robbery.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So you were in high school or tell me what happened.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
Well, I was in high school once again, I was
six kids. I was a black seat, so I was
I was going to try them and needed some money.
So I thought I needed some money as I did
peer pressure kind of about what the tellings my peers
and just some robberies went into the system, and just
(06:15):
trying to be numb over the fact I'm going to
male adult person and it was really kind of hard
for me staying a lot of staying focused, saying, you know,
fulking hurt me, fucking harm something I'm not proud of.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
It's a long time ago, and I hope you don't
mind me just asking these questions. I'm trying to get
the arc of your life and understand, you know, from
preacher's kid to black sheep of the family to doing
these robberies, getting incarcerated at seventeen, which is way too
young to go into an adult prison. There is a
lot of trauma and everything about what we just described.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
It's something I want to share with you. I'm not
ready to share right now, but definitely and played a
major year role in that.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Criminal Now, at just seventeen years old, sentenced to twelve
years in an adult prison, you would think life would
look pretty bleak to young Nako, But like Joseph with
the Technicolor dream Coat, Niko was determined not to let
jail break him. So when he got parolled out at
(07:24):
twenty five, he pursued his deferred dreams with abandon.
Speaker 6 (07:29):
We got married. I was twenty nine, he was twenty six.
He's about three year different.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
And first stop was Vanessa Minor. Nico and Vanessa would
fittingly begin their courtship in church.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
And so I'm guessing based on the age range that
you're talking about, he must have just.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Gotten out when we met.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
He had just gotten out. Yes after we met and
started talking, and he had come back into the church
and so forth. He was really focused on fulfilling purpose
at that time. He started a choir to singing background
and so forth. He had done a couple of CD
but he was trying to do it in a different
(08:09):
way in which a lot of people didn't understand, and
so I think that kind of hurt the things that
he was doing at the time.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
At twenty five, fresh out of prison, Nico had met
the love of his life and he immediately set about
trying to build both a home and career with her.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
So when I got out, I wanted to really break
into the music industry, and it was kind of hard
for me to do this without me really knowing the system.
So I started just writing my own material and producing
my own material. And so after me and my wife
(08:50):
got married, we came up with this concept did a
concert where we rent a little hole and all the
people we sold the project to, like the cee, we
would sell them tickets and out put a concert on.
And she was actually cooked. She actually cooked. She's actually cooked,
by the way, And so we did that and it worked.
(09:12):
So I had this grand idea to get a dinner theater,
to do the same thing, but do it on a
regular basis. And my idea was to purchase a building,
and you know the building, it would.
Speaker 6 (09:25):
Come, you know, And so we had started the Dentist
Theater and which was the first dinner theater in Maryland.
So he was the type of person that when he
has a mission, he is going to get it done.
Speaker 7 (09:41):
Well.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
My wife says, well, you moved too fast, and she
was right, and sure enough, we went and got the
inner theater and we.
Speaker 6 (09:50):
Got into a building and we just took an empty
room pretty much and transformed it into a beautiful dentist theater.
But it would hard getting funding.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
We were trying to get loans and small business programs,
and we came across the same response, which was you
have to have collateral, you have to have an educational degree, and.
Speaker 6 (10:16):
So it was just pretty much a no after no
after no, and it was like, we know, we have
a great idea here, but we just didn't have anyone
that was willing to, you know, take a chance. And
as I said, he's the type of person that if
he starts something, or if he has an idea to
do something, he's going to get it done one way
(10:38):
or another.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
We got enough to run away the place, but we
was like twenty four thousand in the hole, and so
that's what really motivated me throughout the banks there.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Like small business owners all over this country, Vanessa and
Nico Brown hit the proverbial wall it came to turning
their dream into reality. But unlike ninety nine point nine
to nine percent of sbos, Naco chose the worst possible
solution and it would cost him his freedom for decades.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
All right, So I got to push on this point,
which is you had been incarcerated for like eight years,
since you were seventeen years old. It had to have
entered your mind that I don't want to go back there,
exactly right, and.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
No one do anything expecting to get caught. My idea,
in my mind, I was going to get away and
become a success and give the money back and just
anonymously just dropped the money off and with a note.
But also have to be the most dumbest time in
(11:48):
my life to think that I could do something like
that and get away. So I understand why you asked
that question.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
So why why bank robberies sad?
Speaker 5 (12:00):
Because I'm a rational person. I'm a rational person. I'm
not trying to be a drug dealer. I need money
for a company. I felt that since I needed money,
the bank had the money, and I rapped out that
the bank was insured and nobody was going to get
it hurt. And as so as I was concerned, I
(12:22):
needed money, I needed money fans to save the business.
And I got a toy gun because I didn't know
how to get hurt and just studied it, you know,
studied the bank and made sure I've seen the process,
and I went into the bank in the morning or
late evenings and wanted to be the first one, the
(12:44):
other last one there. I got down to lock the
door so it won't be too much Russian. And it
just took what they called the cash cow.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
And four separate banks Saint scenario, toy gun four.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Separate bank Saint scenario. Now, I will say this, it
became addictive, It became a dictive. So whenever I got
down to twenty five thousand dollars in my account or
the business account, I felt that I have to love
a baby.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
And all of the four bank robberies, anybody get hurt, Noga.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
That's one of the reason why we came earlier. Locked
the door so nobody had to be riding, rushing and hurting.
No maga.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Did anybody testify a trial that was in the bank
and talk about the stress of that scenario or what.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
Yeah, that was eye opener for me because I didn't
see it that way. So I got to saw it
that way that I felt really bad for that right.
Once again, we only see it that way when we
got desperate, and when we did anxious.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Where was the cash billing? What was it going to support?
Speaker 5 (13:55):
First of while, I was going to take care of
the lease that I was back four thousands, and then
it was going into furnishing the dinner, the stoles, the tables,
you know, stuff like that. The kitchen is worth close
to fifty thousands. The music and the grown system clearly
(14:17):
can be worth fifty to study five thousand. So it's
a lot of money it's being spent.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
And I'm proving it this because I'm trying to understand
and I want the audience to understand. You're married with
a daughter, You're trying to start a business, and you'd
already been locked up previously and knew what that was, right,
So obviously something is driving you to put all of
(14:45):
that at risk, knowing what the consequences of that are.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
Right.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
I credit some evil forces, some selfishness, and some just
selft ambitions.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
It's an important element to talk about this issue because
I think not every man would have made the choice
to go rout of the bank, and so Nico Brown
made that choice right.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
Just distress and the anxiety of losing everything, and I
just couldn't walk away from it, and the anxiety of
me and the failure. Pride was in a way as well.
Everyone you know, thinking you're knowing so well, you're doing good,
and you're out, you're doing well, and I was doing
well and diego just tests and I failed the test.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Nako is not the first man in history to be
taken down when tested by the deadly sins of pride
and selfishness, and like those other men, the repercussions of
his actions would kreem far beyond his personal orbit.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
I want to take you back to that thirty year
old Vanessa who got married to Naco, and then your
heart had to have been broken when.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
This all happened, definitely, because you know, I definitely didn't
expect things to turn out this way, because I guess
most people have a fairy tale mentality of happily ever after.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
You know, so I didn't expect then, I'm guessing wife
and mother of Jasmine, who was not real happy with
her husband.
Speaker 6 (16:22):
At that point, not really happy. And once again, I mean,
you know, back then it was I think, really a
totally different mindset of what I have now, or the
fact of.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
The wisdom that I have now you seem to have.
I don't know accepted forgiven. I don't want to put
words in your mouth. I'm trying to understand how that
process happened in your life and in your marriage.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
I can't really pinpoint it. It did take a while,
I mean, because there was hurt, there was embarrassment, you know,
and like I said, we all make mistakes. Most people
don't make them to that degree, of course not, but
we all make mistakes. But I think when I began
to see that, he was truly beginning to operate in
(17:10):
integrity and was doing God's will. And so I think
that was really what began to help.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
When Nico was sentenced to prison by Judge Andre Davis
in two thousand and two, something changed. Nico took all
that drive he had used for the dinner theater and
then robbing banks, and he redirected it towards his marriage
and family.
Speaker 6 (17:37):
After he went to prison, and as he reflected, he said,
my kids are going to grow up without me, and
nine times out of tend the streets with consume them.
And so he didn't want that, and so I think
he really decided that he needed to do it God's way.
I think he submitted himself and humbled himself and decided, Lord,
(18:01):
I will do your will and your work if you
will take care of my family.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Nako's commitment to his wife and family seemed remarkable to me,
but it was the reverse that confounded me even more.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I'll tell you a little bit of story, which is,
as we were researching Mako's story, I keep a document
where we put down addresses of people as we're trying
to locate them, and I kept having to change your
address and update it. And it took me a little
while to figure out why.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
Yeah. Well, basically, each time that they would transfer him
and it wasn't within distance where you know, we could
travel comfortably, then we would end up just actually moving.
We were in Maryland and our first move was to
Johnson City. Then we moved to Vermont, and then we
(19:02):
moved to California. And after California, we moved here to
Oklahoma because my son, he was actually getting ready to
start his first year in college, and my daughter she
was already living here with her husband. You know, ow
objective was to keep our family together one and to
(19:26):
you know, visit every week if possible, in order for
him to spend time together as a family, but also
be able to pour into our children to build them up.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
As I heard Vanessa's story, I began to channel Judge
Davis's assessment of Naco Brown. It wasn't just the bank
robberies and the missing money that were remarkable. It was
a perseverance of this couple that drew me in.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
But as I don't know if you know how remarkable
and where it is what you have done and the
sacrifices you've made to support your family and to support
your husband in doing that. So obviously you're somebody of
not only great faith in your husband, but I'm guessing
great faith in someone above.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
Oh yes, definitely, because without God, we know we can't
do anything, and we know that after getting in the situation,
we know that God has to plan for our lives,
and he is such a merciful God that he gives
us chance. That's a chance. So we have to trust
on no matter what you know, we have to.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
But even if God has a plan for our lives, parents,
Naco and Vanessa would need their own plan to properly
raise their two children with Naco in prison. Nako, tell
me how you did that logistically, Like, how would you well?
Speaker 7 (20:53):
Me and my wife shut now and that we were
going to keep the family together. This was not going
to break, this is going to make them. And she
would bring them here. She would come every weekend, or
especially when they were small, every weekend. And so I
sat down with them individually when they could come into
vision room. We had family town kursilaw. We did our
(21:13):
prayer together, we did our devotion together. You know, I
had my individual time with meeting them. We went over
their purpose and how they wouldn't apply their purpose. And
so when it was time for them to go to school,
they already know who they are, so they won't fall
into a peer pressure. They won't go into a crowd
trying to define them and trying to fit in because
(21:36):
they got that from home. I really believe that this
is one of the major solutions for parenting. So we
don't have a lot of time when they come to parenting.
But I did it just on the weekend, and my
kids users and so we came up with a schedule.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Despite the fact that they were only seven and one
when their father went to prison and their mother moved
them from town to town, the Brown children have apparently thrived.
Speaker 6 (22:03):
We have two children together. One is twenty five, our
oldest daughter and our son is nineteen. Actually, our daughter
graduated from or Roberts University and she's been married for
going on two years. In July, our son he just
started or Are You? And so this will be his
second year. He's into track. He's a very good athlete.
(22:27):
He likes to write actually when he sings as well.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
I wanted to be intentional with my kids and giving
them principles that they can go into the crowd of
their kids with. And I had that peer of pressure,
but also I gave him the purpose as well, So
imaging a secure under these circumstances, being told that she's
going to be an actress. So these are the principles
(22:53):
that you have to live by if this is going
to come into fruition. When her peers say, hey, let's
do this, well, I can't do that because that goes
against my purpose.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
In an age old story, Niko's extraordinary efforts to raise
his children from prison no doubt overcompensated for what he
perceived as his own father's failures. And as I was
just starting my inquiry along those lines, Fate intervened.
Speaker 7 (23:26):
To celebrate victory.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
No Bishop Hagging.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
In June of twenty twenty, Niko's father would die and
the judge would not let him out of prison for
the service, so it was left to me to be
his outside eyes and ears.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
But I wanted to first express my condolences on your father.
I watched a large part of the service. It was
quite moving. I don't know if you had a chance
to listen to it or see any of it.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
No, not yet.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
They had a full formal ceremony for him, and they
had the horses and carriage it out. I mean, it
was really well.
Speaker 5 (24:18):
I look forward to seeing it.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Did you want to say anything about your father or
And I'm really just.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
Waiting to get out to really kind of grief for
the ones to get lost since I've been in, because
you know, I really don't want to release that in here.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
I never really want to do that around for in
your family, you know, Yeah, I understand, so, so I.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Try not to talk about. But he's a great father
and he never missed to be no one mister be
you know, always therefore us always a good example of
what a father should be and what a man should be.
And that's one of the things that I really wanted
to give him an opportunity to see me matures and
(25:02):
see a class from the thresholds that he was teaching us.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Nico Brown would never get an opportunity to show his father,
a well known Baptist bishop in Baltimore, the man he
had become in prison. And for someone steeped in the
reconciliation principles of the Bible, there had to be both
emotional scars and theological significance.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Were you able to maintain a relationship with him since you've.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
Been in Yes, yes, he didn't visit much, but I
I'll call you know touch basis. You know, I have
some of the resentments at first, because I knew that
I was missing the hands on with him that I
needed from him.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Did you forgive him for the things that cause that resentment?
And did he forgive you for whatever he felt?
Speaker 4 (26:01):
Did he come to that piece, Yes, sir, yeah I did.
Speaker 5 (26:05):
I let him know and I forgave him, and I
asked him to forgive me. He said he did. But
once he came from that generation where he loved you
by showing you so I really love W heard him
take you know I love you, but he definitely demonstrate
it with everything he did. Provided for us and was
there for us.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Despite Niko's obviously complicated relationship with his father, a man
who had a hard time telling his son he loved him,
Niko would follow in his footsteps, finding his own flock
and forming his own ministry in prison.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
How did you start your ministry?
Speaker 5 (26:48):
He had to first start with me. I had to
face some reality, and once I did, I understand that
these men had an opportunity to see no light, and
one of those things was they was in bed to
make bad choices. But they weren't bad people, and given
an opportunity with the right to I think they're making
(27:09):
a better decision. And that's why applications it's so important
to me right now. It's one thing you know, is
another thing do.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
As I listened to Naco describe his journey, I couldn't
help but wonder what his life would have been like
if he had had these insights earlier. But I never
once heard Naco or his wife Vanessa ever look at
things that way. Theirs was everything happens for a reason.
Faith and their life mission, which has largely been codified
in NACo's writings, could not have happened without the trials
(27:39):
and tribulations they have been through.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
What is Divine Royalty Publishing.
Speaker 6 (27:45):
Divine Royalty Publishing is the ministry that God gave my
husband and I twenty six years ago. Basically, he's written
at least fifteen books and they are pretty much self
help books to help people to understand who they are,
to understand that they need a relationship with God and
to know that that's the only way that they will
(28:07):
ever be who God created them to be, and to
have a successful life and to be happy and so forth.
But when you tap into the purpose that God has
given you and operate and allow the Holy Spirit to
help you get it done, it's like nothing can really
stop it.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
So in February of twenty twenty one, right before we
launch this season, I caught up with Niko again at
his home in Oklahoma.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Mega.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Yes, sir, all right, you're there.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
How are you.
Speaker 6 (28:49):
Good?
Speaker 5 (28:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Tell me about what's going on with your wife and
your family.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
So normally on some of these we used to come together,
and since I've been out, we come together and we
do Bible class and then we take to pass Over
and so it's just amazing just to sit around the
table with my son in law and my wife and
my kids, and sometimes we just can't believe that we're
(29:17):
in the same room with no officers around us saying okay,
that's enough. So it's just a blessing to have ad.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
It from the prison to the palace.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
To the prison to the palace. You got it. You
might be joseph Generation biggest fan.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
It's good to hear Nako laugh while he has his
freedom now, there is no doubt that the road ahead
is as daunting as it ever was, and he will
need every ounce of his big faith to navigate it.
Of course, he wouldn't be Naco if he didn't also
have big dreams. He's working on a movie project based
on one of his books, Divided Nation, and he remains
(30:05):
in a hurry.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
We got a chance to celebrate celebraty. I loved Celebrat
of America, and then it was it was time to
get to work, so regranting the website and getting in
contact with my editor and the graphic artists, and just
touching base with the people who have helped me down
through years. I have a multi million dollar ideas, but
(30:29):
you know how it is, you need money to do that.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
So, as you know, I set up a go fund
the page for you, and I wonder if you can
articulate what will you use that money for.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Well, I want to really focus on helping guys that
is incarcerated. We want to reach back, but we also
want to a success out here too. We want to
contribute to the community and bring the solution as we
(31:04):
know it to the problem. And so that takes me
sources as well.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
And what about for you personally? What should comes through
from the telling of your story. Well, you know, I
know what it means to have a dream, have American dream.
Speaker 8 (31:23):
You know, And I'm quite sure there's a lot of people,
particularly right now today when you see so many small
businesses closing and people losing their jobs because of the
COVID nineteen in.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
The crisis that we are in to day. So I
can identify with wanting something so bad and just wanting
to live American dream, want to be successful, but do
it the wrong way. I know what it means. We'll
go into a banking and come up with hundreds of
thousands of dollars I mean the classic bake Robber movie,
(31:57):
but that money didn't solve my problems. So, you know,
if I could give the message of Wow, you may
lose the house, you may lose the business, you may
lose the car, but you got your freedom. Don't jepar
out your freedom. You've got relationships, You got people who
still believe that. You cherish those relationships just in the game.
So now I'm released, and now I'm on this world
(32:20):
of more than the redemption, but recovery and restoration. And
I got to do it the right way. Now I'm
a door it right way. And when i think I'm
not moving fast enough, I remember this.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
I am free.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
I'm free. I'm free.
Speaker 9 (32:55):
There goes the devil telling me it's a lie, says
I'm around me sales. It's all right to Britain.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
That you can get more done.
Speaker 9 (33:11):
You give.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Somebody Somewhere is a production of Rainstream Media Incorporated. Sound design,
editing and mixing has been provided by Resonate Recordings. Original
score and voiceover work provided by Hallie Payne. Artwork provided
by Evan McGlenn and Kendall Payne. If you have any
information regarding the Jonathan Luna case, please contact us via
(33:36):
our website sbswpodcast dot com. And finally, if you enjoyed
this podcast, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.
It really helps and we really appreciate it. Thank you
for listening.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
Here.
Speaker 9 (33:54):
God, hey Sami, would I just wann the love ever?
Don't still love? Need more money
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.