Episode 1

CRASH, Tells the story of Luis Miguel Salinas who is serving a 44 year to life sentnce in California.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
They weren't trying to arrest you.You know, for the most part,
they returned out just beat the crapout of you and robbie you. So
they'll come around and be like,where's the guns that he was the guns
girls, I don't want to beI got too much to catch somebody.

(00:24):
And he then nah, no needfor the losing big whip by slot.
I'm cruising, big sticking slot.My name is Luis Miguel Salinas. I

(00:45):
was born on December third, nineteeneighty five. I'm thirty seven years old
and I was born and raised inLos Angeles, California. My mother and
my father emigrated from Mexico in thelate seventies and he settled near downtown S
Angeles. They had five kids.I was the middle child. Luis was
a gang member in Los Angeles backin the nineties and early two thousands.

(01:08):
Luis grew up around gangs. Whenhe joined a gang at the age of
twelve, he didn't have to golooking for one. They were already there,
the kids in his class at school, the kids he grew up with,
the older kids in his neighborhood,Ellie Street. Gangs were part of
Luisa's culture. They were all heknew twelve or maybe the range one or
turned thirteen, but I know itwas It was ninety eight, nineteen ninety

(01:30):
eight, and I grew up onthat street. You know this what I
saw. These These are the guysthat saw in elementary school, the other
guys and other kids from that block. You know, we grew up together.
We'd be out there. We seethe gang members out on the street.
We see the drinking and kicking femalescars. You know, you know,

(01:51):
look it looked forward and looked cool. It's what we signed. What
was there. It's like it wasnot out of the ordinary. It was
not something that what's this? Youknow, It's like this, that's what
we grew up seeing. So yeah, I was I was young. I
was probably the youngest one that theygot jumped in at that time. And

(02:14):
when he joined a gang at theage of twelve, he was the youngest
member in his gang. He youngout with a lot of older guys,
nineteen twenty year olds. They mentoredhim. They taught him about the streets,
they taught him about life. It'scalled lighting up. His family was
in chaos. His parents were brokenup. His sister had taken off.
His brother was in the foster caresystem. Joining a gang gave Louise a
sense of acceptance and belonging that hisown family couldn't provide for him. But

(02:38):
was that I kicked it with theseI hung out with that I gravitated towards.
Were older, a lot older thanwhen the number one in my age,
all of over where, at leastmaybe nineteen twenty thirty twenties. You
know, there was one guy whohad just got out of prison, go
to see thirteen years for a murder, and he had just got it out.

(03:00):
And that's who I kind of gravitatedtowards. That's who kind of problem
put me under his wing, andhe gave me a lot of give me
a lot of schooling what we callmaking you up, you know, told
me a lot of stories, teldme a lot about prison, and told
me a lot about everything going on. You know, they looked at me
for being so young. They lookedat me like man, like you have

(03:23):
a really good head on your shoulder, Like they're not just some dumb ass
little kid, even though I wasout there acting a fool. So these
older guys and they liked me,you know, they liked me. They
liked having me around, you know, they embraced me and to me because
of because of the divorce in myfamily, because of the way my parents

(03:47):
fought and they split up, andyou know, the whole thing with the
foster care and chancellors and all thatstuff. It was just it was just
some mess, you know, itwas a mass. So we all got
split up. My mom took myyoungest brothers and sister, and my older
sister she ran off. She waslike sixteen, so Sho went out on

(04:11):
her own. So it was justlike me and my brother. And then
my brother ends up getting stuck inthe system and in the foster care,
and so then it's just me bymyself, and I'm just you know,
my mother and father they loved me, they loved all of us. They
did everything they could for us.But they're fighting amongst themselves. It's what

(04:32):
really missed everything up because they couldnot could not cope her. They couldn't
they couldn't function with each other.From that, that, right there is
what kind of laid me to thatlead me to the game. Having that
that feeling of being accepted, beinga part of some our family and know

(04:54):
now that you know, looking backon all of that, you know,
I've realized that at the time,I didn't. I didn't know it.
You know, I was a kid. You know, I knew that I
was hurting, but I didn't knowthat. That's why I did what I
did. That's why I you know, all the things that I was doing.

(05:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Look, I'm telling man, no trouble.
I don't want beef, man,I just want five big man like
me. No me for the telephone. Even though I was even though I
was young, I was a bigkid. Like literally, I looked when

(05:39):
I was like eleven twelve, Ilooked like I was fifteen sixteen, you
know, I was. I was. I was a very big kid.
I was. I want to sayat that time, I was probably like
at least five nine and at leasttwo hundred pounds, So I was a
big kid, man, I said. They didn't. They looked at me
and they're like, you're you're twelveyears old? Like what the hell?
I was like, Yeah. Theydidn't believe me. No, they didn't.

(06:03):
I would want to say that theybaby me or anything else because they
thought I was a little kid,like you know, I was just I
was out there, and I wasout there, and and I was doing
I was doing what everybody else wasdoing. Like, you know, there
was other guys that that lade herdown the line that I that I've seen,
and I looked at like, man, that's a little ass kid,

(06:23):
you know, like like tell Igot to get to get out of here,
Like he shouldn't be out here withus, Like he shouldn't be hanging
around. Because I felt no badman. And there was actually a guy
who got killed, you know,he was I want to say, he
was thirteen, you know, andI looked at it and I felt really
really bad for that man. Ifelt like that guy didn't that guy was

(06:46):
just a little kid, like hereally was like a little kid, like
he wasn't he wasn't mature, likehe didn't he didn't really realize what was
going on, like you know,you know, he just he was He
was actually on the corner talking onthe payphone, and these guys rolled up
and they killed them. They shothim and killed them. And it was

(07:09):
right right after school, so therewas a bunch of other school kids.
Yeah, man, that that onehurt, you know, because I just
really really felt bad for a family, and you know, I was just
like, man that that wasn't aright but me, you know, I

(07:30):
don't know. I guess I hadkind of like an older mentality as well,
Like you know, I was kindof a I wasn't just I don't
know. I don't think I waslike a dumb kid. You know what's

(07:51):
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(08:13):
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Okay, back to crash, Yeah, standa modest Why it's so impossible

(08:35):
for made a little head fucking cross? Yeah, I'll get the basic.
When Louise was fifteen, he gotarrested for the first time him and his
friends were coming out of a building. Hostpolled up. Louise and his friends
ran like they always did. Louisewas the only one who got caught.
The cops went into the building afew minutes later, they came out with
a gun. Louise was arrested,but concealed carry and told br No no

(08:56):
vamberos the year thousand, what wasit? Rested? Uh, it was
the first term I got arrested,and they arrested me for carry a concealed
weapon, even though I wasn't.I didn't have a gun. I didn't
have a gun in my possession oranything like that. They saw me and
some other guys coming out of abuilding. They went inside the building,

(09:20):
they searched the building, and theycame out with the gun, and I
was the one that they were ableto catch. You know. They caught
me and they cuffed me up andthey threw in the car and they arrested
me, and I'm you know,I didn't think I was going to get
arrested for a gun. So whenthey tell me, yeah, we got
you for for for the gun,I was like, what, there's I

(09:43):
even know what gun? And soI ended up going to to juven the
hall. So I'm in Juneo Halland I ended up um getting sentenced to
placement. So they sent me tothis place called Rancho sen Told the boys
Home of the West. So wesends up in juvenile hall and he's sentenced

(10:03):
to a placement at Rancho sant Antonio, the boy's home in Chatsworth, California.
He really doesn't want to be there. The police has a universe gang
members and a universe sex offenders,and Luis doesn't want to be associated with
the sex offenders. So at firsthe doesn't try. He doesn't want help.
But eventually the counselors get through themand he starts doing good. He
starts doing good in his school work. His counselors like them. Things are

(10:24):
going really well. Things are goingso well that at one point Luis is
allowed out to attend a public schoolor he's able to play football. Rancho
san Antonio. When I when Ifirst actor, I stated, I was,
I was. It was. Itwas very difficult for you know,
there was a lot of rules andat first I didn't want to participate.
You gotn't want to talk, youknow, I didn't want to say nothing.

(10:45):
I didn't want to open up.I thought it was all done.
I thought it was all bullshit.Why why am I sitting here talking about
my feelings? I want to say, I'm suppressed all those feelings and emotions
and everything that you know I everfelt. You know, I was none,
no, not to all that stuff. And and that was that was
part of the whole gang stuff,right, I mean because of all the

(11:09):
ship that I went through, youknow, in the family and stuff and
those feelings, those emotions, andyou know, I put all that stuff,
but I locked it all down.You know, I didn't let it
none of that stuff out. AndI guess with the gangs that that's that's
what came out of it, likegetting into the gang, getting into that
stuff. So when I'm at thisplace, they're telling me start about my

(11:33):
feeling that they're telling the opening up. They're telling me to express this stuff,
to deal with this stuff, toto move forward. And you know,
at first down I'm just like I'mnot having it. I'm my feeling
it. You know, I wouldn'tI wouldn't participate. And you know they
kept talking, telling me, tellingme. They got through to me.

(11:54):
You know, they got through tome so slowly. But surely I started
talking, started opening up, startedtalking about you know, growing up,
talking about my family, talking aboutthe game, talking about all the things
that I did, you talking abouteverything in and then they started U doing
sessions with my parents. You know, they come in and we all talked

(12:16):
together and they'll talk one on meand then talk going along with my parents.
So it was it was pretty inparanse man. You know, I
started doing good. You know,I started u doing good at school.
They had a school long so Istarted getting on my plants and eventually I

(12:37):
was doing levels. I was doingreally good where they allowed me to go
to the outside of high school.So Luis is in high school and things
are going well, but it getsin a fight when another boy hits on
his girlfriend. The other boy doesn'twant to fight back, so he runs
the school security guard. The nextday, Luis's arrested for assault. So
I went to Chatswood High School andI actually I got into the football program

(13:01):
right there. I was playing football, I was doing good in the classes.
You know, things going good.Um, but I end up getting
this email. Right so I'm withthis girl and there's this guy that she

(13:24):
talks to, and you know,I'm not a judge guy, I'm not
you know, I don't care ifsome guy trying to stop to my girl,
like it doesn't bother me. Ifshe talks back to him, then
I'm gonna tell myself, why areyou talking to him? And you know
you're with me, so why areyou entertaining this guy? But this guy's
trying to get at her, andhe's doing it in front of me.

(13:46):
You're doing it in front of myface, and to me, that's disrespectful.
That's like, that's like saying,fuck you, you ain't nobody,
You ain't about nothing, you ain'tgonna do nothing, And this is how
I feel about it, and I'mgonna do it in the face. And
that right there kind of brought backthose feelings of you know, being that

(14:07):
Gaglan, but being that that guywas gonna be respected. It was not
gonna be you know, disrespected inthat way. So I tell hers,
now, look straight up, youcan talk to her. I don't care
about her, but you're gonna goand start hitting her on her in front
of my face, knowing that she'smy girlfriend. Now you're disrespecting me,

(14:31):
you know. And I told him, getting you a warning and that's it.
You only get war a warning.And the guy's like, yeah,
yeah, I'm sorry about that.Man. All right. Well two days
later this guy done it again,man, and and it just triggered,
you know, So I didn't hesitate, you know. I told this guy
a man meeting me over here andpull pull them over to it to the

(14:54):
side of one of the buildings,and I told me, you know what
I gotta do, life straight.U disrespecting me. And I just punched
him, laid him off and pickedhim back up and get up a fight
back. And this guy he's scared, he don't want to fight. I
punched him a couple more times.And then there's a there's a couple of

(15:15):
girls there and they start yelling levelMalone, Leo Malone, and they call
the security guard that's on campus.So I see the guy who coming towards
us. So I picked the guyup and I call me run and run
north. And I'm running behind them. So here a guy runs directly to
the office, goes straight. There'sa probation officer on site. You know,

(15:37):
I'm on probation because I'm in aplacement. I'm technically I'm locked up.
I'm not supposed to be out.So I have to report every single
day in the morning, at lunch, and once I leave school, I
have to report. And here Iam. I just got here. Here,
I am, I'm leaving here.I am still here since I have
to report. So this guy goesstraight over there. He knows my situation

(16:00):
and he tells on me. He'sall right, this guy just assaulted me.
So, you know, the nextday I go to school. Of
course I got to report in themorning, so I go in and they
arrested me. And then you're beingYou're being arrested for assault team. So

(16:21):
that messed me up. Man.You know, I felt very stupid that

(16:53):
I allowed myself to get back into the mentality and just throw everything away,
you know. So that's what happened, and I ended up going back
to June Hall and end up sendingme to boot camp. So now I'm

(17:18):
in boot camp. I do mytime. We Actually I was in boot
camp for a couple of months andthen I was recruited by this uh,
this guy his name was Tublin,and he did recruiting for this other camp

(17:41):
that camp Killpatrick. So he sendsup back in custody and they send him
to boot camp, and boot camphe does well again. He's playing football
again. He gets recruited by campKillpatrick. Camp Killpatrick's a big deal.
They made a movie about it withThe Rock in two thousand and three.
So again things are going well forLouise. He made Stir bootcamp and gets
his freedom back. It recruited bythis guy. He comes. He actually

(18:04):
knew me from from the other placement, from that place in the rancho that
I was at, because he wasa police officer. So he would come
down and he would talk to us, and he remembered me, you know,
and I was a big kid,you know, and I was playing
football for his Chester High school.So when he found out that, you
know, I was back in custody, he tracked me down and after a

(18:29):
couple of months in the boot camp, he comes and he picks me up
and he takes me to kemp Killpatrickand I'm playing football for kemp Killpatrick.
You know, I'm doing good thereand I finally get released in December of
two thousand and two. Okay,so Louisa's free again. He's back on

(18:53):
the streets and he's really motivated todo well. He was looking into going
to college. A month into hisfreedom, he gets to stop by crash
cops again. I end up gettingarrested in my neighborhood, the crash unit.

(19:14):
You know, they gave me andthey violate me. And when I
go to court, they're turning thejudge that I'm an active gang member and
that there's a war. There's awar going on between my gang and another
gang, and there's been all kindsof of murders, and you know,
he's just basically telling the judge like, locked this guy up and don't let

(19:37):
him out. You know, eventhough they didn't have no evidence against me.
They weren't saying, hey, thisguy's doing this, this guy's doing
that. They weren't in saying noneof that. All they were saying is,
well, he's a gang member,and because he's a gang member,
because there's a war going on,then more likely he's involved in all this
stuff. And I'm only out forone month, like I just barely got
out, you know, so theyviolated me. I end up going back

(20:03):
to the halls. I'm a juvenhall and I'm sitting in the halls for
they sent to me. They wantme to go to California, Youth Authority.
So that's a prison for juveniles prettymuch, you know, on a
violation. I'm like, wait aminute, I'm going to go to prison

(20:26):
there on a violation. How doesthat even make sense? So Luis's in
juvenile hall and for the next sixmonths he's just sort of waiting there and
then something happens. So I'm sittingthere for six months waiting, just waiting,
like just nothing's going on. I'mjust sitting there waiting, and finally

(20:48):
they have to review my case becauseI've been there for six months, so
they have to read my case.I go back to court and I guess
there's some kind of error in thesystem and they don't have my they don't
have my file, and they askedmy attorneys. They're like, well,
what's you here for? And theattorney's like, well, he's just here

(21:10):
for AVI Nation. You know,he got got out of camp and he's
caught him in the neighborhood he wasn'tsupposed to be. And the judge is
like, well, he's been heresix months, release him. And I'm
sitting there. I'm like, ohman, I'm getting released. I'm like
wow, I couldn't believe it.You know, I go back and I
call my dad and tell Dad hurryup to come pick me up. They

(21:32):
just let me go and sure enough, but that comes picks me up.
And this is already towards the endof two thousand and three. So when
I get released, you know,in my mind, I'm like, I
was about to go to prison.I was about to go to YA,
and YA was something ugly, likemy brother ended up going to what.

(21:56):
I went to go visit my brotherbecause so I knew about what. I
knew the stories. I knew whatwas happening, like it was not to
play the And as a matter offact, they shut down a lot of
the majority of the wise because ofall the stuff going on in those places,
like just horrible things. Man,you were going there and you were

(22:21):
either being a victim or you werebecoming a horrible monster because of the ship
that you had to do to survive. So in my mind, I'm like,
I really believed that I was givena second chance. I was like,
wow, like I can't believe this. No, So that's when all

(22:42):
that came about. I told myself, you know what, this is it,
man, this is a sign isI'm done? This is it?
I don't I don't want I wantnothing to do with this no more.
I need to move on with mylife. You know, I learned all
these things that at the ranch,and you know, I need to take
it in there, like I needto put all that into use, you

(23:03):
know. Like, so I madethe choice. You know, that's when
I made the choice that I've done. And so this is the end of
two thousand and three. So Louisehas this huge revelation and he knows that
he has to change his life,and he does, he really does.
He gets jumped out of his oldgang, he starts going to college,

(23:23):
he moves in with his mom outof gang territory, he buys a car.
He's really starting to get his lifetogether the beginning of two thousand and
four. Oh, I ended upgoing to college. At the end of
two thousand and three, I enrolledfor winter I believe, so I'm in
there. I end up doing Iended up doing two semesters. The reason

(23:45):
why I ended up quitting college wasbecause I got a job at the Whites
Golf International, which was a verygood job they had. I was basically
getting paid union wages because they hada contract with the city when they were
building this, this resort soul,I figured I'll come back to college,

(24:07):
you know. So I'm working atthis company, doing very good, making
good money, about my car.I'm leaving with my mom in Riverside,
outside of the gang, outside ofthe area, you know. I get
jumped out of all this happenings.I'm doing good, I'm feeling good.
I think things are going good.And then on the next episode of the

(24:38):
podcast, Luise's mom moves to Texaswhile Luis stays in La to wait for
a new job opportunity. And thenthough my mom decides, guys, she
wants to leave California, she wantsto move to Texas. And I'm like,
hey, that's great. You guysshould go to Texas, you know,
start over over there. But Ididn't want to go to pictures on

(25:00):
labor. I'm waiting a whole weightfor this job to open. All right,
what's going on, everybody? Sothat was the first episode of Crash.

(25:22):
I hope you enjoyed it. Ifyou want to check us out online,
it's prison Audio on all social media, or you can check us out
on our website www dot prison audiodot com. We actually have some really
cool stuff on there. We workwith inmates to teach them storytelling and help
get them on the show. Soif you know somebody who has a prison
story that they want to tell,please reach out stories at prison audio dot

(25:42):
com. All right, we'll talkto you soon.