He Was Rebuilding His Life. Then The Unthinkable Happened

The lights came on in the rearview mirror: red then blue then red again on a Wednesday in Kailua-Kona, and the thump of his heart could be felt throughout his whole body before his foot found the brake. Under the seat was a loaded handgun and unspent rounds. In a bag was 15.7 grams of crystal, weighed and packaged the way you package something meant to be sold rather than used alone. He was 36 years old and he already had a criminal record to his name, which meant none of what happened next would be treated as a first mistake. It would be treated as confirmation. The police searched the car on the spot. By the time the search was over, he was looking at a felony count for promoting a dangerous drug, a meth trafficking charge, possession of paraphernalia, and eighteen separate firearms offenses stacked on top of each other, the heaviest of them being a felon caught holding a gun he was never allowed to touch again.

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