CHRIS RICE COOPER BLOG is ART and HUMANITY Framed In The PhotoFeature Story

CHRIS RICE COOPER is a newspaper/fiction writer, poet, photographer, painter. CRC Blog is an INCLUSIVE & NON-PROFIT BLOG acknowledging ALL voices, ALL individuals, ALL political views, ALL philosophies, ALL religions including Islamism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Agnosticism, Atheism. She has a B.S. in Criminal Justice & completed her workshops required for her Master’s in Creative Writing. She lives in St. Louis. CRC website http://chrisricecooper.com/

Saturday, November 7, 2015

The Love Story of Mr. and Mrs. Boone . . .

Christal Cooper

caccoop@aol.com

https://www.facebook.com/christalann.ricecooper

The Love Story of Mr. & Mrs. Boone:
The Dwelling of Love, Mentality, & Candy

The sweetest thing is not candy or pie

but knowing your heart is with me

amongst four walls that make us cry;

for the separation is painfully strong

but our dwelling place even more so,

the mental place we will always belong.

Excerpt from “To My Love In Prison”

By Audrey Q Rhodes

Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Montgomery, Alabama resident Michelle Rene Robinson has a unique love story to tell along with an announcement: she is engaged to Daoud Omar Boone, who is serving in an Alabama prison for the capital murder of his ex-girlfriend Sylvia Yvonne Perry, in which he proclaims his innocence.

Michelle first met Daoud at George Washington Carver High School in September of 2000 where she was a freshman and he was a senior.

“He was my height so I thought he was a freshman. It was adorable. It was not love at first sight, but it was wonderful. I noticed that he had pretty hazel eyes. I’m infatuated with light hazel eyes. He was so handsome.”

The two had friendly telephone conversations that verged on the romantic, but Boone, a friend of Robinson’s boyfriend Recko, tried to maintain propriety.

“One evening I missed my bus home and Recko asked Daoud if he would give me a ride home. He took me home and we talked on the phone. He was very respectable and he knew me and Recko were trying to start a relationship and he respected that.”

Robinson and Recko Hall, also friends with Boone, were together for 12 years and share a son, Jamari, who is now 5.

The morning of November 14, 2007, Michelle turned on the television to watch/listen to the news, as she got ready to go to work at the Montgomery Humane Society.

“I saw him in the courtroom and it shook me to my core and it all got realistic. They said the trial was set and charged with capital murder. I saw his back and he turned and looked at Julian McPhillips. I knew he was innocent.”

On November 13, 2007 at around 11 p.m. Sylvia Perry was shot and killed in the parking lot of Igores: by day a restaurant and by night a business of human trafficking, prostitution, strip parties, underage drinking, and drug use.

At the time of Boone’s arrest, he had just returned from South Korea two weeks prior, and was scheduled to move to California for another tour of duty as a petty officer in the Navy.

Boone’s first trial was declared a mistrial, but he was found guilty of capital murder on his second trial. On November 23, 2010 he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

One month later, on Christmas Eve 2013, Michelle received a Christmas letter from Daoud. He called her four days later, on December 29, 2013, which Michelle described as numbing and exciting at the same time.

“It was too good to be true. And it was bittersweet. I could hear the guys through the background yelling at each other really loud. To hear him say, “Hey Michelle” was gorgeous. I told him that the thing I remembered about him the most was his long hair and pretty hazel eyes. I told him that I wished I could see his pretty eyes right now. There was silence. I asked him if he was still there and he said yes and asked me what I was talking about. I told him, ‘Your eyes, those beautiful hazel eyes.’ And he said, “Oh, those were contacts.’ I could have dropped the phone. I said, ‘you shattered my world.’”

In April of 2015 Michelle finally met Daoud during a visit at the W.E. Donaldson Correction Facility in Bessemer, Alabama.

“I called the jail to find out what to wear and they also told me to bring quarters. I rented a car. I started at 3 a.m. I was supposed to meet him at 7 a.m. I got there at 5 a.m. I was in the jail parking lot looking at the barbed wire fence and the towers. “It’s 5 a.m. and these people are going to arrest me.’ I drove to a service station where the correctional officers go to on their way to work that shift. I asked one correctional officer about visiting and he told me to show up at 6:30 a.m. When I showed up at that time there is a long line of cars. I was a nervous wreck to the very moment when they waved me through. I’m inside the jail right now and I go to the window and slip a piece of paper with his name on it. Daoud told me to make sure that I sit at the table with the vendor machine that has all the candy.”

And that was what all the quarters were for: Daoud ate grape lemonheads, lemon lemonheads, cherry lemonheads, green apple lemonheads, Gushers, Baby Ruth Candy Bars, five packs of Skittles, pizza, and drank lemonade, sweet tea and Gatorade.

The two have routine telephone conversations, monthly visits, and are constantly writing each other cards and letters.

“We sort of kind of realized we were what each other was missing. He was that voice I needed. I was that voice and support he needed.”

He asked her to marry him on the phone in January of 2015. And she immediately said yes without hesitation. This yes, Michelle insists, is not dependent on his guilt or innocence.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, yes, I would still marry him even if he were guilty. But he’s not. People ask me how I can love someone in prison for capital murder? I tell them that the heart wants what the heart wants and that time, separation, and distance doesn’t matter. I’m with him until the ends of the earth. I’m with him until the end. I can talk about things and he has an open mind. If he can be there mentally –if he can stimulate me mentally instead of physically – then this will work out. I’m not looking at the time he is serving, but at the person he is.”

Michelle’s family also sees the person Daoud is and believes in his innocence and in the love the two share.

“We are now a blended family. His niece became my niece, and his sister became my sister in law. My mom writes to him. My sister Ebony is smitten. I have acceptance from my family without having to explain. They know him.”

Perhaps the one person that was just as fierce of an advocate for Daoud as Michelle is Daoud’s father, Civil Rights Activist and Reverend Richard Boone.

Reverend Boon was a foot soldier for Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and before his death in October of 2013, was insistent that his son was innocent of the murder of Miss Sylvia Perry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaFEUPSzz9s

Now Michelle considers herself Daoud’s foot soldier and hopes she can continue to speak on behalf of the innocent like Martin Luther King Jr. and Reverend Richard Boone did.

“I spend most of my time talking about Daoud, his case and his innocence. I knew he didn’t do it. I knew him and the person he was and the person he is. And he didn’t do it.”

Photograph Description and Copyright Information

Photos 1, 3, and 25

Michelle Robinson in front of her Montgomery, Alabama home

Photo 2

Daoud Omar Boone

Photo 4

Michelle Robinson as a freshman in high school.

Photo 5

Daoud Omar Boone getting ready for his senior prom.

Photo 6

Michelle and Jamari early December of 2013

Photo 7

Michelle, Jamari, and Recko on Christmas Eve 2013.

Photo 8

Julian McPhillips

Web logo photo

Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 9

Crime scene photo of Igor’s

Public Domain

Photos 10 and 11

Daoud Omar Boone in military uniform

Photo 12

Michelle Robinson reading the first letter Daoud sent her.

Photo 13.

Daoud Omar Boone during his senior year.

Photo 14.

Photos 15 and 16

Michelle holding skittles

Photo 17

Michelle showing some of the cards Daoud sent her.

Photo 18

Michelle looking at the letters Daoud has sent her over the past years.

Photo 19

Michelle’s engagement ring

Photo 20

Daoud Omar Boone

Photo 21.

Reverend Boone and his son Daoud Omar Boone.
Copyright granted by Michelle Robinson

Photo 22

ASU memorial reward for Rev Boone

Public Domain

Photo 23.

Reverend Boone
Copyright granted by Michelle Robinson

Photo 24.

Reverend Boone in sunglasses, second from the left (between woman in the hat and Martin Luther King Jr,)

Public Domain

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Guest Blogger RONDA RACHA PENRICE: "Fighting For Their Lives" On Domestic Violence Awareness Month and the "Silent Witness" exhibit . . .

Christal Cooper

caccoop@aol.com

https://www.facebook.com/christalann.ricecooper

*Article previously published in South Magazine November issue
**Copyright granted by South Magazine, Ronda Racha Penrice, and Blake Crosby
***http://www.southmag.com

Sadly Lauren Smart’s letter was read in court – after her death. On Saturday, June 7, 2014, Norman Smart killed Lauren Brown Smart. She would have been 35 on July 10. Even more horrifying, her oldest boy from her first marriage, just six at the time, witnessed it all. Her other son with Smart hadn’t even turned a year old.

Responding to a call from Norman Smart, police found Lauren on the floor in the mater bedroom of their Wilmington Island, Georgia home on her back, with abrasions on her forehead, arms and elbows and blood stains on the carpet. Norman was then charged with murder.

During the trial, the medical examiner testified that Norman Smart beat, strangled and stomped a reportedly drunk Lauren to her death – the pattern of his shoes matched the injuries on her body.

There’s no way to sugarcoat the horror of this crime - nor its pervasiveness in this country. Every day three women are murdered by a current or former male boyfriend. Twenty people (including a small number of men) are victims of intimate-partner violence every single minute, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Every nine seconds, reports Domestic Violence Statistics, a woman is beaten or assaulted. Over 38 million women experience domestic violence every year. Sadly, as many as 10 million children witness this type of violence annually.

http://www.nrcdv.org/dvam/

A woman’s level of education doesn’t shield her from abuse and neither does her economic status. Domestic violence may be stereotyped as a crime of the poor and uneducated, but that’s far from the truth. Women of all backgrounds are victimized.

Melissa (nor her real name) truly debunks those stereotypes. This well-known socialite and independent professional in Savannah never imagined she would become a victim of abuse. Yet, just a few months into her relationship with a man she believed to be a great match, she found herself a victim.

Looking back, she says, “My first red light should have been one evening when he was upset and ripped my car keys out of my hand. I attributed it to a bad day at work.” There was no explaining away what happened to her during their “romantic” getaway to the Bahamas, however. “He got upset with me one night and pushed me, in my pajamas, out of our room and threw my suitcase at me. I got another room in the hotel and had every intention of flying out the next day.”

But she didn’t. The next morning, the hotel manager told her, “He’s very upset. He feels terrible – maybe you should talk to him.” She followed that well-intentioned but very bad advice and spoke to her boyfriend. “He apologized profusely; said he was going to get help, all the things you expect him to say,” she recounts. “He told me about the therapy he was going to and the breakthroughs he head with his anger-management issues.”

Not long after, it happened again. “For whatever reason, something triggered his rage again one night, “ she recalls. “And he came up behind me and hit me so hard that my teeth went through my lips. I hit the ground and screamed, “I’m bleeding!” He said, “You think you’re f---ing bleeding now?” and he picked me up by my hair, stomped my head on the ground and dragged me through the house and let (me) go in the front yard. I had on jeans and a tank top and it was 30 degrees outside.”

Waiting until she could safely go back in the house, Melissa quickly grabbed her purse, got into her car, and left. “I didn’t go to the hospital immediately. I was in disbelief,” she explains. ‘I was that typical (woman), ‘How could this be happening to me?’”

She then called the therapist her boyfriend had been seeing and got another shock. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know this person. You need to call the police,” the therapist told her.

http://safeshelter.org

Enter organizations like Savannah’s SAFE (Savannah Area Family Emergency) Shelter Center for Domestic Violence Services that, for the last 35 years, assists women less able than Melissa to find refuge from abuse. Former journalist Cheryl Branch has dedicated nearly 20 years to SAFE Shelter, serving as executive director since 2007 after heading the shelter’s outreach program where she regularly helped women get restraining orders, among other services.

“Abusers don’t see anything wrong with what they do,” Branch says matter-of-factly: “I firmly believe it’s a learned behavior. Often, one or both of the people in an abusive relationship grew up in a home where there was some kind of abuse – verbal, emotional or physical.”

Low self-esteem, Branch says, affects women of all backgrounds. It’s also an abuser’s number-one weapon. By and large, women blame themselves for the way they are treated. Women rationalize the behavior by saying to themselves, “I am going to fix that bad boy,” says Branch. “He had a rough life. And I, through the power of my love, am going to transform him.”

http://mediationsavannah.com

Wendy Williamson

Many of the calls SAFE Shelter receives come from concerned family and friends struggling to help a loved one reluctant to leave an abusive relationship. Branch advises they reassure their victimized loved ones, “I’m here for you.” When women do leave an abuser, SAFE Shelter aids them in numerous ways, especially in holding the abuser accountable and offering programs for children in order to break the cycle of abuse.

“We didn’t even have battered-women shelters until the 70s’ in this country, “Branch notes, explaining that awareness has improved, but still has a ways to go. A powerful reminder is ‘Silent Witness Initiative,” a national art exhibit that travels to various venues and events featuring life-sized, free-standing silhouettes bearing the names of deceased victims.

Photo by Blake Crosby

https://www.facebook.com/blakecrosbyphotography?fref=ts

For Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October, the Chatham County Silent Witness Exhibit will be on display in Savannah for the first time – and Lauren Brown Smart is one of the 13 victims highlighted.

https://www.facebook.com/Lauren-Browns-Legacy-Inc-Our-love-for-Lauren-763470540339712/

“We get so numb to statistics and you need that reminder that this was a daughter, a sister, a mother,” Branch says of “Silent Witness.”

Sunni Brown, Lauren Brown Smart’s mother, needs no such reminders, though. The horrific aftereffects of her death haunt Sunni every day. Lauren’s oldest son, now seven, who witnessed his mother’s death, has been in therapy since the murder, but still fears that Normal Smart, despite being sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 20 years for cruelty to children will still come for him. And now, the youngest grandson, who is nearing two, is in therapy too.

She says what pains her most about the tragedy is that “two children have to grow up without a mother.” Brown says she hopes the telling of Lauren’s story will help a domestic-violence victim get out of an abusive relationship before it’s too late.

Contact www.safeshelter.org