Grandchildren = God's gift

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The following day the lawyer called. The hearing date had been set. It will be in two days on Thursday at 9:00am in court room number 2. I called Joe at work and told him the date of the hearing. He told me that he had talked to a few people on his job about what was going on with us and that I needed to prepare myself for what might happen.

"What do you mean, "What might happen"?"

"I am just saying that D'wayne might not be coming home right away".

"I am not even going to think about that. I am trusting in God that everything will work out for the better". "Have you asked for the time off so that you can go with me to the hearing?"

"Yes, I'll be there". "I have to go, I'll see you later".

The day before the hearing we had to go and talk to the Assistant DA. She was very polite and she gave us every indication that everything would be alright. We went over everything that was going to happen the next day. She told us that since D'wayne was not in possession of the gun that she was just going to ask the judge for probation and community service. She said that since he gave the names of the other kids that were involve, she would go easy on him. We had no reason not to believe her. We left her office feeling that everything was going to be ok.

Thursday morning we got up and got the other kids off to school. Kissed them goodbye and promised them that we would bring D'wayne home with us today. Joe and I got ready and went down to the Juvenile courts. When we got to the court room, D'wayne was already there. He was sitting at the table with his lawyer. The judge read the charges, and then the Assistant DA started talking. She started with "since the defendant is under 18, we cannot try him as an adult".

"But because these kids terrorized this family and a gun was involved, we need to make an example out of them. If anyone had been killed, we would be having a totally different trial right now."

I don't remember all of what she said, but she ended by saying "we cannot continue to let these kids go around doing this kind of stuff, and that they need to take responsibility for their own action".

"I am asking the court to give them the maximum sentence allowed by law. Since Mr. Gowen did not possess the gun and he has no history of ever being in any kind of trouble, he should be given at least one year not to exceed two years in juvenile."

This was a totally different story then the one she gave us just the day before. Two years in jail, oh my God, oh my God! I began to cry!

Then D'wayne's lawyer started to talk. He explained that unlike the other kids, D'wayne has never been in any kind of trouble before and that he was living at home and going to school. He was not making the best grades, but he was in school every day. And he had loving, caring parents that were there for him. And his father was getting ready to retire from the Air Force. He felt like D'wayne just got caught up with something that he could not handle, and that he was basically a good kid. After he finished, the judge said, "Mr. Gowen please stand up and face the court".

After the judge went over the charges again, he said, "Mr. Gowen I am taking in consideration that you have never been any trouble of this kind before. I am also taking in consideration that you are living at home and going to school and acting in the capacity of a child".

"But I want you to understand that what you did was wrong!"

"With that I am ordering you to be placed in juvenile at Spring Mountain Juvenile camp for up to 6 months"!

With that the bailiff handcuffed D'wayne and started to lead him out of the court room. When he got to where Joe and I were standing, he let D'wayne pause long enough for us to give him a hug. We were all crying at this point. I think that I even saw a tear roll down Joe's face. It was so hard to see our son in handcuffs and being lead off like a common criminal.