Hi, thank you for coming to this page, I'm Stili and I am hoping to raise the funds for my brother to get a fair chance, a second chance at life. Tyrone is not only my brother, but he is my bestfriend. He is very family oriented and we are all hoping to have him back sooner than later. Our mom misses him more than I think any person can imagine and it is her greatest wish to see him come home. My daughters know their uncle Ty's voice and my four-year old, Kinsley, sometimes dreams of uncle Ty flying home. She has given me scenarios where he can just get on a plane and come home, and yet she has never met him in person.
Ty has spent his life working to become a perpetually better version of himself, to be successful and to earn a chance at life again.

What got us here? In 1998, when Tyrone was 16 years old, his 18 year old friend led him on a trip across the US, from his home in Arizona, to NYC. When in New York, the stories his friend told him about family there who would take them in proved to be false. So he just arrived, across the country with little money in his pocket, and nowhere to go.
My brother and his friend were approached by a man who offered to help them with jobs and a chance to get on their feet.
But what my brother didn't know was this kind man wasn't so kind. He had no intentions of helping anyone, The man was a child predator who had a warrant out for his arrest for attempting to rape a 15 year old boy, 1,256 miles away in Florida, only 11 days prior. But my brother didn't know, he couldn't know, this was before cell phones were of wide use. There was no such thing as social media, no Amber alerts, or smart phones.
The 54 year-old man, and early-retired cop who was befriending my brother would attempt to violently sexually assault my brother and his friend within the hour.

This was the worst and most fateful day of my brother's life, and it has become not only his nightmare for the last 23 years, but it has been our family's nightmare too. I was 7 when my brother was faced with this monster, and I am 30 now, that's how long my brother has been gone.
The altercation that would ensue that day when my brother and his friend were confronted by this violently aggressive pedophile, led to the death of that predator.
I can't help imagine what would our family be like if my brother wasn't the survivor that day? If the serial predator would have killed my teenage brother instead? My brother didn't end up being another of that man's victims. My brother never thought to kill the man, but the man died from his injuries nonetheless.

Since NJ has no self-defense laws, and because this was the 1990's when locking up juveniles and throwing away the key was the status quo, my brother would be waived up to face charges as an adult, although he had no prior arrests in his life whatsoever, and although he never denied his role in the predator's death; even pleading guilty to the only charge prosecutor would accept (when mass incarceration and prison profiteering was at it's hungriest peak), my 16 year old brother was sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 30 years with 30 years before parole eligibility. This meant that no matter what Tyrone did throughout the duration of those 30 years, since he was 16, he could not even receive parole eligibility, no matter how stellar his behavior could prove to be for the next 30 years. Yet if the judge had decided to charge him as the juvenile he was (or better yet not charge him a all), the sentence for the same crime; if charged as the juvenile that he was, would have been a maximum of 20 years, with parole eligibility after 8-years, 4-months. My brother has now served nearly 3 times that amount.
Although police reports on the man who died detailed some of the serial child predator's lifelong history of predation of teen boys; although my brother never denied his role in the predator's death, although Tyrone, from day one, noted that the man attempted to assault him, the judge's statement at sentencing said "you think that if someone does something to you that you don't like, that it gives you the right to kill." The judge regarded being sexually assaulted as just "something a person doesn't like," and the judge sentenced my brother, my 16 year old brother to 30 years in prison, with no chance for parole eligibility. With no chance at life, with no chance for hope, with no grasp of the gravity of what 30 years in prison is. The pedophile that assaulted my brother had a lifetime of second chances. He hunted for boys to victimize, it was patterned, and unstoppable..., until that fateful night that cost us all so much. That sealed his own fate, and Ty would never see a second chance until now, this is his second chance.

What's happened with Ty since? Since that time, Ty's co-defendant has died in prison. Since that time my brother has NEVER had a single violent incident in prison, despite the reasoning behind the harshness of his sentencing, my brother is not a violent person, he doesn't resolve his problems through acting out or acting in violence.

What Ty has done with the time. I don't know who wouldn't fight off a sexual predator if given the chance to defend ourselves, I don't think that exactly qualifies as a violent characteristic, and certainly his violence-free 23 years in prison doesn't reflect a violent nature. But that doesn't have any bearing when it comes to a mandatory-minimum sentence. My brother has spent a lifetime since 16 immersed amongst the nations criminals, but he continues to improve himself and his role in the lives of others. He has earned an Associate's degree, through scholarships, which took nearly 5 years of dedication, and resulted in a GPA of 4.0, but that doesn't matter when it comes to his mandatory-minimum sentence. He has not had any disciplinary infractions since he was found in possession of two banned colors of construction paper, in 2003. Yes, my brother has remained discipline free for 18 years, but that doesn't matter with his mandatory-minimum sentence. Ty has dozens of certificates for multitudes of classes, from parenting classes, to behavioral, to FEMA Emergency Management courses, but that doesn't matter when it comes to his mandatory-minimum sentence. Ty has taught his fellow prisoners classes, for behavioral modification and vocational skills, but that doesn't matter when it comes to mandatory-minimum sentences. My brother has spent his free time studying so much, from the Portuguese language, to literary classics, self-improvement, and how to draw, in graphite, and to paint. When the prisons decided to no longer allow prisoners to have paints, he taught himself how to draw portraits in oil pastels (but oil pastels have also now been banned), so he taught himself to draw in charcoals, and in colored pencils, and he has donated nearly all of his art to others. He has spent months on portrait projects which he has given to strangers who have faced tragedy in the loss of loved ones, whether from mass school shootings, terror attacks, or other horrific acts. He draws and donates to conservancy when he can spare the time as he is passionate about participating in a better world, but none of this matters when it comes to his mandatory minimum sentence because these sentences are meant to throw someone away for as long as possible with no possibility of redemption, without the opportunity to prove oneself, without the chance to show redemption, rehabilitation, or his simple value as a human being.
When prisoners received early release credits under the COVID-19 pandemic, my brother's mandatory minimum sentence excluded him. When other prisoners earn work credits, the near 4000 days my brother has earned over the last 23 years do no apply to his sentence as they do to everyone else's sentences. Although the majority of prisoners don't earn degrees, nor take nearly as many programs or classes as my brother has very successfully completed, he won't receive one day of release credit for it as others would.

Mandatory minimum sentences would possibly seem plausible for people who are never getting out, but Ty is, yet nothing he does is incentivized, he does it because its what he wants for himself, for his family, and to do for others. For The last 23 years Ty has known he will not get the possibility of parole eligibility, no matter what he does, he will not go home a day sooner than 30 years from when he was 16 no matter what he does. But that's the nature of a mandatory minimum sentence. Mandatory minimum sentences don't take into account a person's behavior; whether someone makes something of himself as my brother continues to do, or if he was the worst prisoner for those 30 years, his release date will be no different, he would still go home the same exact day.
That doesn't set anyone up for success, it leaves a prisoner absolute hopelessness, especially a 16 year old who had no priors.

What we want? Since the 1990's, many of these archaic sentencing schemes like the death penalty for children, and mandatory life sentences for children have been ruled unconstitutional due to the Supreme Court of the United States ruling that children are different than adults when it comes to sentencing. But children still can receive a life sentence if the judge decides it, so long as its not mandatory by law. When a child is sentenced to a "mandatory" sentence of any kind, the constitutional protections and protected status of children is denied because a judge cannot individualize a sentence for a child when the state law says that the circumstances of crime or age of defendant, or any other mitigating factors are absolutely irrelevant because the sentence is mandatory for the conviction.
So the Supreme Court's rulings have cracked open the door for my brother to file for a resentencing, but we know that a resentencing without a forensic psychologist, or without the funds for the necessary legal defense, Ty faces an uphill battle against a system that is determined to still stand by what mandatory sentences have not yet been outlawed. But my family and myself, and everyone who knows Ty know that he deserves a second chance, and we need him home. This legal fight isn't even to have him immediately released, (regardless of how much we would like that), but its to get his sentence modified to serve 85%, which is the "mandatory" for violent crimes in NJ. Then, after serving 25.5 of 30 years Ty would be eligible for parole release and that's all we want, for him to simply have the opportunity to prove his rehabilitation to the parole board. Then, if released, he would remain on parole for the next 5 years.

So if we reach the fundraising goal Ty will have hope, our mom will have hope, my daughters and everyone who he has had a positive impact on will have the hope and satisfaction that then it would be a fair shot for Ty to be evaluated like any other prisoner and could come home early if he meets the parole board's criteria and approval. Those are big orders but if we get that far, it gives us what all people should have an unalienable right to, anywhere in the world, hope.
Your donation is a restoration of hope for Ty, for his family, and for all that have been positively effected by him along the way. Thank you for your donation, whatever the value, for us it is priceless.