I'm Tanya Mardis, Eric's loving & supportive mother. My son has been wrongfully convicted of Lewd Acts when he was only 17 Years old. Eric was sentenced to 502 Years in Prison. Not even an Adult Eric was told he would die in prison. All because of one person's testimony against my son & an overworked underpaid public defender representing him, who did not discuss anything with my son regarding the case until the weekend of his trial. The public defender brought in No expert witnesses, No character witnesses, Did not investigate the state's claims for accuracy, & forced my son to take the stand, Because if he did not, the defense literally had no one to call to the stand. I know TV shows aren't always accurate but surely this demonstrates some form of ineffective assistance of counsel. How can the defense call no one to the stand or have any evidence whatsoever to present to the jury other than my son's word that this did not occur? The state had that individuals word & testimony in trial, they had expert witnesses who testified that what this individual was saying is true because the interview techniques are proper & not leading. They had that individual's family take the stand & testify that what this guy is saying is true yet they have no actual evidence to back it up. They have never seen anything, found any physical evidence, they could not specify any specific account of when this must have happened, everything on the trial was based on one person's word against my son. How is this fair? How is this allowed? And if you're thinking to yourself well the jury found him guilty, So he must be guilty. I want you to also think to yourself if you hear the words the state of Oklahoma has charged Eric with lewd acts with a minor, Are you thinking there's a chance he might be innocent or are you immediately thinking we need to lock that guy up because even if it's not true we don't want to be the ones to let him out so that it can happen to someone else. I as a mother understand those feelings but please try to understand this from our point of view. Eric was not innocent until proven guilty. There is no such thing when it comes to a sex crime especially a lewd acts crime. Eric was guilty until he can find a way to prove his innocence. How can he prove his innocence when the state literally has nothing against him except for the sole testimony of one individual? It's an impossible task. Amplify that with everyone from States experts, to the witnesses family, to the detectives & the district attorney saying that this happened. Now it's no longer Eric versus one person saying this. It is Eric versus the state of Oklahoma, the accuser, the police department, the accusers family, states experts. And when you think about it everything stems from what one individual said. Eric is innocent; during the beginning stages of all of this, his original attorney discussed the possibility of a 20-year plea bargain & explained how bad this could get for him if he was found guilty & also explained how hard it is to defend against these kinds of allegations. Eric absolutely refused to hear of it & instructed the attorney to not negotiate any form of plea agreements with the state. He said if I take a plea bargain for something that I did not do, Yes I might be able to go home, but how could I live with myself? He said if I fight this & I win then I prove that I am innocent, if I fight this & I lose then I can keep on fighting until the day I die & I'm going to keep fighting no matter what happens because I know I didn't do this. On top of this Eric's sentence violates the constitution and US supreme Court precedent. It additionally violates international standards especially the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We appealed his conviction but after a 2-year wait the Oklahoma Court of criminal appeals affirmed his conviction but agreed he had too much time & that certain records should not have been entered into the trial, So they modified his sentence to a total of 252 years of which under Oklahoma law he will be required to serve a minimum of 214.2 years before being eligible for release. I personally don't know anyone that can live that long, Do you? I want to & have been trying for nearly ten years to bring my son home. I've called innocence projects who've rejected his case because there is no DNA evidence involved. I've called & went to various attorneys & law firms who ask for insane amounts of finances to review his case. I've had my son file a judicial review motion years ago which is still sitting on a clerk's desk. We called the courthouse & were informed they won't schedule his motion on a docket until we have representation. Everything we try seems to have the same result & the same question asked of us.

"How much money do you have?" 

We are not a rich family. My husband is retired Air Force & works a full time job, we have a mortgage, & I am a full time caregiver for my elderly mother who has had ongoing health problems since her stroke nearly 13 years ago. A Diabetic, Kidney issues, Fallopian Tube Cancer survivor, knee replacement, & recently diagnosed with Blood Cancer, which is treatable just not cure-able. Medical bills, daily living expenses, & our home consume the majority of our finances. We set aside what we can as we can but at this rate we'd be long gone before there would be enough money in the account to help Eric come home. 

We need help to give my son an experienced & professional attorney who will fight for him & prove his innocence. Unfortunately that requires an insane amount of funds we just don't have & we have no other option then to ask for help. Help from friends, family, coworkers, associates, strangers, & organizations. If you cannot donate then please share his story. Post it on Facebook, Twitter, whichever social media accounts you have. If your an attorney or know one maybe you or they can refer us to a more affordable or Pro-Bono defense attorney that might take up our cause. You can pray for Eric, keep him in your thoughts. Write letters of encouragement & or support. Anything you do shows support & will be so greatly appreciated. 

I feel it is important to tell you about what Eric has done with his life since being incarcerated. During the appeals process was emotional to say the least. He was the victim of a few assaults & going through ungodly amounts of emotions regarding coming to grips with this. His reality now. This is it he's stuck in there he's not getting a chance to leave, the courts didn't believe him, no one wants to help unless we have money, & that the state of Oklahoma has thrown him away & lost the key. He couldn't understand how. It is Supreme Court precedent that a juvenile non homicide offender cannot receive a sentence of life without parole yet here he is sitting in the prison cell from a crime he was accused of at the age of 17 and according to his sentencing he has to serve 214 years. How is this constitutional? Eric is sitting in there questioning why was this person's word more valuable over his? Eric was a great person he had the presidential volunteer service award, he went to ATI career training Center & became a medical assistant because of the stroke his grandmother suffered & he wanted to help her & to understand how to help her, he obtained his driver's license, he's always had a smile on his face & always tried to help people no matter the circumstances or situations. It's not like he was some thug or petty criminal that all of a sudden had these allegations against him. Then it would be understandable why his word is not credible. But he was a good kid with no previous encounters with law enforcement whatsoever, nothing to say that he is not worthy of trust. Eric has had a hard time understanding that but I think now with years past he understands better that just the title of the offense he is charged with is an assumption of automatic guilt it's nothing personal against anyone... You charge the president with this crime & a bunch of guys are going to want him to go to prison for the rest of his life. 

Eric found a way to start succeeding in there. After the first few years & the depression started to subside a little although still ever present he decided that yes the state of Oklahoma took my life, yes this person said these things about me, but I'm not going to sit here in my cell doing nothing with my life. He decided he's going to continue his education, he decided he wanted to learn trades or skills, he decided he wanted to be a model inmate; someone that doesn't give Staff problems & someone that doesn't draw the negative attention from other inmates. Eric has been going to college off & on with Rose State & he is about a third of the way done with his associates degree all A's & B's. Eric worked for a few years at the sheet metal fabrication shop where he helps refurbish trailers. Eric now currently works at the maintenance department where he is on his second year mechanical  apprenticeship (HVAC) . You can look him up on the Oklahoma construction industries board website. Eric is currently studying for his state of Oklahoma low pressure boiler operators class 4 license. He hopes to take the examination by this Summer. Eric has learned a little electrical, a lot of plumbing, general maintenance & repairs, & he's became quite the Cable Guy when the previous inmate was transferred & he stepped up & began teaching himself how all the equipment works.

At his maintenance job Eric is the only Cable Guy, he is the main inmate over the parts room, he is called out some nights for plumbing problems, & he is valued by his supervisors in maintenance. During the statewide lockdown my son was considered an essential worker & was allowed to go to work to perform his job to ensure the facility keeps running & the repairs are done. For anyone that doesn't have someone in prison or knows what a statewide lockdown is allow me to explain just a little. The statewide lockdown is a big deal. It's where individuals at multiple prisons or a big enough incident at one prison occurs that requires the state to lock down all inmates in every facility to their cells until they can complete an investigation to determine the cause of whatever the disturbance was. During this kind of lockdown inmates are not allowed out of their cells unless they are trusted, vetted, & deemed essential by their job duties. Eric has tried to live his life as close to normal as possible given these awful circumstances. He wakes up at 6:00 a.m. he goes to work... around 3:30 4:00 p.m. he comes back to the housing unit takes a shower, cooks dinner (in a microwave) then he lays down to either watch TV or study his college text or to study his maintenance material for the upcoming tests. He doesn't play into the gossip, or the drama that's prevalent around prison; almost worse than high school he explained. All he wants to do is to be able to live his life he wants to go to work because it makes him feel valued; it makes him feel that he has a purpose in life. He wants to study & get his degree in college because education is something that no one can ever take from you. Eric tries to act in a way that anyone who would take the time to examine him in there more than just reading his file & why he's in there would deem him worthy of freedom. Eric has always maintained his innocence. But as the past 10 years have shown it doesn't really matter when you have a crime with this title. Eric does everything in his life to show the courts, the staff, the police, the parole board, the governor, his family, his friends, anyone that he would be a responsible, mature, & productive member of society in the hopes that one day he might just have the chance.

We have extended the original deadline on this fundraiser. This July 3rd 2023 marks the 11th year stolen from my son & our family. With your help we could make this the year Eric comes home. Together we can end this nightmare!