Jack Lawrence

That is not good enough.

Hello and welcome back to One Minute Remaining.

My name is Jack Lawrence, the host and creator of this show.

Today is part two of my chat with Evaristo Salas Jr.

Arrested at just 15 for murder, Evaristo grew up inside a US prison and now at 42, that is where he remains, serving time for a crime he says he's innocent of.

In our previous episode, Junior talked me through the area of Sunnyside in which he grew up, explaining that towards the end of the 80s and the early 90s, gangs started to become an ever-growing presence in the community.

As a young man who came from a broken home, living with his stepfather, who was working 16-hour days, left him searching for belonging, essentially for another family.

Unfortunately, he would find that in a gang.

At first, he tells me it was all stupid kids, running around, breaking windows, tagging and getting into fistfights.

But it wasn't long before it escalated.

Knives and guns started appearing, and life for Junior and his friends became much more dangerous, to the point he would have to plan his every move outside of his home.

There'll be people listening to this going, well, you know, you were in a gang, you were playing up, you've already said you were smashing windows and, you know, doing stupid stuff, so kind of you made your bed, you're lying type situation.

Now, I'm not saying that's my opinion.

I'm saying that there'll be people listening with that opinion, you know, and there'll be people listening going, why didn't you just leave the gang and why didn't you just stop doing all that crazy stuff you were doing?

Plus, you can't just uproot your entire family just because, you know, you've made some poor choices.

And going back to what I was telling you about that gang that, you know, tapped at my window with a knife, I mean, I was terrified, but I couldn't go to my parents and say, hey, guys, we've got to move because some shit's happened with these guys and, you know, I'm terrified.

Can we sell our house and move?

It just doesn't work like that.

As Junior mentions there, at the age of just 15, he would watch his closest friend get shot and die in front of him.

He talks me through that day.