No Way Out

For a split second, Henry thought about keeping his mouth shut and taking what ever sentence the judge decided to give him in silence.  Then he remembered all that the victim's family had to say about him.  "Yes, I would."         

"I've been sitting here for the past hour or so listening to these fools talk about me like they know me, as if they actually knew me.  I've read their letters where they call me an animal, a heartless beast.  For the last year they've been dogging me out, making me sound as horrible as possible while trying to make their precious David sound as angelic and heaven sent as can be.  Well, now it's my turn to talk!"  Henry said with a smile. 

Henry turned his back to the judge and directed his attention and words to David Guzman's family.  Hate and anger burned brightly in their eyes as Henry stared them down.          

"Who are you people trying to convince that your son was innocent?  The Court or yourselves?  David was no better than me.  And on that note, neither are you!  Who the hell are you people to talk down upon me?  You're made of bone and flesh just as I am!  You bleed just as I bleed.  And someday," Henry paused to let out a twisted chuckle, "you'll bleed just as bad as your beloved David did."   

Henry shifted his gaze and focused his stare on Andy who sat between his mother and father in he front row.  He wished that he could leap over the tiny divider and ring his neck, snatch the chain with the half heart on it from his neck and stuff it down his throat as he choked the life from him.   

"And you!  Andy!"  Henry continued, "Sitting there trying to make everything sound like it was my fault.  Out of all you sorry ass people, I hate you the most.  Blaming me for your brother's death.  It was David's fault he got killed!  You could have saved him and kept him from walking into those bullets, but instead you chose to cower behind the safety of a truck as your big brother inhaled a chest full of lead!  You want someone to blame?  Blame yourself for being so much of a coward that you couldn't keep your bro from getting smoked!"             

Henry turned back toward the judge and stared him directly in the eye.  He could see the anger on the man's face as he gazed down on Henry as if was a piece of dog shit covered with flies.           

"Everyone wants an apology, so I'm going to give the people what they want," Henry said, pausing to gather his thoughts.  "I'm sorry...  Sorry that I got caught!  I'm sorry that I didn't shoot David in the face so he couldn't have an open casket funeral!  And finally I'm sorry that I didn't save a couple of them bullets for the coward sitting behind me with his stupid ass parents!  And that's all I have to say."           

Judge Armstead sat in silence for a moment as the shock of what Henry had said spread throughout the room.  The victim's family were mumbling words of disrespect and pure hatred while Henry's own family and friends sat in silence, not believing that Henry just destroyed any chance he had of getting a light sentence.           

"Well, so much for trying to get you the mitigated term," John Alstot said to his client, feeling that all of the time and effort he put into the sentencing reports and his argument was all for nothing.     

Judge Armstead stared in silence at the defendant and then back at the upset family of the victim as Henry's supporters sat quietly waiting for the sentence to be issued.