One More Day Alive

I spent the last 20 years worrying about money, success and dating. Franky spent it enduring a cruel and unjust fate.

On Jan. 18, 1991, 16-year-old Francis Carrillo was at home with his father in Lynwood, Calif., watching television when 41-year-old Donald Sarpy was shot to death in a drive-by shooting. Six witnesses swore they saw Franky pull the trigger.

The next day Franky was arrested. But innocent, and definitely naive, Franky believed he would soon be released. “I figured after 72 hours they would realize it was the wrong guy,” recalled Franky.

But a month later he was tried as an adult, and after a first trial ended in a hung jury, a second jury convicted him. A judge sentenced Franky to two life terms.

“I went into denial and then shock,” explained Franky. “I thought for sure once a judge heard my side of the story, he would be convinced I didn’t do it.”

For the first few years Franky prayed every day for an end to this nightmare. “I think I shifted my hope from the judicial system to my faith,” explained Franky. “I was just in the darkness praying for God to knock the walls down and get me out of there.”

But after a beating by a guard left him within inches of death, he stopped praying for freedom. “I needed to mature in my prayers,” explained Franky. “I started asking instead for patience, for understanding, for knowledge.”

God answered his prayers, inspiring him to live a meaningful life behind bars until the truth was discovered, the kind of life that would send a message that he wasn’t guilty.

“I knew I wasn’t a criminal,” explained Franky. “So I decided not to act like one, even though I was behind bars. I could live and behave like a normal man. Then I believed eventually someone would see the truth. I had to persevere until God could eventually bring the right people into my life to help me.”

God’s mysterious ways

One of those people was an unexpected son. Months before he went to prison, his girlfriend became pregnant. Now what once seemed like a problem was his greatest blessing. “My son kept me going,” revealed Franky. “I promised him from the moment he was born I would always be there for him. That was a huge part of my life. I made a point to write him a letter every week, to see him, to work and make money for him. He was a driving force that kept me going in there.”

Franky worked continuously behind bars cooking, sewing, ironing and cutting hair, to keep his mind and body busy, and to save up whatever he could of the 15 cents an hour wages to buy whatever he could for his son. He studied, earning his GED and taking whatever classes were available and even helped to teach classes. And he prayed.

Then one day a teacher he had worked as an assistant for told him she was retiring. He made one simple request — tell his story. When she found herself at a book signing with a lawyer from the Innocence Project, she did. One meeting with Franky was all it took for the lawyer to take on the case.

It took five years, but eventually five of those witnesses admitted they never saw Franky commit the crime. And three months ago while I was frantically trying to buy a comfortable bed, Franky Carrillo was standing before a judge, praying once again for the patience, the courage and the strength to handle the judge’s ruling on the new evidence.

The next day Franky was free.

Franky has a lot to learn in his new life, like how to find a job, how to date and how to manage a checking account. But there’s one thing he doesn’t have to learn, something he knows more than I, and more than most people.

That God works in mysterious ways, and we don’t always get the life we want, but we must pray for the strength, the wisdom and the faith to live those lives nobly.

Until one day when we see God’s hand in the one we were dealt.