Armando Cortez
My name is Armando Cortez. I was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. I grew up in the north-west side of town. I wasn't exactly raised in a Christian home or environment.
My life was a pretty normal one as a child until I hit junior high. It was then that I started hanging around all the troublemakers. I started skipping school, smoking cigarettes, experimenting with drugs and alcohol. Before I was in the eighth grade I had already been expelled from three different schools for fighting. By fifteen years old I had already been in and out of juvenile hall and had gotten my girlfriend pregnant.
I thought if I had a kid I'd change my ways and slow down a little. I was WRONG! After my girlfriend had my son, nothing had changed. I was still doing the old crazy things.
One day a friend told me about Jesus and how he had changed his life. So I thought since I've tried everything else, why not that? I started going to church; however, that only lasted a short while since I really wasn't ready to let go of the things of the world. I would do my thing on Friday and Saturday and on Sunday I would go to church.
As I said that didn't last long. I backslid and got in trouble with the law. From that point on my life was a roller coaster ride. I'd get in trouble I end up in church and when things were going smooth, I'd just focus on the self and....I would hit the streets doing the same thing.
As time on I found myself addicted to cocaine. I started stealing to support my habit. In a really short time I went from burglarizing cars to burglarizing house to support my cocaine habit. By this time I was twenty-one years old and had been in and out of the county jail. I was on the road to nowhere and things were getting worse. My cocaine habit had gotten really expensive so I started thinking of ways to make a lot more money a lot faster.
I came up with a plan to rob a jewelry store. After watching this store for about a month, I got some friends together and we were on our way. When we got to the store nothing went as planned. In fact everything went the exact opposite to what I had planned. The jewelry store owner put up a fight and in the process got shot five times.
Well the next thing I remember I'm sitting in the county jail on Attempted Capital Murder charges. I guess reality hadn't sunk in since I had been awake for the past four days doing cocaine. After about two days in the county jail I talked to a lawyer who told me if the store owner died there were only two sentences I would get: life in prison or death by lethal injection. He then asked me to give him a call the following day so he could give me the store owners condition. Well the following day I called and the first words out of his mouth were "the store owner is dead". I hung up the phone and went to my cell. I told myself there was no way I was going to let anyone take my life; and since my life was pretty much over with, I figured I'd end it myself. I got some paper and a pen to begin writing a letter. I really don't know what I was going to do with this letter; however, I was making this letter on......I was asking God to forgive me for taking someone's life. I also asked that He take my life and give this man his life in return.
Well just as I was getting ready to take my life, a jail guard called my name on the intercom. He asked me to go with him downstairs for some add on charges which were capital murder. I was taken from the county jail to the court house to talk to a judge. When I finally got to talk to the judge, he asked for my name. I told him my name and my SID #. As he looked through his paper work he asked me why I was there. I told him I was there for add on charges. He couldn't find my paper work so he called to find out why I was even in his court room. After a few phone calls, he asked the jail guard to take me back to the county jail.
When I arrived in the county jail, I called my lawyer once again. My lawyer then told me he had some good news for me. He said the jewelry store owner was still alive and he was in stable condition. He then explained how someone had made a mistake. I still went to prison for eight years for the robbery; however, God had another plan for my life. I got saved in prison a few years before I got out and have been living for Him ever since. Although I'm not where I want to be, I know I'm not where I use to to be. My whole life has changed since Jesus came into my heart. I still continue to have struggles, but I don't allow my struggles to over-power me. "Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world." My only desire now is for others to have what I have without going through what I went through.