Nightmare Success In and Out

Have you heard about the Lamar Johnson case in St. Louis? Lamar has served 28 years in prison with a nightmare case where so many things went wrong. I have an all star panel of Marvin Cotton Jr. (20 years), Ken Nixon (16 years) and Eric Anderson (9 years) all innocent men wrongly convicted of murder on my show talking about the Lamar Johnson case, and how the justice system can be fixed. Marvin sa...

What would you do if you were picked out of a line up for murder that you didn't commit? Darryl Burton lived that nightmare and finally was exonerated 24 years later. Some hurdles really had to be cleared to make this unbelievable story happen. There were bad jail house snitches who later recanted their story, and eyewitness accounts that did not fit the description of Darryl, and on top of that,...

How do you go from having it all as a kid, popular athlete, modeling, starring in a movie to sentenced to 12 years in prison at 18 and becoming the shot caller of the prison yard. Buckle up with Peter Meyerhoff because he has an incredible story to share. Peter walks us through the darkness of the prison yard...to hitting rock bottom once he is released. This is when he finds his passion to be the...

The crash of the 2008 real estate market went from bad to worse to prison for Aaron Duncan. Aaron grew up with a strong knit family. The oldest of 3 sons. He bolted out of high school to be make it big in business. He had impressive early successes. He first started his own  travel company much like Expedia using his previous contacts working for TWA. He has a wickedly smart marketing mind that le...

How would you handle a life threatening situation? Kevin Donaldson is an ex-police officer whose life changed one night when he was shot at, and a bullet grazed his ear. His life after this event began spiraling down a dark black hole. It triggered post traumatic syndrome that led to thoughts of ending his life and trying to cope through heavy drinking. Kevin is a mesmerizing storyteller that lead...

How do you flip the script on a really tough childhood? Shawn Medina had the type of childhood where both his parents were no help to his sister and him. They were shipped around in and out of foster care because his mom was strung out on drugs and his dad wasn't any better living 1000's of miles away with his own personal issues. Shawn is very open and honest about his own struggles that landed h...

Could you take a mess and make it into a powerful message? Travis Richey did exactly that! He is known as the Prison Education Czar in the United States. Travis is the man behind AccomplishED Ventures, the largest prison content provider in the U.S. Quite a journey that led him to his destiny. He had a tough childhood, his father struggled with drug addiction, and his mother worked hard to make en...

Did you like the movie "Catch Me If You Can"? Well, you will find Matt Cox fascinating. The episode of American Greed titled the episode "The Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde of Mortgage Fraud." His story has been chronicled on DATELINE NBC, FORTUNE magazine, and several others. Cox was a fugitive for over 2 years and ended up on the Secret Service Most Wanted list. Interestingly, there were always gir...

Can someone be sentenced to 10 years for selling marijuana? My guest, Stephanie Shepard, was.  She was a first time, non-violent offender from a two parent suburban household. Stephanie said, "I thought going to prison would never happen to me." Her story of being arrested is mindboggling. She was released after 9 years and 5 different prisons, in 2019. Her emotions about the experience are still...

Phillip "Uccikhan" Sample is a story of a complete life transformation. You will be immediately captured by the rawness and honesty of how Phillip describes his journey. In 1975, he was born into the toughest neighborhood in Detroit. He was raised between the slums of Detroit to the gang ridden streets of the Southside of Chicago. As a result of dysfunctional and unstable housing, ill-education an...

Getting out of prison is an incredible feeling, but going in and out of prison can become a depressing cycle. How do you reach down deep in your soul and change that cycle? Harvey Galler has an unbelievable story of what put him back in prison the last time. He finally made the break, and changed his life. Harvey gives the listener an honest, real, description of how he climbed out to the right si...

Would you become a fugitive if you were looking at 25 years in Prison? Writer/Director Seth Ferranti did just that. He faked his suicide and landed on the US Marshals Top-15 Most Wanted list. He was finally captured and sentenced to 25 years in prison for selling marijuana and LSD. As a drug dealing teen, Ferranti sold drugs at 15 East Coast colleges, crisscrossing across five states. This story a...

Could you or would you kill your father if he sexually abused you for 10 years? Stacey Lannert did kill her father at the age of 18 and received a life sentence without parole. This is a story that has been covered by national media...Oprah Winfrey Show, 20/20, American Justice, CNN Nancy Grace, Glamour Magazine to name a few. Her story is honest and painful, but inspiring by how she survived. You...

Would you have the courage to post something on social media about your past, fearing it could possibly destroy the company you have built? That is exactly what my guest Andrew Gibbs-Dabney (Founder and CEO of Livsn Designs) did on LinkedIn because he knew it was time and he wanted to take back control of his story of going to prison. An investor had just backed out of a big funding deal with Andr...

Coming from a good suburban family, being an "A" student at Arizona State, falling into drug addiction, depression, abusive relationships, smuggling drugs for a Mexican cartel and finally getting hit with a Federal Prison sentence, Megan Racer is my guest this week. Her story is honest, authentic, humbling, gripping, and truly inspiring of overcoming all her obstacles and using her experience for...

Are you a product of your environment or can you break the cycle? Randell McKoy grew up with mentors in his life - his stepdad, mom, uncle, and grandma, teaching him how to be a man and knowing right from wrong, but he was still drawn to the adrenaline rush of the hustle of the street life. He says he was living a double life. It costs him. Eventually, he was arrested on drug charges, and his cous...

How does the girl next door, smart, private school end up homeless at the age of 16 addicted to meth and eventually doing prison time in her 20's? My guest this week is Jenn Henry and she has had one heck of a journey to get to where she is today. She grew up not understanding and trying to fit in with a bi-polar Mom, and a dad who could not help her with her struggle of trying to fit in or escape...

What if you get a call from work to get home right now…you arrive, and your mom is in the back of the police car because she has murdered your dad – 5 years to that day you are walking through the gates of prison for a crime you didn’t commit to serve a 50-year sentence. Well, meet my guest Ronald Simpson Bey on this week’s podcast Nightmare Success In and Out. Ronald went through a dark 5 years a...

What do you think when I say Homeless? Probably not former police officer, detective, global security expert, CEO of a Private Worldwide Security Agency, Media Commentator, CEO of Hollywood TV/Film Production Company, Best Selling Author of Interminable...Well, my guest this week on Nightmare Success In and Out is Michael "Hollywood" Henderson, and he is all of those things rolled up into one man!...

What would you do if you were just sentenced to 25 years in prison, and the same week you are informed your 4 year old son has cancer? Jim Brock is my guest this week, and that is exactly what Jim was faced with. His son survived and Jim refers to him as his hero. Brock was a 1st Team All State Soccer Player at Lindbergh High School. Grades kept him off his senior year team, and the dark slide sta...

How do you not lose hope when you are sentenced to 30 years with no possibility for parole? Dion Soubasis never gave up. At the time of Dion’s nightmare, he had been in and out of prison selling drugs and was also charged with some burglaries. Life had not been easy up to this point in his life. His dad had died of a heart attack the night he was bailing his youngest son out of jail. That son blam...

Wow! What an emotional inspiring story of a man using his struggles, and life experiences to create good and help others. Robert Riley's dad went to prison when he was 2 years old. He only knew him from visiting prison. Robert's dad was an addict, and Robert fell into that life at an early age. He was in and out of trouble with juvenile courts and state prisons. He finally found himself serving ti...

Randy Terrell grew up living a normal life until it wasn't. Hardworking supportive married mom and Dad, and Randy was the youngest of 6 kids. Randy played running back and outside linebacker all the way through college. He was going to the NFL. There was no plan B. He didn't make it and some of his friends did. He became depressed, embarrassed, and felt like he had let his family down. HIs life ap...

You know how you watch a movie or listen to a story, and you walk away and think wow that just makes me feel good! That is the Darryl Woods Sr. story. Wrongly convicted of murder at 18 years old...already a father to a son and daughter. Sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. He dropped out of school in 8th grade, and became a child of the streets with all the bad things that had to o...

The Stanley Prince story is one where you just say..."wow!" 26 years in prison and what a story he has... He grew up in St. Louis City. He dropped out of school because he was embarrassed of his stutter. That decision led him down a bad path. He loved his mom, idolized his mom...you feel his emotion and sadness when he describes the hurt he caused her. Stanley's descriptions of state and federal p...