tv Lockup Sacramento Extended Stay MSNBC May 15, 2016 10:00pm-11:01pm PDT
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♪ local gang rivalries fueled by rap videos result in violence in the streets and difficult challenges for the jail. >> the gang problem inside of our facility is extremely taxing on resources and our ability to effectively keep them segregated. just more and more folks that don't get along. >> one alleged gang leader is charged with assault shortly after his arrest.
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>> like what? boom, what's up? >> and now his arch rival has been booked into the jail as well. >> you got me on america's most wanted, sacramento's most wanted, crime alert, what is going on here? >> got caught for taking over a company, making it my open. >> an identity thief and meth addict clings to hope for a better life. >> lifting up. and down. >> and -- >> you heard rumors, special forces while he was in vietnam. >> he's like done military, something or other. >> wounded multiple times. >> ballroom dancing, tango dancing. >> he's a mystery. >> the popular chef whose own hardships have forged a commitment to helping others.
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though it is the capital of california, sacramento is a mid-sized city surrounded by thousands of square miles of farmland. yet it still must cope with big-city crime. authorities say more than 50 gangs battle for territory and notoriety here. and many of those rivalries come to a head inside the sacramento county jail. >> we have our ortenos, sacramaniacs, m.o.d., masters of destruction. there's a laundry list of gang wet have just within this county. >> most of the inmates here are only charged with crimes. they're awaiting trial of the resolution of their cases. but with so many rival gangs, separating enemies is a constant challenge for gang investigators like deputy gaiman. >> the unique thing about gangs now, it's not the traditional bloods versus crips.
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traditionally, someone was wearing blue, you knew they weren't going to get along with somebody wearing red. the colors are starting to go away now and it's becoming a lot harder to track who's getting along with who and who's currently feuding. ♪ >> the rap music and the exposure on social media does add fuel to the fire between different gangs. it's caused a lot of the gangs here to clique up in more a neighborhood-typesetting. >> one of the most notorious neighborhood gangs in sacramento is the zillas. >> the zillas are more of a blood subset. primarily they're from oak park, which is like a blood stronghold in sacramento are it's where you're going to find probably 95% of your zilla gang members. >> four mile the away from oak park, one of the senior members of the zillas has been sitting in sacramento's downtown jail for nearly two years. >> oak park is like the roughest place in the city. poverty-stricken, it's toe-up,
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know what i'm saying? oak park has the best prices on drugs and have an abundance of it. this is my world. this is my neighborhood. these are my peoples. >> early in life, 12, 13, you get sent out to go do your own thing. mama not going to keep buying you shoes. these are the toughest guys, the roughest of everybody else, survival of the fittest. these are the fittest guys. oak park is like sparta. i was upon in that. >> quentin carthen originally arrested on charges of possession of marijuana and methamphetamine with intent to sell. as he waited in a group holding cell to be processed he was charged with another crime. it came as a result of wanting to use the pay phone. >> i said, it look like you having a little trouble. kept dialing. his fifth time dialing. look like you have a little trouble, i'm after you whenever you're done.
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instead of saying, all right, i ain't have nothing trouble. you better be cool, know what i'm saying, i can get it like that again, you better be cool, i ain't tripping on you be cool, you ain't going to do nothing to me, you don't know who i am, don't get at me like that again. he kept talking. i stood up. [ bleep ] trying to act like he going through something like, what? boom. what's up? bam, bam. then i didn't do nothing extra, i just once he was through i just like see the police, like man, what's up? they pull me out like this is a big thing. i'm like, no, he act like he wanted to do it. >> how did that affect you? >> i got an assault charge for that. >> with enough evidence to validate carthen as a member of the zillas prosecutors also added what is known as a gang enhancement which could increase his sentence should he be found guilty. >> they can receive an additional sen sentence of four, six, eight years. it can be significant depending on the crime they committed.
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>> he has pled not guilty and is awaiting trial. >> what's up, loved one? >> carthen says he's already spent most of his life in custody. starting with a stay in juvenile hall at age 10. as an adult he's been convicted three times for possession of cocaine-based drugs for sale. other convictions include possession of a firearm by a felon, resisting arrest, providing false identification to a police officer. authorities say as his rap sheet grew, so did his power in the zillas. >> everybody's saying i'm a leader. i'm not. i'm the most this, this, this, this about me. i ain't the leader of the gang. >> law enforcement on the streets know who he is. law enforcement inside the jails know who he is. there's really no getting around that we know that he's a shot caller. >> carthen is housed in a special maximum security unit on the eighth floor. it's reserved for gang leaders. >> a-west 200 pod is where we keep our shot callers.
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it's the highest-security floor that we have. we kind of keep them all together so that way we can monitor them. by keeping them all in one place we're kind of restricting their movement and ability to communicate with others around the jail. >> carthen's cellmate, isaiah we kind of keep them all together so that way we can monitor them. by keeping them all in one place we're kind of restricting their movement and ability to communicate with others around the jail. >> carthen's cellmate, isaiah thompson, has also been validated as a member of the zillas gang. he's charged with possession of marijuana, possession of a firearm by a felon, resisting a police officer. he has pled not guilty. thompson grew up with carthen in oak park. the two men are cousins but consider themselves brothers. >> am brother's real serious. and he's a thinker, know what i'm saying? he's analytical. so the dude ain't to be [ bleep ] with. >> thompson declined to share much personal information. preferring to express himself through rap instead. ♪ they label me a gang's lead sore y'all can get the message ♪ ♪ pow money who want it let's get it ♪ >> they say rap was passed to them by their founders. >> we come from the black
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founding family in oak park. they was like, you ain't playing basketball and shooting the hoop, you off in the rap. dance and entertain. you off in the rap. ♪ i weathered every storm embrace it when it come ♪ ♪ my dog's in the pound they want to lay us down with the tags still on us ♪ ♪ and life is the price that they try and give for us ♪ >> carthen say the zillas have their roots in rap. >> started is rap group, still a rap group, it's what we do. ♪ i want to tell the world it's me i love paper can't make it without me ♪ >> our focus the whole time has always been on music. we have everybody rapping. you go talk to a zilla, i will get 10 dollars to a bucket of crap that he raps. ♪ which kid that dug it ♪ i mean the gang's still the same it's changed [ bleep ] ♪ ♪ if i don't get him the gang get him ♪ ♪ all that publicity stuff
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>> the zillas created their own record label and produced music videos. but according to authorities, these are more than just music videos. >> your typical gains rivals before were based off of territory, drugs, money. with technology being the way it is now and the way that gangs have evolved the youtube videos, the rap music, has been identified by law enforcement here in sacramento as one of the biggest contributing factors to the continued violence. everybody's trying to one-up each other ♪ [ bleep ] [ bleep ] [ bleep ] ♪ >> when there's been a string of shootings or homicides a lot of times we can look on the internet and look for different videos on social media to see what people are saying, what they're rapping about. when i'm reviewing these videos i'm listening to the content, i'm looking at the people depicted in the videos. i will collect as much intel as i can from the videos and forward that off to our other
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intel units or different agencies where these gang members currently live in. >> carthen and thompson are seen on many of these archived videos. >> we now sleeping blood, you're all sleeping. >> it sounds like they're talking to their rival gang member, calling him out, telling them they're not afraid, the stuff they're doing is not intimidating to anybody. ♪ you can search high and low they'll never notify me in my zone ♪ >> rap, hip-hop is the art of battle rapping, whoever came out to dominate one was the one that made the most money, got the most fans, all that [ bleep ]. so bad nobody can do a show without something happening. we go do a show it's going to turn into a fight, gunfight, knife fight, it's going to turn into something because of the wars, because of the gang activity. ♪ you the mother [ bleep ] truth ♪ coming up -- the rap wars
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come to the jail with the arrival of the zillas' arch rival. >> i really don't play basketball, but you know, i'm good at everything i do. ♪ ♪ [engine revving] the all-new audi a4 is here. wyou could just forget frthe beach wedding... and the beach booty... you could just book a different resort. like in alaska. they've got igloos.
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sacramento's downtown or main jail is one of two jails run by the sheriff's office. it contains the intake center where all new arrestees are booked. many of them will be affiliated with one of more than 50 known gangs operating in the county. >> the gang problem inside of our facility is extremely taxing on resources and our ability to effectively keep them segregated. back in the good old days of gangs we had bloods and crips, we had northern and southern mexican gangs. a pretty bright line. >> now sorting gang members and their enemies is tougher than ever. >> we have crip gangs that don't get along with each other.
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we have northern mexican gangs that have many subsets that don't get along with each other. we theoretically can keep them separate. our physical ability to do that is challenging because we only have so many different wings and so many different pods and there's just more and more folks that don't get along. >> two members of a local gang known as the zillas are housed together on an eighth floor wing reserved for alleged shot callers or gang leader. quentin carthen and isaiah thomas are lucky to be close-knit cousins. because in this high-security housing unit, they're only allowed out of their cells 30 minutes a day. >> when you're getting 30 minutes and you've got to get in the shower or use the phone, you ain't really getting nothing time to commit with your people. i got my bro so we kind of work on it together. even when we be sitting here we be like, damn. >> the zillas' fiercest rival on
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the streets of sacramento through social media rap wars and inside the jail. ♪ 1,100 up starz down ♪ [ bleep ], [ bleep ], [ bleep ] ♪ >> the starz were created under the leadership of a rap artist who goes by the name lavish d. but inside the jail he is inmate donald oliver. >> i got a lot of fans, you know. they want to take pictures with me and all this, you know. i'm like, man, that's crazy, the internet did this. ♪ 1,100 gun starz up starz down ♪ >> the king city, it's my city here, sacramento, you know? google king city, lavish d going to pop up, you know? >> i should have went to the nba, man. i am the most valuable player. >> oliver is currently charged with assault to which he has pled not guilty. his prior convictions include receiving stole property, possession for sale of marijuana, driving under the
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influence, possession of an assault weapon, and assault with a firearm. though authorities consider him the leader of the starz gang, oliver insists the starz isn't even a gang. >> you know, i really don't play basketball, but you know, i'm good at everything i do. we're not a gang, we're a rap group, we're a clique. we might be five deep but they say anything over three people is a gang. so the police and detectives and the gang task made this into a gang thing, you know what i mean? then you got people who's not really a star that's really looking up to me that's just young and like, i want to be like lavish d. now you're going to tattoo stores, now you're getting on the internet, f the other side from starz. now you got his little posse that's not even from the starz but they're die-hard fans of lavish d. >> but the circumstances leading to oliver's arrest revolve around a feud between starz and zillas. weeks before his arrest, a video emerged online showing two known starz members attacking a known
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zilla member inside a sacramento mall. >> look at that [ bleep ]! oh-oh! oh-oh! oh-oh! hey, maxidean! [ bleep ]! what's up? come on, [ bleep ], [ bleep ]. come on, come on. [ bleep ]. >> while oliver is not seen in the video, he's the man and voice behind the camera. >> somebody see somebody. i don't know where they knew each other from but he was with high pressure crowd this dude by hisself. they broke out, start fighting. i'm recording the fight on my cell phone. they fight. dude try to run or whatever. he tried to run and get out of the way. then people jumped him. >> oliver's next move led police directly to him. >> i put it on youtube. know what i mean? put it -- i mean, just -- you know, it was a fight.
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>> authorities say the video posting sparked two days of gang violence throughout sacramento that left six people, some of whom were innocent bystanders, shot and injured. >> they had me all over the news. you got me on "america's most wanted." "sacramento's most wanted." crime alert. like man, what is going on here? >> you knew they were looking for you, right? >> yeah. >> you didn't want to turn yourself in? >> no, wasn't going to do that. >> why not? >> man, who want to go to jail? >> a few weeks after the shootings, oliver was arrested in alabama and extradited to sacramento. though he was considered a suspect in the shootings that followed the mall fight, he has not been charged. but oliver has been charged with assault for his presence at and recording of the fight. prosecutors also added a gang enhancement.
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>> i'm not in jail for calling a shot. that's not my charge. my charge is assault. they charged me for participating in the fight. all i do is record it. but they charge me. they said due to the fact that everybody was from the same area they gave us a gang enhancement. so due to the fact that these dudes fought and i was with them and i'm a part of that gang or whatever, now i'm being involved. >> we heard about the mall incident. and we don't know exactly what was happening. you know what i'm saying? we in jail, people that came to jail, we hearing bits and pieces are but we know that it was a disrespectful display more than anything and it causes a problem. >> as an alleged gang leader oliver's also housed on the eighth floor. but is unlikely to ever cross paths with carthen or other zillas. >> our jail has two hours. eastide tower, west side tower. all the zillas, bloods, ortenos, all go to the east side. all of our crips, serenos, starz, they all go to the west side. so they're separated on two different sides of the facility because they can't house together, they can't function together. >> they say it is for my notoriety because i'm a leader,
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they're trying to say a gang leader or whatever, so they got me up here. that fact still has be proven, you know? coming up -- >> happened so fast. it wasn't supposed to happen like that. but it just happened. >> one of the combatant in the mall video now finds himself in jail as well. and a program at the county's second jail provides meaningful job training for inmates. (two text tones)
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e.t. phone home. [ soft music ] when you find something you love, you can never get enough of it. change the way you experience tv with xfinity x1. the downtown facility of the sacramento county jail system is referred to as the main jail. corridors connected to the courthouses where many of the inmates here will learn their fates. 20 miles to the south in the small farming town of elk grove is the county's branch facility, the real casumnis correctional center. unlike the main jail the majority of inmates here are
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already convicted of crimes and are serving sentences. sometimes more than a decade long. which is unusual for a county jail. due to the passage of a law known as ab-109 for the public safety realignment thousands of offenders convicted of nonviolent crimes will now serve their sentences in county jails as opposed to prisons. the act was passed in part to relieve dangerously overcrowded conditions in california state prison system. >> to me, it seemed crazy, for lack of a better term. it was going to create an additional burden, create additional liability, additional medical costs for the county jails that didn't have the infrastructure, the staff wasn't trained. basically it felt like the state was shuffling their problem on the local county jurisdictions. from the moment it happened my mentality went from criticism to, okay, we're here so let's now figure out how to make it
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work. >> the jail had to make numerous adjustments to go from being a short-term facility for pretrial detainees to lousing long-term felons, many of whom were seasoned prison inmates. since these state prison inmates will now be released directly into their communities the law came with an important provision. funding for a variety of re-entry programs, some of which provide real-world job skills. one program for female inmates is a culinary arts course run by a professional chef, trun bui. >> the training das signed for two months so the lady can go out and get a job in albertson's, food mart, everywhere. >> chef bui emigrated to the united states in the early 1970s at the end of the vietnam war. he has since owned and operated several restaurants and businesses. >> i have my b.s. in food
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service management and i have my master's degree in education. i enjoy teaching. i'm a teacher, i can help, pay back society as well. >> hot pan, coming through, ladies. >> inmate kiana turk says she values the training and feels motivated by chef bui. >> chef bui is very great. >> chef. >> yes? >> can you come see if i'm doing this right? >> chef bui, he's pretty cool to be around. i don't know, i like him. when you don't know something, instead of him being kind of hard on you, actually he likes to help us a lot. i appreciate him for this program, actually. >> stay away from the bone. >> the privilege of working under chef bui can be lost in an instant. as yvette anderson knows all too well. >> i'm in max security because i got caught with a bunch of extra stuff that i wasn't supposed to have, including stuff that wasn't supposed to be in the facility and with some frosting. >> frosting?
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>> yeah, from chef bui's class, i had a cup of it. i just wanted to share some frosting with my friends so i brought it back. i got caught with it and they searched my stuff and found money, bobby pins, six blankets. >> stealing, that's unacceptable. they will lose all privilege and the program if they do that. and most of the ladies respect it but some don't. >> anderson spent five days in segregation and lost her spot in general population. she's now housed in the more restrictive maximum security unit. >> so i got 80 now, right? >> yeah. >> anderson is in jail for stealing more than frosting. she is serving six years on four counts of identity theft. >> i got caught for taking over a company, making it my own. and doing check loans, check
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deposits, stuff like that. >> how does one do that? >> i'm not going to tell you. with a computer. >> anderson's history of taking from others dates back 12 years. she has served numerous stints in both jail and prison for crimes including forgery, burglary, vehicle theft, use of personal identifying information, and receiving stolen property. she says working out has been her chief method of coping with incarceration. but now in maximum security, she has much less time out of her cell than she did in general population. >> i was like running a workout class. i'd do it every night around 7:00 for people working in the kitchen. >> you run here? >> in place. yeah, no, can't run here. they have like yards out there but it's not the same. it's not the same. it's really little. i like to run miles and miles
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and miles and just get lost in music and forget where i'm at. it's just like a peace for me. get that runner's high, you know. >> on the outside, anderson says her highs were usually from methamphetamine. she says an old earltive forced her to take the drug at age 12. and that she has only been clean for three years since. >> i've always had like a mask ever since i was little. like i started being molested when i was 3. it was just a [ bleep ] childhood, you know. everything that's happened to me, like it's not happening anymore, but it still controls my life. i'm still not free mentally. i don't really have a happy ending type life. coming up -- >> rap's been having a bad rap for that for a long time. >> that's because it comes with the thug life. >> a gang investigator keeps tabs on the rap wars. and the posting of the mall video leads to multiple arrests. >> when i found out about the video, i'm not going to lie, i'm like, [ bleep ].
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inside the downtown or main branch of the sacramento county jail system, the eighth floor is reserved for inmates considered to be gang leaders. among them are cellmates and cousins quentin carthen and isaiah thomas. >> [ bleep ] 21-4, blood. >> [ bleep ]. >> 21-4, blood. >> [ bleep ] lying. >> they cope with the close confines of their maximum security cell by keeping it clean and following daily rituals. >> we in a outhouse with bunks in it. some bunk beds in a bathroom. if we don't clean up the dust is going to pile up, dirt going to go everywhere. it's grimy up in here. we try to keep it clean so it smell clean, so the floor clean. we going to work out, sit around. rolling up the mattress, that's a form of discipline. makes more space, pushes everything out of the way. he rolled up his, i rolled up mine, now it's like we sitting in a cadillac just riding through the day, know what i'm saying? like we sitting in the cadillac riding through the day, like i'm at a desk all day, you know what
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i'm saying? i wrote this yesterday all day. the two men who are considered leaders of a sacramento gang known as the zillas also spend their day rapping. ♪ these parts each round try to swim with the per iran mays ♪ >> something authorities say is often used to antagonize their arch rivals, another sacramento gang calls the starz. ♪ i figured you field it like paparazzi through the lenses ♪ >> both the zillas and starz claim they are primarily musicians and not criminals. >> they're going to say, oh, we're just singing, we're just trying to give money to children's homes. they're going to try to put themselves out there as something that's legitimate when they're really not. it's validated gang members, it's a validated gang. prostitution, robbery, thing of that nature which is for their criminal purpose to keep their gang going. >> what's going on, fellas? >> what's up with you? >> what's going on?
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>> i'm a legend wherever i go. >> we good everywhere. >> everywhere in california? >> i'm a begin administer everywhere they put me. >> outside of california. >> what are you going to do when you finally get out? >> contact some positive contacts and see if i can push all these businesses where they need to be. until bro get out i going to chill. >> stay out of trouble? time to make some money for yourself, stay out of here? >> yeah. >> making that right now. getting calculated every day. the money is legit. >> you guys on youtube or you guys on itunes? >> itunes. >> itunes? upgraded to itunes? >> you owe me to at least buy the album. >> i watched you come up from youtube. some grimy youtube videos. up to itunes, huh? just got to put that rap music to good. make some money, not make some
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violence, huh? >> rap's been having a bad rap for that for a long time. you can't really say that -- >> that's because it comes with the thug life. >> we so serious about the music though, g-man, it gets a bad rap. when it's competition time and it's time to compete, it's time to tell a story, it's time to see who's more dominant what we're going to talk about, we're going to keep it all the way solid, know what i'm saying? >> a lot of people don't know it's a competition, it's a war. >> we come from the streets, when it's on, it's on. know what i'm saying? cowboys and indians, cops and robbers, it's on, it's on. >> you'll i'm saying is go do something constructive. make your money and be constructive. not destructive. >> not destructive, constructive. >> but that in your next one. >> i got it in there somewhere man but it's a pimp line, man. >> all right, man, good luck. >> all right. >> according to law enforcement authorities, social media-driven feuds between the zillas and starz have led to violence on the streets.
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taunts and threats between the gangs are often communicated through the rap videos. >> because it's about respect and you don't want to be disrespected as a gang member or having someone else disrespect you because you're going to answer back either with another video or with violence. someone's going to take it to the next level, and they have done that. >> one year earlier, the reputed leader of the starz, donald oliver, also known as lavish d, recorded a fight between members of the starz and zillas at a sacramento mall. one of the starz members in the video is efrem wandik. >> happened so fast. wasn't supposed to happen like that. it just happened [ bleep ]. talking back and forth. so i'm like, [ bleep ]. you keep talking like you just a tough guy, you feel me? i'm going to beat your ass. >> wandik says the mall fights after an exchange of insults but he hurt himself more than numbers.
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>> i ran into the bench and i broke my leg. all i did was pushing some into him and he ran and i started chasing him. but i didn't see a bench that was in front of me and i collapsed and broke my leg and limped off. i got screws and rods in my leg now though, you know. >> wandik is charged with assault and prosecutors added a gang enhancement which could increase the sentence if found guilty. he has pled not guilty and is awaiting trial. just hours after donald oliver posted the video on the interin the, a series of gang-related shootings took place in sacramento leaving six people injured. >> so they like, okay, that is serious-ass gang war, these dudes are bringing it into the mall and the public and they don't give a [ bleep ] about where they at, they're going to keep doing what they're going to do, let's try and put a stop to it. it was never like that. any shooting that happened in south sacramento they're going to swear lavish d has something to do with it, starz has something to do with it. it was nothing like that. [ bleep ] just happened.
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it was a [ bleep ] weekend. >> i'm a big fish. and me, any time anything happen, i'm going to always be oh, it was lavish d now. so once you build yourself an image you got to live with that image. you make your bed you got to lay in it, you know? >> the posted video led to the arrests of oliver, wandik, and other members of the starz. >> it happened. let's put this up. so i put it up. know what i mean? and it's like, that right there was like it was stupid, know what i mean? then i'm recording it so it's making me look like the dude. like oh, that's the main guy, didn't have to do anything. then all the shootings happening and people getting hurt or whatever, even if it had nothing to do with the video, it still looks like it. >> when i found out about the video, i'm not going to lie, i'm like, [ bleep ]. yeah we probably going to go to jail. my mom seen it. like lavish d posted a video of you guys in a mall. like man, stupid. why the hell are you going to record something, put on it the internet? you gave them something vital, something to feed on. >> me doing that, now i feel
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man, it's because of me, that me and all boys are in jail, know what i mean, for making a stupid decision and a dumb move. >> are they mad at you? >> im, they not mad, know what i mean, because i didn't tell them to do it in the first place. i was mad. i was mad, i'm not going to lie. i was mad at my brother. i was mad because i'm in here. i mean -- things happen. i'm not going to just ride his back for it over spilled milk. coming up -- >> a waste of life. it's a waste of my life and my kids'. >> yvette anderson gets a second chance to pursue a dream. >> that spunky little broad, she cracks me up. she's so -- just sweet. >> and -- >> make sure you cut it evenly and make iter resistible. >> chef bui's past and how it motivates him today. if you're going to make a statement... make sure it's an intelligent one. ♪
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20 miles south of downtown sacramento at the county's branch jail, the real casumnis correctional center, it's a brand new day for yvette anderson. after five days in segregation followed by three months in a tightly restricted maximum security cell, she is back in a general population dormitory with considerably more freedom. >> i'm back over here with my friends. and i'm able to go to the gym every day. able to go outside ever i day, whenever i want to unless it's lights out or something. >> anderson's troubles began after she was found with cake frosting she stole from the jail's culinary class, along with some other contraband. out on the streets, anderson was known to steal as well. with multiple convictions for crimes including identity theft,
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burglary, and forgery. she's also struggled with a met addiction all of which have led to multiple incarcerations. >> i'm comfortable more locked up than i am out there and that's sad, you know? especially because i'm a very proactive person. like, i can do something with myself, i have a lot of potential. i'm not dumb, you know? i might get overwhelmed and i feel alone. and i have a hard time accepting help. i guess some of that's due to me being in prison a lot too because you don't ask for help, you don't accept things from other people. you just do you, you know? it's a waste of life. it's a waste of my life and my kids'. >> though she lost her spot in the culinary program, anderson will be able to participate in other re-entry programs designed to provide her with both the skills and mindset to not commit further crimes. she says her goal is to become a personal trainer.
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>> anybody that was supposed to work out here is amazing i feel because i feel it's good for your mind, help you sleep. >> i got to see that. i'll come up with every excuse in the book to not do them. >> kari is one of anderson's closest friends. >> that little spunky little broad, she cracks me up because she's so -- just sweet. she's been in this little facility and these little quarters for two years. you know, and i'm like -- how does she still just keep that smile, keep going? >> drot and anderson became friends while participating in the jail's culinary course taught by chef trun bui. >> make sure they're even, okay? looking good. >> who has become something of a legend among staff and inmates ahike for both his personal style and seemingly mysterious past. >> he dresses really expensive. like shirts are $500. >> i know. his hair is phenomenal. oh, man.
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if anybody walked in, chef, nice hair, that is the best compliment you can give that man. >> you heard rumors, special forces while he was in vietnam. >> he's like done military something or other. >> wounded multiple times. >> ballroom dancing, tango dancing. everything. he's just -- he's amazing. >> he's a mystery. >> but one thing that is not a mystery is chef bui's passion for both food and teaching. >> make sure, okay, you cut evenly. and make it irresistible. presentation, okay, is 50%. >> as the current course comes to an end students will be graded on a two-part standard. taste and presentation. >> yeah, ladies, okay, it don't look good i'm not going to buy it. if i don't buy it i never know what it taste like, all right? presentation is everything, the whole thing, okay? yeah very good. pass. >> along with teaching the
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course, chef bui works with local restaurants and grocery stores to help employ inmates. even inviting potential employers to the jail for a sample. >> okay, the sandwich, okay, look nice, the colors, okay? look very nice. potential employers outside, i invite them to come over here and see our program, see what the student can do. i also ask the employers to give them the opportunity, okay, when they come out, apply for the job. pass on that one too. and make a stuffed pepper here. training is one thing. to actually get a job, that's a different thing. okay, they taste very good, okay? pass. but when you eat it today, next time, okay, i would like to get you to cook it for three more minutes, okay? >> chef bui says he is motivated to give others a second chance because of the one afforded to him. he grew up in vietnam and joined the south vietnamese army at age 17 as war raged across the country.
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>> i was in army and i fought with american soldiers side by side. and 58,000 of them died for my freedom. for my country. so i really appreciate the opportunity to here -- i have my freedom, i have my living and everything. i think about 58,000 died in vietnam. and right now there's nothing i can do for them. but what i can do, i can help their children. >> big hand, everybody. >> so that 24 years i'm working here, teaching here, with one goal. that i will try to help all the children of the veterans. that's the way i'll repay for what they did for my country. overall and i think the lady doing pretty well today. today a good day. and they also put together a
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very nice presentation place. and i'm happy with performance today. it's good. coming up, plea deals are made and cases are closed. for efrem wandik, isaiah thompson, and quentin carthen. my lenses have a sunset mode. and an early morning mode. and a partly sunny mode. and an outside... to clear inside mode. transitions® signature adaptive lenses... ...are more responsive than ever. so why settle for a lens with just one mode?
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at the sacramento county jail's real casumis correction center, yvette anderson is leading small workouts, a small step toward making her goal of being a personal trainer. >> okay, we're going to lay on our sides. and we're going to start real simply. pointing your toe, okay? and we're going to be lifting up and down. great, okay. control your movements. good.
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>> motivating them helps me stay motivated. especially because sometimes i get depressed, get in my own space, i don't want to work out. if i have a group of girls who want to work out, i don't want to work out, that's not cool. i model what i expect of other people, that's to show up irregardless, you know? >> this time we're going to point our foot like this and bring this other foot up. you can do it. bring it down. bring it up when she's out here, she's helping us work out and stuff, whatever, that's her passion is exercise. she's really good at it. when i was starting to fall out, you know, i just wanted to slap her. she's like, you're doing good. she's so positive. >> you don't have to go as high as i am. i've been doing this for a lot of years. do you still feel it here? >> oh yeah. >> here, and here? >> 20 miles north at the county's main jail downtown, efrem wandik, charged for assault for his role in a fight inside a sacramento shopping mall, is thinking about his future as well. >> i got goals, i got stuff i
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want to do, i got dreams, you know. they try to say gang members don't got dreams. i want family. i want kids. i got a beautiful wife, i want to give her kids. also i got dreams that i want to own a taco truck. >> but those dreams will have to wait. in a deal with prosecutors, he pled guilty to assault and what might have been a 16-month sentence became a 32-month sentence due to his gang enhancement. wandik had only recently been released from prison when he was arrested for the fight. >> i was only out two months. so i really didn't get to do nothing. i'm back here doing my pushups, you know. reading books. i don't care about when christmas comes, new year's, none of that.
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>> up on the jail's eighth floor, which is reserved for gang leaders, cousins quentin carthen and isaiah thompson have reached plea deals in their cases as well. carthen pled guilty to two counts of drug possession with intent to sell and to one count of assault for the fight he got into shortly after his arrest. along with his gang enhancement he received a sentence of 12 years. thompson pled guilty to possession of a firearm by a felon and evading police. with his gang enhancement he was sentenced to 11 years. the cousins have been at the jail for nearly two years on these cases and will soon transfer to state prison. and as they wait, time continues to pass them by. >> we've been down a couple years. and our folks just start pass recognize are we don't even have all of the obituaries out of the paper. some of them were older. but the other ones, they were young. some of them passed away due to gun violence. that's not even the half, you know. there's more than that. so it seemed like to us that it's like a lot of people that's close to us just being gone like -- we be sitting here like, man, know what i'm saying? like blood, this is crazy. you know, i think if i wasn't
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here with him i'd probably be more stress on me, know what i'm saying? we be holding each other up on, holding each other down, you know? >> just a few days later, thompson was sent to prison. >> man, you know what i'm saying, he gone. it's crazy, know what i'm saying? i was mad. i was walking around. the tears was already there. he was like, what's up? i was smiling like, man, this is crazy, you know? man, when he walked out he like, brother, this might be the last time for four or five years, homie. it's crazy. l)
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criminals are everywhere, but so are cameras, watching their every move. >> i ripped his hat off, pulled the mask off his face. >> recording antics that will stun you. >> there were four guys in here. >> catching crimes that range from cold-blooded -- >> it was very brutal. >> to ridiculous. >> the subject was described as being dressed like a tree. >> they had garbage bags on their heads. they had these eyeholes torn
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