Sunday, November 07, 2010

Terrence's Letter with my Comments

Ms. Ronni,

I pray that my words find you to be blessed and doing well in life.

Thank you. Not doing particularly well in life, but getting by.

I received some blog entries from my Wife today that have truly piqued

Congratulations on the correct usage of a rather obscure word.

my interest, and I wanted to write you a response in hopes that you will respond back to me.
I must admit that I laughed when I read Drivers response that said that:"His letter to you sounds like something worked over with an Attorney. Just the language."

Driver has a point. That letter was full of "buzz words" and "parole-board speak."

Well I guess one of the First things I would like for you to know about Terrence the Adult is that I am a budding writer. I will receive my Masters degree from the University of Houston-Clear Lake(at the end of this Fall semester) with a degree in Literature. The Masters program on this Unit offers a strong writing program, and I have been blessed with the money

None of my business where you got the money, but I am curious. I am all for rehabilitation, especially of minors, but I can only get my son an education by allowing him to go into debt, and he is an upstanding young man who has never given me a moment's trouble. I have to wonder who shells out to educate a murderer.

to be able to further my education while being in prison. I had received my Bachelors degree in Psychlogy from Sam Houston State University in 2003. The Professors from the campus come to teach us, in case you are wondering how it works in prison.

I truly hope these degrees will enable you to have a productive life when you are released. I feel under-employed and under-educated because I dropped out of college all those years ago, and never achieved any sort of financial security in this life.

I have also written A Prisoners Family Handbook for a non-profit organization called Community Solutions of Elpaso.

I would like to read a copy of your handbook. Every time I'm on a crime message board, there are questions about how to visit an inmate, and posts about the interminable rules involved in such a thing.

an organization founded by Ms Carolyn Esparza, a remarkable woman who is like a second Mother to me. She was my very first caseworker when I had arrived at Giddings State Home and School, and we have maintained contact for 20 years now. No one knows me like Ms. Esparza, and God blessed me to eet her, for it was her that helped fix all the hings that was broken with a young Terrence. She even volunterred her time after her work hours to do family counseling with me and my Parents for about two years. If you really want o know about my growth and development over the years, Ms. Esparza is someone to talk to, for she has watched me grow from a boy to a Man in prison.

I would very much like to contact Ms Esparza. Is this possible?

Ms. Ronni what really appealed to me was your comment about coming to visit me. I would very much like to have the opportunity to visit with you si that you can see for yourself the type of man I have become. More importantly I would be grateful for the opportunity to apologize to someone who was directly impacted as a result of my actions. I can't change my visiting list until February, but that would give us a few months to correspond before you actually come to visit,IF thats something you would like to do.

Most definitely, it is.

Just for the record, I had wrote that letter to you after I received another denial for parole. When I wrote you I already knew I wouldnt be up fpr parole again until April of 2013. I received a three year set off in April of this year.

Would you like a proof reader? Should be "I wrote," or "I had written." If you are going to write, for heaven's sake, do it competently. English is a beautiful language. I assume your education has been somewhat spotty, but a Master's in Literature should include a bit of basic grammar. Not your fault, really, as people with college degrees not interrupted by murder don't do any better. Still, do the world a favour and do it right. (You have to forgive some of my eccentric spelling...I was educated in England and Canada, where some spelling rules are different.)

Before I let you go, I just wanted to comment on one more thing. I am in no position to try and say what is fact or what is fiction as it relates to the things said about me After December of 1989, but I do want to say that over the years people took opportunities to dump on me to try to make me look the worst that they could, especially while I was at Giddings State Home and School. I've NEVER made a death threat to anybody, but before I went back to court when I was 18to determine wheather to send me to prison or parole me, something negative had to be said about a young man who had no violent outbursts or physical altercations while at TYC, a young man with an exemplary disciplinary record who graduated valedictorian of his highschool class and was President of the student council. Something negative had to be said.When I saw TYC in the news a few years back, exposed for the corruptions that has lasted for years, I couldnt help but to think about the saying of, "Everything that happens in the dark will eventually come to the light."


So, if you had it to do over, you wouldn't hide her in the woodpile? OK, that was facetious and uncalled-for. I'm pretty sure that if you had it to do over, you wouldn't do it at all. At least, I hope so.

Ms. Ronni I am guilty of doing some bad things in my life, but I am not guilty of making a death threat towards Ms. Judy Brumbelow.

Kelly's mother has enough for which to blame you, without making things up.

I dont like to sound like I am assuming a victim stance,but the truth is the truth. Ive never blamed Ms. Brumbelow for anything. I am indebted to Ms. Brumbelow and I wish I had the opportunity to express my remorse and regret for what Ive done to her.

"For what I've done to her," is so generic. So is "assuming a victim stance."

I almost had that opportunity once, but I blew it because I made the choice to lose myself in this prison life, but that is another story for another time.


A story I look forward to hearing.

I've traveled more than a few paths while being in prison, but now, today, I am finally fulfilling the potential of the man that God wants me to be, and doors of opportunity are coming open for me to make a positive difference in the lives of others, through my writing. My first self-help book will be published next year, only it will never bear my name, and I'll never receive a cent for it, all proceeds will go to Community Solutions. My focus now is just on having a positive difference, and once you hear my story you will understand why. I have almost died in prison on a few occasions because of foolish choices that I made during my early years of incarceration, and one choice I made just three years ago that left me with 29 stitches. I believe I am still alive because I have a purpose, and I intend on fulfilling my potential in a way that will benefit others. I really do put forth an effort every day of my life to try to use my experiences to bring some good out of a terrible situation.


Once you find out what I really want to know, you may not want to talk to me at all. While I am interested in how you intend to go forward, I am especially interested in the reasons for the crime in the first place. I feel that the juxtaposition of the two will make the most of your story. Why were you so angry? What started your attack on Kelly? Why didn't you stop? What gave you the right to think that your anger superseded her right to live? My focus is in the prevention of such crimes. Too many girls are being killed by boyfriends, wives by husbands, children by parents. I want to know what leads the killer to commit his crime. In order to tell me that, you will have to go back to that time and focus on it for a little while, rather than all the good things you are doing now to try to make up for it.

You have not spoken of the murder itself at all. You couch it in neutral terms..."I did a bad thing." "What I did was wrong." I want to know what set you off, what there is in your upbringing or your nature that made you think threatening Kelly was a good idea, and what made you follow through and stab that tiny girl over and over, while she tried to fight you off. Did she scream? If so, why didn't that stop you?

Maybe my questions sound gruesome to you, but I have been following murders for nearly twenty years now, and yours was the one that got me interested. As my daughter said, "I hadn't realized that your neighbour could kill you." You probably don't remember my daughter. She was a seventh grader at C. D. Fulkes, and her name was Chandra Biggs. She was in TAG with Kelly, but only knew you peripherally.

Damn it, Terrence, I want to know WHY! If you are prepared to tell me that, I would love to hear it, face to face.

I will let you go Ms. Ronni. May God bless you with peace and prosperity.

Terrence Sampson

Feel free to email my Wife I believe you have the email address.


I have no contact info for your wife. When comments are made here, that information is not provided by the server. She can contact me privately through Facebook or through the "email" link in my Blogger profile. That can be found by clicking on "view my complete profile" in the left sidebar of this blog.

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