‘Until the Lord Calls Me Home’

"I was always high every day … always in fights, always getting shot at or shooting at somebody," Jon Kelly says. "I for sure did not think I would make it past 16."

Growing up in north Philadelphia with a single mother and a little sister, Jon was the epitome of a disrespectful, troubled teen. He grew up in a rough neighborhood. Multiple schools—including a disciplinary school he says was "like prison, but you get to go home"—couldn't keep him out of trouble. He dropped out by ninth grade.

Jon began selling crack cocaine when he was only 12 years old, but in his teens, he decided it was more lucrative to rob drug dealers. "I thought it was a good thing," he says. After all, "I wasn't bothering law-abiding citizens."

Plus, Jon knew that no drug dealer would report him to the police and risk getting arrested. Even so, the plan was risky. One night, Jon and his friends went to a drug dealer’s home and robbed him. Things got out of hand, and in the process, one of the group shot and killed their victim.

'THERE'S HOPE FOR YOU'

Jon remembers the day he was arrested. It was a Friday—March 15, 2002—and he had just turned 19 two months before. He was arrested for his role in the murder and brought to jail, but it was overcrowded from the city's violent crime. The only place with room for Jon was in isolation, or solitary confinement.

A couple of the corrections officers would talk to Jon from time to time. That first week in jail, Jon was so bored he asked if either of the men could bring him something to read.

The officers handed him a New Testament. On the cover were the words, "There's hope for you. Jesus cares."

"I read God's Word for the first time," Jon says, "and I haven't been the same since."

PLEADING GUILTY

Jon had not yet gone to court when he became a Christian. His lawyer didn't believe he was serious about his newfound faith, dismissing it as "jailhouse religion." Even so, Jon knew what he had to do.

"Part of being a Christian is repenting and taking ownership of your sins," Jon told his lawyer. "I would like to plead guilty. And whatever the judge wants to do to me, he can do."

In the end, Jon pled guilty to third-degree murder, a crime that usually carries a sentence of 20-40 years in prison. Standing in the court before the victim's family, Jon asked for forgiveness. He apologized to the judge as well for wasting the court's time and taxpayers' money. He didn't ask for mercy or blame someone else. Instead, Jon told the judge that he would respect his sentence, no matter what it was.

"It didn't matter that [the victim] was supposedly a drug dealer," Jon explains. "At the end of the day, he was a young man who didn't deserve to die."

Miraculously, the judge sentenced Jon to 6-15 years in prison, with 5 years of probation for robbery.