In that moment, George understood that he had taken a life. He felt the weight of this reality, and the weight broke him.
George says, “I was just like, ‘Someone needs to kill me because I’m just horrible. I can’t live like this.’”
The police came. George begged them 
to kill him. They put him in a padded cell, restraining him with what George calls a “padded poncho” so he couldn’t harm himself. Then after three days, he heard something that changed him.
“I heard someone reading Scripture,” he recalls. “Instantly, my mind cleared. I came to my senses.”
He cried out, “Lord, I’ve turned my back on You. I’ve shamed You. I’ve misrepresented You. Is there any hope for me?”
George soon found a Bible and began reading it. He discovered grace in the words of Scripture. He was later sentenced to 30 years to life for DUI manslaughter.
His faith grew during his time in prison. He decided to make his time behind bars count for something.
He joined the church inside and even began helping with the worship team—just as he had done growing up.
During a Prison Fellowship® Hope Event, he was invited to share a song he had written about Mary visiting Christ’s tomb.“I’d written other songs, but some songs the Lord just gives you,” George says. “The Lord gave me these lyrics.”
When the day came to play, he prayed he could just get through it without crying or making a mistake. The people organizing the Hope Event® told him they'd be recording his performance.
“Lord, just help me play this song and not screw it up,” George recalls praying. “If my mom gets a chance to see this, I don’t want to screw it up.”
A few weeks later, he called home. His mother answered the phone and immediately broke into tears. She had seen the video of her son playing his worship song.
“God’s favor showed up in ways I couldn’t explain,” he says.
One of the big blessings George experienced during his time in prison came through Prison Fellowship Angel Tree®. He remembers the despair he felt before going to prison when he could barely afford to buy his kids Christmas presents. He wanted to be a better father then, but he had made so many wrong choices in his life that he couldn’t see a way forward. Angel Tree became a source of hope for him.
“I couldn't sign up fast enough,” George says. “To think someone would buy my kids gifts for me—it made me feel like a father again.”
When his daughters received their gifts from local church volunteers, they were thrilled.
“My youngest got a basketball and a skateboard,” George remembers. “My other daughter got makeup and dresses. They’d call me and say, ‘Thanks, Dad!’ It gave me hope.”
That hope sustained him. Even behind bars, he was able to begin rebuilding his relationship with his children.
Though his marriage to his girls’ mother had ended in divorce, his ex-wife allowed George to stay involved in their kids’ lives. He has always been grateful for that.
His relationship with his daughters continued to grow when he left prison. George was released early after serving 17 years when changes to California laws reduced his sentence. In 2021, he walked out a free man. One of the first things that George did when he left prison was play basketball with his youngest daughter. He was staying at a halfway house at the time.
“She said, ‘Oh, wow, Dad! You can play!’” George remembers of his daughter’s surprised reaction. “It was the best feeling in the world, playing ball with her. It was so fun.”
Immediately after leaving prison, he began working at a surf shop. George had always loved surfing. The shop was owned by a dear friend of his who had stuck by George throughout his journey in prison. He was even there the first time George was able to get back out into the ocean on his surfboard. Having this kind of support when he left prison made a big difference in George’s life.
More recently, George also started a junk-hauling business. Someone from his church hires his company on a regular basis. He says that it’s dirty work, but it’s helping him to live clean. He also serves in his church and volunteers with Prison Fellowship inside the same prison he once called home.
“The first time I walked back into that prison—wearing a Prison Fellowship shirt—I ran into my old cellmate,” George says. “We hugged and cried.”
George has also remarried and lives near the ocean, where he gets to surf on his days off.
