Posted Wednesday, March 07, 2007; 3:38 p.m.

Reality Check: 75 to Life
A 29-year-old man sits in jail, waiting to go on trial for murder. If convicted, he could go to prison for life.

By Hanna Ingber Win
The L.A. Pilot

After the tour of Dutchess Detention Center, I collected my belongings and went to the visitors’ room. Just like in the movies, there were two long rows of cubicles separated by glass, each one outfitted with a phone. I was there to meet with Chris Nathis, who was waiting to go on trial for murder. He’s 29 and faces 75 years-to-life in prison.

Chris came out, and I told him I was there to learn more about his old friend, Ricco Daughtrey, a former gang member about whom I was writing a profile. I mentioned the name of the detective on the case, the one who told me about Chris, and quickly realized I had made a mistake.

“Why would he send you here? He don’t like me,” Chris said over and over. His questions implied that he thought the detective had sent me to find out information about him or Ricco.

He stared at me, like I was there to make his life harder. Or maybe he was memorizing my face in case I pissed him off. He wouldn’t laugh at my jokes and didn’t want to share information about Ricco. I learned the rules of snitching.

“I’m not looking to get Ricco into trouble,” I said. “You can tell me good things. What was he like as a friend? Why did you hang out with him?”

“I can’t talk to you about him,” he said. “To me, it’s against the law. If I tell you something about Ricco, it’s going to look bad at me.”

His English was so bad, it was hard for me to understand him.

Chris and Ricco were friends from South Central. Ricco had told me he used to belong to the 76th Street East Coast Crips. Chris said nether of them were ever gang members.

I asked Chris about his neighborhood. It’s still bad, he said. “I got five friends going on trial right now for murder. All from that area.”

A lot of his friends are already in prison, he said.

When I asked how many of his friends have been killed, he practically laughed at the suggestion that he could keep track. More than 10, he said. The youngest killed was 14 years old.

I don’t know if Chris is guilty of murder or not. Either way, it is disturbing to think that this young guy might spend the rest of his life behind bars, always a misbehavior away from a stretch in the hole.