“As read in the #TehachapiNews.
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One weekend in 2006 resulted in Daniel Robinson facing four life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus 160 years.
The San Fernando Valley native was charged with four counts of kidnap for ransom, kidnapping with the use of a firearm and assault with a deadly weapon. Not wanting to gamble with his life by going to trial, Robinson took a plea bargain and was sentenced to 14 years and four months in prison with one strike.
He was 17 years old when he was arrested, sentenced as an adult and imprisoned at 19.
A scared and insecure teenager whose actions were the culmination of partying and drug abuse, Robinson vowed not to let the events of one weekend define and encompass him as a person. During his incarceration, he earned his GED diploma, participated in rehabilitative and cognitive behavior programs, earned four associate degrees and received one incarcerated student scholarship.
In 2014, Robinson was transferred to the California City Correctional Facility where Marley’s Mutts would debut its Pawsitive Change Prison Program 2 ½ years later.
Robinson went through the extensive application process, which included an essay and interviews with prison officials and Marley’s Mutts staff, and was accepted into the program, but it was a single observation from Marley’s Mutts founder Zach Skow that stuck with him. “You would make a good leader,” Skow told him.
See the Positive, Be the Change”