St. Louis man set to serve 241 years in prison reflects on first weeks of freedom since 1995

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) – A welcome dwelling celebration for former inmate Bobby Bostic was held on Saturday.

The service at Williams Temple Church on Union Blvd was in assist of Bostic, 43, who was launched from jail after almost three a long time.

News 4 sat down with Bostic one-on-one Saturday.

“Everything that everyone on the street takes for granted is something I’m going to appreciate every day for the rest of my life because I was deprived of those things for 27 years,” Bostic says.

Bostic had been incarcerated since 1995, after committing a sequence of robberies in St. Louis when he was 16 years outdated.

After being convicted of greater than a dozen costs, Bostic was sentenced to 241 years in jail.

“She pronounced that at sentencing when she told me I would die in prison,” Bostic says. “It was basically a death sentence.”

Bostic wouldn’t have been eligible for parole till he was 112 years outdated. Although he anticipated to spend the remainder of his life in jail, Bostic needed to alter who he was.

Bostic began studying books and ultimately wrote 15 of his personal.

“I wanted to do more than die in prison,” Bostic says. “Even though I wasn’t ever getting out, I wanted something better because when I looked around prison all I saw was darkness. Just stupidity and ignorance. This can’t be my life. There has to be something better than this.”

While in jail, Bostic additionally earned an Associate’s Degree. He says the diploma price $28,000, which is one thing his household couldn’t afford.

Bostic says the kindness of strangers allowed him to get that diploma.

“They saw I was trying to do something with my life,” Bostic says. “There are good people in the world and they saw goodness in me in prison so they helped me.”

While Bostic was working to raised himself in jail, the choose who issued his 241-year sentence seen.

For 4 years, Evelyn Baker advocated for Bostic and a second probability at life.

“Just to have that opportunity is the biggest blessing that anybody could ever think of when you were never getting out,” Bostic says.

Bostic change into eligible for launch after the Missouri legislature modified state regulation, permitting inmates convicted as juveniles to use for parole.

On Nov. 9 Bostic was provided that second probability when he walked out of jail on parole.

“It was the greatest feeling in the world,” Bostic says. “It was surreal. It was like the sun was shining for the first time when you walk out in the sunshine with no cuffs on.”

Bostic is working to get his Bachelor’s Degree, hoping to enroll in a college in St. Louis and simply bought his personal driver’s license.

The most essential factor to Bostic is appreciating all of the little issues that include his newfound freedom.

“Everything in the world is different but it’s beautiful though,” Bostic says. “The grocery store, the laughter of the kids, the grass. We couldn’t walk on the grass all day. Just the leaves. Everything I see in nature. Everything is a blessing.”

Bostic additionally has a message for teenagers in the neighborhood.

“You don’t wanna go through what I went through,” Bostic says. “You don’t wanna be 16 and lose your whole life to the system.”

Bostic continues to communicate with the previous choose who helped make parole attainable for him, even spending Thanksgiving together with her on Thursday.

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