Angelique Garbledo (85:54)
I never went. I. I had a therapist, and unfortunately she actually was moving out of state like, a week later. And I. We didn't really have, like, video callings, but I think we had Skype. It wasn't known, like, how it is now. Like, if I had the resources now, it would have been so different. But because she had left, and she was my child psychologist because I was a bad kid. Like, she was my child psychologist from when I was 16 all the way till, you know, obviously this happened. I had done one or two sessions with her, and then she moved. And so I had felt like the one support system I had was gone. I didn't want to find another one. I didn't feel like there. And going. Finding a therapist is like going on dates. Yeah, it's hard. Like, you gotta feel that connection with that person and trust them enough. And I was not able to feel connections with anybody. I feel like I was so numb. But you wouldn't have guessed it. Like, I was happy, I was smiley. I acted just like myself. Like there was nobody could tell that I was just dying inside. And, I mean, my. My parents did a little bit because they did say for, like, a good year, like, if they were to come, like, wake me up, I would start swinging on them or, like, I would freak out. Like, I would start just randomly screaming. Like. So, like, there were. I had ptsd. And I definitely had moments that, you know, that people could say that they. They saw, but I acted normal. But when I sit there and think about things, like, for that whole year, I don't think anyone even called me. I don't remember having any conversations with, like, prosecutors, with the da I don't even know the terminology for all these people, like, of who they are and what they do, but I just know nobody called me victims advocate, nothing. No one talked to me at all. And then all of a sudden, randomly, it's like a year went by, and all of a sudden I'm getting this phone call that, like, we're supposed to go to trial, and I'm just like, oh, okay. Like, I knew things could take time, and so I just trusted, like, the way the process was working, and I didn't. I was scared to, like, ask questions about it because I felt like if I asked questions, I would break down. And I just didn't want that to happen. I knew that I had to work. I knew that I had to take care of my son. I knew that I had to continue life on. I survived. She was in locked up. And that was good enough for me at that point. So all of a sudden, they're talking to me, and they're like, we want to offer a plea. And I'm like, wait, what a Plea, like, why? And they were like, well, at the time of her confession, they didn't read her. Her Miranda rights. What? What do you mean they're what? Isn't that, like, the number one thing you're supposed to do? Like, it's like the first. I mean, I'm not a cop, I'm not a detective, but, like, isn't that, like, the first thing you're supposed to do is, like, read them the Miranda rights when you're getting a confession, when you're sitting there for hours, like, what? And they were like, yeah. So, like, if we go to trial, like, without that confession, the whole case can be thrown. I said, but you have the butcher knives. You have her finger on the fingerprint. Like, her fingerprints. Like, I start naming. Like, I'm like, frantic at this point, and I'm like, you're telling me that she can walk and she can go do this again to somebody? What? Like, this is insane. And they were just like, we're sorry like this, but we do. We're talking to her lawyer, and we are offering a plea. Like, we want to see if you would be okay with this. And I'm like, what's the plea? They were like, eight and a half years. You can. They were like, we're going to give you the choice to choose either between Ash, which is the Arizona State Hospital hospital, or you can choose to have her go to prison. And I said, can I have some time to think about this? And they were like, yes. So I took, like, a few days. I thought about it. I very much wanted to send her to prison because that was like, you deserve to go to prison. Like, you did an awful thing. Like, rah. That's how I felt. But I took some time to think about it, and I knew that she was mentally ill. So in my head, I thought, if I send her to Ash, the Arizona State Hospital, at some point in her life, whether it's prison or Ash, she's going to get out and she's. She's going to need all the help she can get. So if. At least if I send her to Ash, she can get the help she needs. And when she returns back to society, hopefully she'll be okay and she won't ever try to do this again to somebody. And they also convinced me and told. I say convinced because they told me that she wanted my baby for herself. That was what the story was, that she was mentally ill. She wants this baby. She had miscarriages. This was the baby that she wanted. Wanted. She just mentally thought That I was carrying her child. So I actually felt really bad and pitied her. I actually felt horrible, like, that she had gone through such, like, a horrible thing. And that made her, you know, made her want to do this to me. And so that's, like, what the whole defense was. That's what everything went into. And I went with the plea bargain. I went to sentencing. I had written this, like, long letter, read it to her, and I. I literally bawled my eyes out. It was my first time seeing her in over a year. And, like, I had rehearsed, like, what I was going to say multiple times, and perfection, I could say. I sat in front of the mirror, and I was like, say it with confidence. Like, I went into that courtroom thinking, I'm going to be very confident. I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry. Oh, no, no. The moment I went in, the tears, I was. A Mascara was everywhere. I was. I looked like a clown, because it was just everywhere. I couldn't stop crying. I just couldn't. It was like, all the emotions I had felt for that whole year had just, like, were. Were literally bursting out of me. And so every second, I was like, my name is angelic. Like, I just. It was horrible. It probably should have taken, like, two minutes, but it took us, like, 15 minutes for me to read it. And I remember feeling so accomplished. I felt so much better. And then it was her time to talk. They were like, okay, okay, Cassandra, you can now speak. She stood up and said, no, thank you. Your Honor sat down. Cassandra, this will be the last time you ever see this woman again. Do you want to say anything to her or her family? No, you, Honor. With a smirk on her face, I felt nothing but rage at that point. I don't know what I was expecting. I don't know if I was expecting her to say, I'm sorry. I don't even know if I'm sorry would actually, like, make me feel any better. But, like, I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't expecting that. She. It looked heartless. It looked like she just did not care. And, like, she was just ready to go serve the rest of her sentencing. And I was like, wow. Like, she's. She doesn't care. And that actually really made me sad. Like, it really, really made me feel, like, really, really sad that she just did not care at all. And then it made me regret, like, also sending her to Ash. But I still. I still stand by what I did. I still think that it's the best thing to do when somebody's mentally ill and they. I still think that's what you should do. And then I just continued my life. And then that's when, like, right when I walked. I had never given any statements to anybody. So when she had gotten arrested and every news station was outside my door trying to get a statement, trying to talk to me, I had declined all interviews with everybody. I didn't want to talk to anybody about it. So once sentencing happened, I had walked out, and boom, there's, like, you know, all Fox News. You know, everybody's outside of. Outside the courtroom now, trying to get a statement from me. And that's my first time talking. I talk. You know, I told them. You know, I read the statement to her. I sent her to Ash. Like, it's the end of my story. Like, end of, you know, whatever's going on. And that's, like, when everybody wanted to start interviewing me. So I had been getting, like, phone calls from Anderson Cooper. I survived, like, the ID Channel. There were some other places that were calling me, too. But I declined everybody because everybody wanted to take my story and maneuver into what they wanted. They wanted to, like, rewrite it and tell it their way and not, like, actually what happened. Like, oh, can we say that she, like, nicked you? Or let's say that she was your best friend and did this to you, because that makes it more, like, you know, more crazy. Or that your best friend did this to you. And I'm like, no, I'm not gonna lie. Like, either take my story how it is or don't take it at all. Like, I don't care about being on tv. I don't care about doing any of this. Like, the only reason I do care is because I do feel like my story can help maybe another young, naive woman, girl like me maybe understand something. But, like, that's not. My goal is to be famous off of this.
