Amid her daughter’s hugs and homemade food aromas, Ashley Marie Torres Feliciano restarts her life out of jail

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Ashley Marie Torres ’life was transformed behind bars. He went from adolescence to adulthood in the blink of an eye. She had no choice but to survive as soon as the system hurriedly threw her into a coexistence for which she was unprepared. He was just 16 years old.

“I went from the juvenile institution in Ponce to (the women’s prison in) Vega Alta Alta as a child. Although we were in a juvenile module, the adult women also lived in the band. It was very difficult … you have to to survive, learn to create more malice “, Torres recounted in an interview with The New Day.

The judicial system prosecuted Ashley as an adult and sentenced her to 111 years after she was convicted as the co-perpetrator of a murder of which she always claimed to be innocent. Meanwhile, the material perpetrator served less than 11 years in prison. “I had to go through a lot of difficult processes, but always with my forehead up,” he maintained.

Each of these processes, though difficult, transformed her. “Before it was another Ashley. Obviously, one is young and one will always have youth, because who doesn’t like to share at some point, be with family or maybe, then, go to some activity, but I’ve changed. My character, my way of speaking, a lot of things, ”he acknowledged.

As of Monday, Ashley was once again embracing freedom, but – better yet – she was once again holding in her arms the little one from whom she had to move away when she was two years old. the governor Wanda Vázquez Garced he accepted his clemency order and granted him a conditional pardon for a period of 10 years, a period in which he will have to comply with a number of conditionalities, such as being electronically monitored for one year.

“I went to bed with my daughter in bed talking and she clung to me, laughing, sharing …”, she recounted of what was part of last night when she returned home with the his daughter and his mother, Lucrecia Feliciano, who for the past decade remained in iron defense of his daughter.

Complicity with his daughter

Despite the years away, the complicity between Ashley and her daughter, Nashaliz, is natural. It was she who kept her standing waiting for this new opportunity that until last week had been denied her. “The most that motivated me in that time? My daughter and faith, because I always said to my little girl, ‘together we’ll get it and together we’ll throw the 111 balloons,'” she recounted.

At home you could breathe the joy that comes from the arrival of a loved one after years of absence. For Ashley there is a new view of the mountains, the feeling of fresh air, the smell of home-made food and the warmth of a mother and daughter, among so many other loved ones.

The ceremony to launch the 111 balloons, representing each of the years in which she was sentenced, is on the agenda. He also has to visit the cemetery where his brother and a nephew who died while serving his sentence rest. “I want to study, work … when I was younger I wanted to be a nurse, at high (High School) I wanted to be a lawyer, but now I want to experiment with other things to see what I like or dislike, ”she said while acknowledging that she has thought about studying criminal justice to help those who, like her, claim a new opportunity.

Sharing your testimony with young people, through talks and a book, is also on your list of priorities. “Prison is bad. There are two options, prison or death and, yes, one can share and clear the mind, but all with a certain limit. I entered at 16 (years) and am 28 (years), that is, 11 years lost. I can’t think as I thought before and that’s what they have to understand, “he said.

Lucrecia Feliciano Quiñones, 60, now enjoys the company of her daughter. Ashley Marie Torres Feliciano, who spent 11 years in prison.
Lucrecia Feliciano Quiñones, 60, now enjoys the company of her daughter. Ashley Marie Torres Feliciano, who spent 11 years in prison.

He never lost faith

He stated that he never lost faith in returning home even though, at times, that freedom seemed to recede. But one day he knocked on the door of Project Innocence, led by the graduate Julio Fontanet, through a loved one and this illusion gained strength. “I have always had faith, because I have always been innocent … I have always prayed and trusted in the Lord. It was like an (internal) struggle, but I have always had faith and I knew it was in God’s time.”, He argued.

When Project Innocence took over from Ashley, they found that the Justice Department suppressed exculpatory evidence so they proceeded to seek a new trial. This request reached the Supreme Court, which, in a split decision, understood that the evidence in dispute was cumulative so it was not enough to grant a new trial.

The facts for which Ashley was prosecuted date back to February 21, 2009 when in the middle of a family activity, her partner and the parent of her daughter, Steven QUIRINDONGO, beat her on several occasions, as part of a pattern of violence. Her brothers, upon learning of what has happened, confront the assailant and the fight that led to the death of one of them, Nelson Torres Feliciano, is generated.

Ashley Marie Torres Feliciano spent 11 years in prison.
Ashley Marie Torres Feliciano spent 11 years in prison.

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