As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis finally had his day in court today, May 16th, after a series of delays. Lambesis was sentenced to six years in prison after having pled guilty to a charge of solicitation of another to commit murder. He was charged with the offense after attemping to hire an undercover detective posing as a hitman to murder his estranged wife, Meggan Lambesis.
A report from the sentencing running over at Radio.com has word that various As I Lay Dying bandmates were in attendance during the sentencing. The parents of Meggan and she herself also spoke during the proceedings, claiming that her life had “felt as fragile as a piece of paper that could float away at any moment.”
She also mentioned that Tim would repeatedly quote the “Total Recall” line “consider that a divorce” which was delivered after Arnold Schwarzenegger shot his fake wife in the film.
Tim is said to have wept before facing his wife and stated:
“I do feel deep remorse. I want to thank you. For her prayers, which proves you still have the heart that you do.”
Judge Carlos Armour handed down the sentence and disputed the defense’s claims that the steroids played a major factor. He argued that numerous individuals use steroids and do not plot to kill their wives. He went on to insist that in Lambesis‘ case it was a “something twisted inside a character” to want to commit murder.
Meggan Lambesis and the pair’s adopted children will receive 10 years protection from Tim. Tim technically won’t be serving a full six years however as he is receiving 48 days credit for time already served.
Lambesis still faces a $2 million civil suit filed by his ex-wife.
Prior to sentencing Lambesis broke his silence, giving Altpress.com an exclusive interview on the case and the events that led to it, including his steroid use, his faith, his relationship and much more.
A quote from that can be found below:
“I did fall flat on my face. I hit rock bottom. I lost everything. The trauma, the solitude: It made me the person I think they hoped I would eventually become. I know I have a long road ahead of me. I know that making amends will be a difficult process. But if they are open for it, this story of tragedy turning into redemption, it’s a story that’s just as much in their hands at this point as it is mine. They wanted to see me go through whatever it took to make me a good father. Now I have, and I’m not allowed to be a father.”
On preparing for prison:
“I know what it’s like to get ready for a long tour. The problem is, this isn’t a long tour. It’s somewhere between six months and three years. If I knew I was preparing for six months, I would walk into this, like, “I got a lot of hope ahead of me.” Career wise, and as a father, I don’t ever want to depend on getting in a van or on a bus to make a living. I need to have a backup plan. It’s hard to prepare without knowing how long I’ll be inside.
I will say that whether I serve three days or three years, the lessons have been learned. At this point, it’s just satisfying the public, my ex-wife and her family with a certain amount of punishment. It won’t make anybody feel better, but we all live under the illusion that punishing people makes us feel better. That’s for the judge to decide, you know, how much punishment will make society feel that I was punished.”
On apologizing to Meggan and her family:
“It’s so hard to process. I would like to say to them that I have an extreme amount of remorse. I realize any apology I make only helps in the slightest little bit, if at all. I don’t know how to word this exactly. I don’t just want to say, “Oh, I feel really badly.”
For what it’s worth, I did offer to give away my entire life savings from my 13-year career in music. At the only meeting I ever had with them, the only chance I had to talk to one of the family members, I offered every dime to them. I know that’s not enough. It never could be. But it was a gesture to say, “If that entire chapter of my life was a waste, if I have to give it all away to try to undo the hurt I’ve caused, I will do it.”
I know money doesn’t make things better. I could actually go to her and get spousal support. I’m unemployed. Her family is wealthy. I could fight through family law courts and see how much I can keep. They can continue to fight me through civil suits. But I don’t want to fight. I want to move past the whole thing. I could try to slug it out with the smallest details in court. I don’t want to. I want to reveal where my heart is at now.
I’m trying my best to put my right foot forward. I know it’s only a small thing in the big scale of what I need, the hurt I need to undo. There’s only so much I can do, I guess. I really do think that healing is possible. I thought almost a year later, after the events, there’d be some healing going on, some communication between families. When I took a step back and realized the first time I offered to try and make things easier wouldn’t result in, “Oh, okay, let’s all hug,” I was naively hoping for something and felt discouraged when it didn’t happen. But they’re out living normal lives. Here I am I’m in my bubble.”
On his own guilt:
“I deserve so much more than what I’ll get [at the sentencing]. I’m thankful, even if I get more time than the minimum, I’m thankful. I’m not making excuses. In most societies through recent human history, I could have gotten a lot worse. I’m thankful. The change that needs to happen within me, whether I serve six days or six years, has begun. I don’t think it does our government any better to spend a bunch of money locking me up for a long period of time. Whatever arguments we present in court to try to lower my sentencing are unrelated to the remorse I feel and the gratitude that’s in my heart.
I’ll always feel like I deserve longer. But honestly, the true sentence started well before my arrest. The true punishment was losing my kids and eventually, losing them for good was my own doing. Losing them on an emotional level long before my sentencing was my doing. That’s the sentence I will have the hardest time enduring. I think about my son, especially. If I were to make a list of my top 10 memories from my life, at least seven of those include Biruk. I may never see him again. No matter how long I’m in prison, that will be the hardest sentence I will have to live with, by far.”
On his initial dealings with the undercover detective posing as a hitman (aka ‘Red‘):
“So I get back from Asia late at night on May 6. I’m woken up May 7 by a phone call from
On if he gave ‘Red‘ the alarm codes for his wife’s residence:
“No. That works against me, if I’m being honest. I printed her address and the pictures and all that. Right before I got out of the car to meet him, I’m thinking, “I should probably write a couple more things down here.” I didn’t want him to be snooping around the house, seeing what was going on, when my kids were there. So I wrote down when I’d have the kids. Then I was like, “I don’t know this dude. He’s probably a big thuggy dude. He’s going to look really obvious. I should probably write down the gate code so he’s not hopping fences and stuff.” So I write these things down, and those are very clearly handwritten later. I printed up exactly what he asked me to bring, and at the last minute I wrote those things down, because I kind of panicked.”
On actually meeting ‘Red‘ and the arrest:
“He tells me to meet him at Barnes & Noble. I walk in, and there’s this biker-looking dude. Clearly, it was Red. He gives me the “what’s up?” and I gave him the “what’s up?” and then we’re just walking in one of the aisles, just talking. He’s asking me these really direct questions. “What is it you want me to help you with? What is it you want?” I was just like, “Man, I want my ex-wife gone.”
I’m thinking at this point we’re still doing research. He asked me for money for “expenses.” As the conversation goes on, he’s trying to get me to be more direct. He’s like, “I don’t want to do a job where I thought I was just supposed to beat somebody up and I was really supposed to do something else. I need you to be really specific.”
I was like, “Man, I just want her gone.” I wanted to make the hurt stop. That’s what I was focused on. I know this sounds ridiculous, but it’s like a big bear defending its cubs. Whatever I had to do, you know what I mean? It’s not in my nature to be growly and gnashing my teeth. I’m a pretty calm guy. I’m kind of passively saying, “I want her gone.” It’s just too much for me to handle. I don’t know how to handle any of it.
He’s pushing. “I want you to specifically say exactly what you want.” I’m thinking, “Is this dude stupid?” Obviously, I’m the one who is stupid. But in my mind, at the time, I’m thinking, “Man, I’m making it pretty clear here.” He says, “Just to be clear: You want your wife dead?” So right before I leave, I walk over to him and I say, “Yeah, just so you understand.” I don’t know why I didn’t realize I was the stupid one. There I was thinking he was the stupid one. But I’m really the stupidest dude in the world. That’s when I said, “Yes, to answer your question specifically, that’s what I want.” He’s got that recorded.
He asks me if I brought the stuff he asked me to bring. I said yes and that it was in the car. We go to the car, I hand him the envelope with everything in it through the window, I kick my car into reverse, look over my shoulder to back up, turn around and kick the car into drive and as soon as I turned my head back around, there was a gun at my head.”
For the full read head to Altpress.com.
Comments