How One Gets Wrongly Convicted (part 1), by Dean Giacomo

I will first give a little background on myself
I was born and raised in New Jersey where I lived for 35 years. In 1998 the company (H.W. Exhibits) I worked for moved to Pennsylvania and I moved along with them and continued to work for them up until 2004 whey they were bought by a conglomerate at which time I was downsized, which was a shame because I really liked my job. Oh well these things happen.
After this I worked in construction and in the spring of 2006 I took a job in a small family owned carnival which turned out to be a pretty good job. I worked here until the end of August when I met a girl and moved to Virginia Beach (this was my first mistake). Things did not work out with us and we went out separate ways. I stayed in Virginia Beach (VB) on the “Ocean Front” until my money ran out and for the first time in my life I had nowhere to live and ended up joining the ranks of the homeless.
Now VB, fortunately has many places that assist those in need. Two of these places– The Volunteers Of America (VOA) and The Judeo Christian Outreach Center (JCOC)– were frequented by me often and many other homeless people. These places supplied clothing, food and many other things that are needed by the homeless. One of these organizations in fact, had given me a tent in which I lived in.
Now this whole time I was a severe alcoholic, I had been drinking since I was 16 and at this point it was heavy ,very heavy and my only concern was where my next drink would be coming from, I would have barely if any recollection of the night before and at this point I worked to drink (but now I would steal alcohol too).
I’ve mentioned I had a tent which was given to me by one of the shelters of the VB area and I shared this tent with a fellow homeless person who also would frequent the VOA and JCOC, this person and I started hanging out together (his name was Matthew Allenbaugh and this was my SECOND MISTAKE ). This was not a good person ,in fact, he was evil, no one liked him, he was untrustworthy, and the list goes on. I’d also liked to add that this person is a big part of the reason I’m in person.
Anyway I had my tent set up in a stand of trees in the parking lot of The Virginia Beach Convention Center (which was near a retention pond), which was situated right in the middle between the VOA and the JCOC and about five blocks from the ocean on VB Blvd. I would get work by going to the VOA about 5:00 AM and stand out front where contractors would come by locking for workers. I was hired everyday.
There was another person who I hung out with who I knew at the time only as Butch (but later learned his name was Blease Pruitt), he was a good person and we got along well. Him and Allenbaugh on the other hand did not. There was talk among the homeless that they Butch had feelings for Allenbaugh– I don’t know I am not into that kinda thing nor did I care.
On October 30 or 31 Allenbaugh and myself packed up my tent and moved to Norfolk were I immediately got a job at a Temporary employment agency called Labor Ready which was in downtown Norfolk where I worked for about two week until Allenbaugh got into a fight with someone he knew from when he lived there before . we moved the tent out to the Norfolk /Virginia Beach border where, again I got a job at a different branch of Labor Ready.This entire time Allenbaugh was not working but out stealing and I don’t know what else.
About two weeks before Thanksgiving Allenbaugh tried to tell me how to spend the money I was working for. This turned in a brawl which ended when I walked away. I did not return to the tent for two days and when I did he and his stuff were gone–Yippee!
On December 6 was arrested by the Norfolk police on a misdemeanor charge from VB. I was held in Norfolk until December 12 when VB came to transport me to the .
Virginia Beach jail
And thus on December 6 ,2006 the life I knew ended.

Dean Giacomo
DOC #1207157