My name is Johnathan. I was born in June of 1980 on a Navy base in Virginia. Soon after my birth, I was adopted by my grandparents, Marilyn and Clarence Cobb. I was raised on a small vegetable farm in northwest Missouri. I had a decent childhood, nothing to really complain about. My parents (grandparents) were not Christians, but made sure that I attended the local Baptist church every Sunday. My Dad followed the Cherokee religious traditions and my Mom is an agnostic. My Dad believed that a child will have a good foundation to build his life upon if he attends church when he is young.
Around the age of 12 or 13, my Dad told me that I didn�t have to go to church anymore if I didn�t want to. Of course I wanted to � it got me away from work on the farm! I continued attending each Sunday and was saved (or so I thought) and baptized at a young age (I don�t remember exactly when).
I guess that up until about the age of 16 I was a pretty good kid. Of course I had problems at school and at home, but they were not too extreme (I�m sure my parents would have said something much different!). However, something changed in me. When I was 16 I was attending a local Vocational school to get a certificate in Electronics Technology along with my regular High School studies. One day I decided to steal a couple of calculators from my High School and try to sell them at the Vocational school. I was caught and expelled from both schools. My parents and I were moving into town anyway, so it did not create too much hardship on us. I enrolled in the High School in the next town over and started talking to the Army recruiter. My whole family is involved in the military in one form or another. About midway through my senior year, as a practical joke, I put together some electronic components and told a friend it was a bomb. He took it seriously. I was expelled from that High School. My recruiter got me into Job Corps in Clearfield, Utah. After 30 days I was expelled (for once I did not do what I was accused of, but no one would believe me. I wonder why?!?). My parents were at a loss for what to do with me and my recruiter was furious. He asked me if I really wanted to go into the Army. Of course I did. He sent me to the local college to take my GED test. I passed it and went to the local MEPS (Military Entrance/Processing Station) to pick my job and my ship-out date. I wanted to be in the infantry, but I also wanted to leave immediately, so I chose Multiple Launch Rocket Systems Repair.
I left for Ft. Jackson, South Carolina sometime in May of 1997. On June 24 I was back home. I was given a general discharge for making racist remarks. Five days later I turned 18.
About 2 months later I committed a burglary and ended up serving 36 days for it. I was released and started traveling the country.
I ended up in a small town in northern California. Right about that time I was introduced to the Wiccan religion (witchcraft). I wanted what it offered and I became a Wiccan Priest. Soon after, one night on a drunken rampage I burglarized another house and set fire to it. (I know, this is bad, but it gets much worse before it gets better.) I was given 8 months in jail this time. I was released in March of 2000.
I found my way to Indianapolis and that is where things really started getting out of control. I was into many things that I will not mention here. I knew that I was headed for disaster, but really did not care. I met a girl and wound up in a relationship with her that was not good for me. She told me some things about her ex-boyfriend. I asked her to call him over to the apartment. When he showed up, I ended up holding him hostage and beating him for about 3 hours. Twice I actually tried to kill him. I remember that a few times I tried to stop what I was doing to him and found myself unable to. I often hear questions asked about the nature of evil, and if evil is something �real� or tangible and I think back to that day. Something snapped in me that day and I completely lost control of myself. I found myself in jail facing around 168 years. I found out that my co-defendants were trying to add some cases to me making the total that I was facing nearly 450 years. Believe me when I say that facing that much time will change your whole outlook on life. At 20 years old, I was facing the prospect of never being free again. However, as I would learn after accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, freedom is something that I had never really experienced in the first place. Many people who have never been incarcerated believe that they are free, but without Jesus they are not free at all; rather, they are deceiving themselves and being helped along in that deception by satan.
