Senior had also confronted the criminal justice system in his work and advocacy. In the Behind These Scars track “Jail Call,” Senior described being suicidal behind bars. “I been in the belly of the beast, thinking of suicide. I been hearing my mother cry on the phone. Just ‘Why? Why again’ and you can’t explain it,” Senior told Rolling Stone in 2019. “She don’t understand. I had to rob. That’s me. That’s my life story. That’s a scar.” He even spoke about prison reform at Harvard University.
“You told me to be honest, and I’m just being honest, your honor.”
“I’m not trying to trick you,” Halpern said, insisting that the questions weren’t a test. Senior then gave his account of the gambling-related shooting in July 2020.
“I was invited to a mansion party with my wife and a couple other friends,” Senior said, adding shortly thereafter, “It was not business.” There was a gambling dispute over a game of dice, he explained.
“You won?” Halpern asked.
“I lost,” Senior said with a laugh. “I lost my money, $2,000, and I paid a person. I paid him the money I was supposed to pay the table, and he basically pocketed the money.”
The gun was passed to him, Senior recalled. Halpern asked whether he fired it. “It was a tussle,” Senior said.
Senior also elaborated on the diner incident. He was “sitting in a diner with a bunch of girls” when a woman started to record him. “Don’t you have a wife at home?” she said. “She said she was going to post it and that’s when I reached for the phone.” A Gorilla Stone member who was with him choked the woman unconscious.
“They put me on suicide watch a couple of days ago,” Senior said matter-of-factly. He described it as a “holding cell where you wear a smock and stuff.” Senior said that he was not on any medication.
“Are you comfortable today?” Halpern asked. “Very comfortable, your honor,” Senior replied. Had he ever been hospitalized for mental health or substance abuse issues? “[In] my teenage days, I attempted to kill myself a couple of times,” Senior said, explaining that he had previously been sent to Bellevue hospital, in Manhattan.
“As a result of those [hospitalizations], did you receive treatment?” Halpern asked.
“Yes, I did.”
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