Locked Up Abroad, Faith Kept Her Alive in Thai Prison

By Alicia Cruz
The Black Urban Times

Listen to Lisa Taylor's journey to freedom despite her imprisonment in a Thai jail after she and her cousin's girlfriend, Kim Hood were caught trying to smuggle 14 kilos of Heroin out of Thailand.

Hood and Taylor's story was featured on the National Geographic show, "Locked up Abroad: Back-stabbed in Thailand."

Actress Noree Victoria plays Taylor. Keisha Tillis, actress, singer and Georgia native, plays Kim Hood.



After an abusive marriage ends in divorce, Taylor finds herself struggling to raise three children alone. Hoping to give her children a better life, Taylor jumps at a chance to make $15,000 by bringing "products" to the United States via Thailand.

During her first solo trip to Thailand, Taylor invites Kim, her cousin's new girlfriend. Kim, despondent and needing a break following an incident where she shot and killed the former husband of her girlfriend after he firebombed the women's cars and assaulted Kim with a brick, readily accepts Taylor's seemingly innocent offer to travel abroad on a "nail business trip."

Once in Thailand, bizarre things occur. Taylor's "business" connections seem to be taking the young women on a wild goose chase. Then, just before the ladies are scheduled to fly back to the United States, Taylor's connection surprises her with extra "baggage" he says she must carry.

Upset, Taylor refuses. Kim, fearful that this new bump in the road will prevent her from getting back to Alabama in time for her manslaughter trial, agrees to carry the extra "baggage."

It is at this moment Kim says she realized Taylor's "business product" trip was nothing more than a cover story Taylor created to hide the fact that she was a drug mule for a Nigerian "businesswoman."

The two women head for the airport hoping to make it aboard their return flight without their luggage raising the suspicions of Customs officials. Taylor and her bag pass through airport screening unnoticed, but Kim isn't so lucky.

Within hours, both women are caught with Heroin and sent to a Thai jail. Following their convictions in Thailand, both women spent several years in Thai and American prisons.

Today, Taylor is a college graduate and an inspirational motivational speaker. At press time, I had not made contact with Kimberly Hood, but I am hoping to set up a brief interview with her to learn where her journey has taken her since her release from prison.

Hood is a military veteran who served her country honorably in the United States Army.


RELATED
Keisha Tillis, Hitting Her Stride as a Walker

TV One's 'The Rickey Smiley Show' Propels Network To New Ratings Record

British Grannny Sentenced to Death in Bali Drug Smuggle

Photo/mediacriminaljustice.blogspot

Prosecutors thought 15-years in an Indonesian prison was appropriate for a elderly British woman caught smuggling 8.4 pounds of cocaine in her suitcase last year, but Indonesian court officials disagreed and sentenced Lindsay June Sandiford to death today.

Pregnant British Citizen Death Sentence in Laos Commuted

By Alicia Cruz

Senior writer

TheBlackUrbanTimes

Forget messing with Texas. Don't mess with certain third world countries if you're a drug mule. Laos in particular.

A British citizen recently learned that the hard way when she was sentenced to death by firing squad for smuggling drugs into Laos.

Due to her pregnancy, her sentence was later commuted to life.Samantha Orobator, age 20, was arrested after she was caught with 1.5lbs of heroin while trying to board a plane to Thailand.

The South London native won a delayed trial when jail officials in Phongthong, Thailand learned that she was pregnant in December 2008.

Thankfully for Orobator, under criminal law in Laos pregnant women cannot be executed. Last month Foreign

Secretary David Miliband signed a prisoner transfer agreement with Laos meaning any potential sentence she received could be served in the United Kingdom.