This is not music related in any way, but sometimes there are things I just feel necessary to document.
Sammy Cordova was my friend. In junior high, he was this tiny little boy that everyone just wanted to protect because his life was shit, his mother treated him like shit, his siblings resented him, and none of us wanted him to fall through the cracks.
By high school, he was slipping. While most high school kids party and drink, and plenty got high, there were some people who just shouldn't have ever touched liquor or drugs. His mother passed and somehow he was now a teenage boy with a house and no mortgage. Plenty of people were opportunistic, moving in and sponging off him. The last time I remember talking to Sammy was after a party at my friend Sara's house where he stole a couple cell phones and chargers that were later magically recovered. You can try to be there for someone for so long and see yourself as a failed friend when you can't save them from themselves. That was enough for him to have crossed a line.
I hadn't heard about what became of Sammy after high school, except that he was still at that house on Christmas Tree Circle in Chula Vista, deeper in drugs, random people still living in the house with him.
Then in May of 2004, the year of my 10 year reunion, Sammy was in the news. What I heard from friends, and later in the news, was that Sam had a party at his house, was coked up and drunk and probably on any number of other drugs (though all the reports only cite alcohol.) People were there and broke a window and he lost his shit. He went into the room, grabbed a shotgun and started shooting. He killed his two best friends, Kris and Adam, and seriously injured two others. According to the news, he reloaded and continued to shoot. I didn't know the victims, they were younger than me in school, but I was friend's with Adam's brother Eric.
Yesterday, Sam was sentenced to 117 years to life without parole for two counts of 2nd degree murder. To me, it's a tragic situation all around. Sammy will rot in prison, and two families will have the pain of their loss forever, and the other two victims will have their scars for the rest of their lives. I am just really sad for everyone all around because the whole situation is tragic from every angle.
Mostly, and I'm not excusing what he did in any way, but I wish we could've saved Sam.
