Volume 12 Issue 05

APRIL 2012

JPM Newswire
I was in prison and you visited me Matt. 25:36b

Jeremiah Prison Ministry

We are serving him by serving them! His mercy endures forever Psalm 106:1

We getting more settled in our home!

We had planned just to renovate our deck but as the contractor started the work we became aware that it would have to be replaced and that was a good thing! The former deck was sliding off the blocks. We made the new deck smaller to keep within our budget. I must say its beautiful! Tom will stain it in a couple of months. Our next project is the landscaping in the front and on side of the deck. We could of seeded the area with grass but I wanted a small flower bed. I will add a picture next month for all to see.
Inside this issue:
We getting more settled in... Social Media Network Eugene McQuires Miracle What about your live? Theres Power in Prayer Pastor Toms Preaching Corner Will return next month. 1 1 2&3 4 4

Health wise I am healing daily. I do have to pace myself, if I do something major one day I have to rest the next two days but I perservere! It will be a year in July that I had my right hand surgery and the move aggravated it. The main issue is in my neck and shoulder which is causing the nerve to be compromised down in my hands. Please continue to pray for me. I am sure you recall in our last newletter that I would have to take my car in for inspection. It was what I expected in cost plus I had several coupons, which helped. But while we were there Toms rear window came down and wouldnt go up, low & behold the window motor regulator died, $$$. So, while there we had them fix it too. I could cry but I am going to give the devil a black eye for I know in whom I believe & He will take care of us! I choose to put my hope in God. I love social media, its a great network! I saw this story on my facebook feed, what caught my eye was the name Devi Titus. I met her this past summer at our general conventions Womens Ministries Luncheon, she was our guest speaker. Devi & Larry live in Coleyville, Texas & were former residents of Pennsylvania. This article is incredible to think about, its a message of hope! By now Eugene McQuire should be in Colleyville to work at KGM and live with Larry and Devi. After reading the article I contacted Larry via facebook so I can communicate with Eugene as I have lots of questions. Larry was gracious and responded back!

Tom & Monica

Special points of interest:

Our Mission & Our Vision. You are an extended hand. 12 years in prison ministry! Editor: Rev. Monica Cohee

Our Mission & Our Vision

OUR MISSION..........To help men in prison reach their fullest in the Lord. WHAT WE DO..... Ministering to their spirit, soul and body, through one on one mentoring as their spiritual advisor and friend. HOW WE BEGAN......... Jeremiah Prison Ministry began on November 30, 1999, and was birth out of a bond for a young man that made a wrong choice in life OUR VISION. To be able to go into the prison chapels without the inmates having to take us off their visiting list. With God all things are possible!

Page 2

JPM Newswire

After 34 years in prison, a new life BY DENIS J. O'MALLEY

Eugene McGuire did not serve 34 years, nine months and 15 days in prison. He served hours. He served spurts of time between phone calls, between letters, between visits. He occasionally served a day, sometimes even a week - or so it felt. And on Tuesday, the 52-year-old heard the clapping from dozens of his loved ones gathered in a Wyoming County courtroom for his resentencing hearing. He heard President Judge Russell Shurtleff tell him that all of those moments added up to time served for a guilty plea he was led into by an attorney's poor advice so many years ago. He even felt the tears streaming down his face. He just hadn't felt the time go by. "I don't see myself doing 35 years," Mr. McGuire said in an interview with The Times-Tribune on Wednesday. "I see myself doing a little bit here, a little bit there. ... It's surreal looking back. 35 years." The crime: Mr. McGuire was 17 when his life as a free man ended in 1977. After a night of drinking and playing cards with his cousin Robert Lobman, then 24, of New Jersey, and his stepbrother, Sidney Coolbaugh, then 19, of Falls, on June 17, 1977, Mr. McGuire piled into Sidney's car with the two men and headed to the Marine Room Tavern in Lake Winola for a few drinks to end the night. There, what began as a plan to rob the bar ended with Mr. Lobman murdering the bartender and owner, Isabelle Nagy, before he and Mr. McGuire scoured the building for things to steal and Mr. Coolbaugh drove off, terrified. After fleeing to New York, Mr. McGuire returned to Northeast Pennsylvania two days later to turn himself in and was charged with seven counts, including first-degree murder and robbery. Mr. Lobman was extradited from New Jersey to face the same charges shortly after. Mr. Coolbaugh was charged with similar offenses after he decided not to testify in a preliminary hearing for the two others on June 30, 1977, according to archives. The sentence: In the months that followed, all three men entered guilty pleas for their roles that night - Mr. Lobman to a general charge of murder and a charge of robbery, Mr. Coolbaugh and Mr. McGuire each only to a general charge of murder. Then, after the court decided Mr. McGuire's and Mr. Coolbaugh's general murder charges would stand as second-degree murder counts, they each received life sentences on March 8, 1978. The next day, Mr. McGuire turned 18 and was transferred from a juvenile detention center in Luzerne County to SCI Camp Hill. With a "good luck" from the sheriff, who drove him and the rest of his life laying behind those prison walls, the 18-year-old looked around and thought 'I've got to get out of this,'" he said. "I always remembered saying to myself 'This is not me,' " he said. During the first nine years or so of Mr. McGuire's sentence, his behavior went "up and down," he said "doing good for a year then becoming kind of rebellious." Despite the charge to which he pleaded guilty, the only violent thing he did came during his first month in prison at Camp Hill, when he punched an older inmate who made a "sexual comment" while walking past him. "It's kind of like you stand up or you get fed to the lions," he said. It didn't go much further. Until the next day. There the man was again and "he came back with a couple of friends," Mr. McGuire said. It started with a "sucker punch" and before long Mr. McGuire was leaving a local hospital with a "cracked jaw" and a few stitches. A turning point: Though he stayed away from physical altercations, little else changed over the next few years with Mr. McGuire's outlook - a disdain for authority and a penchant for disrespecting guards. "My biggest problem was me," he said. "Everything was, like, kind of outward. What I was missing was that inward conviction, that inward hope." He was raised Catholic until his parents divorced, when he left religion altogether. Until Dec. 7 1986: Mr. McGuire remembers the exact day the Rev. Larry Titus delivered a sermon to a congregation at Camp Hill. "I've got to do something. It's time to make a commitment," Mr. McGuire thought after hearing the pastor. Until then, after nine and a half years in prison, after facing the guilt he had carried since that night in 1977, he was just a 26-year-old man who could "do a lot of things."
Continued on page 3

Eugene MCQuire

34 years, nine months and 15 days in prison.

Going past the prison walls to take the Love of Jesus.

Volume 12 Issue 05

Page 3

After 34 years in prison, a new life

Sports, fitness, education - nothing ever defined him. But that sermon changed everything. "It just stayed with me," he said. The next morning it hit him. "I just got on my knees and asked God to forgive me, and it just felt like chains broke," he said. For the next 25 years, Mr. McGuire lived a faithful, relatively happy life in various prisons around the state and, briefly, county. High court steps in: There would always be the bouts of "inevitable depression," but he had his faith to focus on when things got dark. It's not as though he wanted to be in prison, but none of his pursuits toward a commuted sentence were successful until a Supreme Court ruling came down in 2010. Graham v. Florida held that the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause in the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution did not permit a juvenile offender to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for a non-homicide crime. ( McQuire was an accessory.) As soon as he learned of the ruling, he filed a Post Conviction Relief Act petition with Wyoming County Court and was granted a hearing and a lawyer, Robert Buttner. Over the last several months, Mr. McGuire said it became clear to his attorney that the Supreme Court ruling was not their best shot, but it opened a door. In discussions with Mr. Buttner about his case, Mr. McGuire explained how his attorney at the time of his plea, David Pasatko, had led him believe that, in exchange for pleading to a general murder charge, the court would consider it a count of voluntary manslaughter, a charge that carried a 20 year maximum sentence, "which wasn't the case," he said. So rather than build a case on the constitutionality of his sentence, Mr. Buttner decided they focus on the unlawfully induced guilty plea and ineffective counsel. Freedom: Mr. McGuire had an idea of what could happen before he arrived in court Tuesday. There was talk of parole, a couple of years of supervision if things went well. Then, with two simple words, it was all over: "time served." No parole. No probation. No supervision. No handcuffs. No shackles. No cell. Freedom: "Unshackle that man!" Mr. McGuire heard one member of the gallery call. "Release him, remove the chains!" Mr. McGuire heard another shout. He turned around in his prison jumpsuit, unburdened by the restraints, and there, all at once for the first time in his life, he saw the dozens of faces that had traveled to state prisons to see him over the last three and a half decades, refusing to abandon their brother, their classmate, their friend. Before that moment, hope had been a fickle thing. He wanted his freedom, but the idea of it could be crushing if it eluded him again after so long. When fellow inmates told him of the dreams they'd had, of looking in his cell only to find it empty, he still couldn't open himself to the threat of disappointment. But on Tuesday, dreams no longer mattered to Mr. McGuire. They will never again be better than his reality. As he walked out of the Wyoming County Prison minutes after the judge's decision, his sister, Mary McGuire Yuhas, ran into his arms for the first time since they were teenagers and embraced outside the prison. "He's just our hero," Mrs. Yuhas said. "He's just amazing. He never gave up." After a heaping plate of eggs Benedict and hours of tears, reunions and remembrances, Mr. McGuire tried to sleep in his sister's guest room. The brand-new mattress may have felt about three feet thick, as he told her, but by about 2:30 a.m. he stopped trying to sleep. Bundled in a jacket and sweater, he quietly padded to the porch door and walked out into the starlight. There, for the first time since he was 17 years old, he stared up into the night sky unframed by a prison window and stayed there until day broke. It's hard to put the feeling into words, he said. "Surreal," "dream" - they fall short. The best he can do is compare it to his idea of a feeling he has only read about - the sensation of Jesus' hands laying on the blind until their sight returned. "I always read that and you believe it, but I've never seen it," he said. "It felt like that.

Eugene & his sister , Mary

Unshackle that man! Release him, remove the chains!

"We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us." 1 Thessalonians 2:8

(I was so blessed by Eugenes story! There is HOPE! Inmates DONT GIVE UP!)

Pastor Toms Preaching Corner will return next month.

Jeremiah Prison Ministry

I was in prison and you visited me Matt. 25:36b

Revs. Thomas & Monica Cohee 223 Cameo Drive Fayetteville, PA 17222 Phone: 717-352-0080 Fax: 717-352-0392 Email: info@jeremiahprisonministry.com WERE ON THE WEB WWW. JEREMIAHPRISONMINISTRY. COM 12 YEARS OF PRISON MINISTRY AN OUTREACH OF MARTINSBURG CHRISTIAN CENTER

To Our Family & Friends We Love You

What about your LIFE?

Reputation is what you are supposed to be; Character is what you are. Reputation is the photograph; Character is the face. Reputation comes over one from without; Character grows up from within. Reputation is what you have when you come to a new community; Character is what you have when you go away. Reputation is made in a moment; Character is built in a lifetime. Your reputation is learned in an hour; Your character doesn't come to light for a year. Reputation grows like a mushroom; Character grows like the oak. A single newspaper report gives you your reputation; A life of toil gives you your character. Reputation makes you rich or makes you poor; Character makes you happy or makes you miserable. Reputation is what men say about you on your tombstone; Character is what angels say about you before the throne of God.

You are an Extended Hand and a vital part of this ministry. Together we are making a difference with Jesus Christ, taking life to a dark place! We go because ou send us. Thank You so much!

Prayer Corner There Is Power In Prayer

Pray for Kevin, Chris, Mike, Domingo, Michael, & Doug that God blesses them financially above and beyond their expectations. They faithfully stay in touch with us.

Pray for Randall V. in prison falsely accused of a crime.

Pray for Lewis, Corey, Bob, Greg, & Eric for favor to receive commutation. Believe with us for them for a miracle with Gods favor. Pray for Jeremiah as we continue to believe for a miracle for his release. Pray for continued healing for Larry, Bob, Corey & Harvey. Leah remains cancer free ! God is so faithful hearing our prayers! Pray for our grandson, Andy at Delaware State University, going to China to study. Pray for my daughter, Vickie & her husband Dale. God knows the need! Pray for Terri, Tayler & Cara doing much better with grief but still miss Alan. Pray for my new great-grandson Ethan James Miller, born 2-15-12. Pray for my brother Norman. Pray for Toms brother, John, he is recovering well. Pray for the Salvation for every man, woman, boy and girl not saved in this world. Our prayers are heard! Please pray for all the inmates, their families, our nation, our leaders, our military and their families. Pray for reform in the prison system, for lives to be changed & a spiritual renewal across this land with men, women, boys & girls being touched. Pray for Bill our dear friend who goes with us to some of the prisons, recovering from back surgery in March and his wife Rose for restored health. Pray for Dotty another dear friend in prison ministry for restored health. Pray for us for strength and wisdom in all that we do, for Tom & Monica to stay cancer free & healthy to do Gods work. And for our cars to be mechanically sound!

Hebrews 13:5b Jesus will never leaveyou nor forsake you.