Sentenced to life in prison at 18, Taylor Wells shows how to survive and thrive

What do you do when you make the biggest mistake of your life at the age of 18 and are told that you will be paying for that mistake for the rest of your life?

Just weeks before his scheduled high school graduation, on April 29, 1993, a lanky, Palm Bay 18-year-old made a decision that would haunt the rest of his life. With a part-time job at Taco Bell and having just bought his first car, a green Chevy Malibu Classic, he agreed to drive some new acquaintances to a home in Cape Canaveral where they were going to "get pot."

There were guns, but nobody was supposed to use them.

The teen, Taylor Wells, would sit in his car outside the home and wait. That was the extent of his involvement in a drug rip-off that went terribly wrong when 19-year-old David Codgen of Cocoa Beach was shot in the back of the head.

Taylor Wells spent nearly 30 years in prison. He now has a second chance at life.
Taylor Wells spent nearly 30 years in prison. He now has a second chance at life.

Under Florida law, someone taking part in a criminal act that results in a homicide can be charged with first-degree murder. And that's exactly what happened. The 18-year-old lanky kid who likely never held a gun in his hand was tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

He would have to graduate from high school in prison.

Some of the other participants received much lighter sentences after taking plea deals.

Taylor should have stayed home that night. Debate the merits of that law all you wish. That's another column for another time. Right now, we're talking about how you muster the strength to face a new day when every single one of them is in prison. And, you're only 18.

There are two choices, really. You can choose to live or you can choose to die.

Wells came up with a strategy to not only cope but to somehow flourish. He realized that everyone is living in one container or another and that those containers belong to other containers. For example, an office is a container within the container of an office building, which is within the container of a town, county, planet, solar system, etc.

Taylor Wells spent nearly 30 years in prison. He now has a second chance at life.
Taylor Wells spent nearly 30 years in prison. He now has a second chance at life.

"No matter where you are in life, you are inside of some container and there is no escaping this," Wells said during a TEDx talk he gave in September. "This realization put my incarceration in a totally different perspective. It made it almost irrelevant."

"I realized the cell, the jail, the prison I was in was just another container that I had to live within and if I could live in all these other containers already in my life, then I could live within this one, too."

Once Wells accepted that, he then was able to focus on what type of life he wanted to live. Hs goal was simple: to live his best possible life in spite of his container. That meant accepting any and every opportunity to enrich his life.

He read every book he could. He took advantage of educational opportunities and learned computers. He exercised and kept his body strong.

Taylor Wells spent nearly 30 years in prison. He now has a second chance at life. He spoke at a TEDx in September 2021.
Taylor Wells spent nearly 30 years in prison. He now has a second chance at life. He spoke at a TEDx in September 2021.

He focused on the good and was grateful for the things he did have instead of focusing on what he didn't have.

"And then I became optimistic," he said.

It was noticed by Florida's parole board, who granted Wells his freedom on March 30.

"I have been granted a second chance at freedom and I am truly grateful," Wells told me during a recent email exchange. "I would like to thank the (parole board) and all of the wonderful people in my life who made it happen."

Having spent nearly three decades in prison, Wells is still working hard to catch up and understand this world. He told his story at a TEDx talk at the University of South Florida in September.

"It is my hope that this TEDx talk is just a beginning and I can do more to make something good come from the awful situation that led me to this point," he said.

"Thanksgiving is a great time to take a moment to focus on all of the things in our lives that are good, all the things we are grateful for, and all of the people in our lives we appreciate. Recognizing those three things helped me survive my last container and makes life so much more enjoyable in any container."

John A. Torres is engagement editor of Florida Today. You can follow him on Twitter @johnalbertorres or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/FTjohntorres.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Sentenced to life in prison at 18, Taylor Wells shows how to survive