Torres: Nothing to do with Crosley Green now except enjoy some ice cream.

What can you say to a man going back to prison for a crime you are convinced he did not commit?

Knowing he'd already spent more than 30 years locked up before being released two years ago on house arrest while his appeals worked themselves out, makes it even more difficult.

In preparing for my final interview with Crosley Green before he turns himself into authorities on Monday, I thought about what to ask him. But, really I'd already asked everything of him these last several months. There were no more questions. There was only the opportunity to say goodbye and enjoy some ice cream.

Ice cream, much like baseball or a barbecue, brings people together and puts them at ease. One of the first things Crosley did when he was released in 2021 was to stop for a cone of strawberry ice cream.

"My brothers and sisters come around and the first thing they ask me is where's the ice cream at?" he laughed.

But it's safe to say these two years of relative freedom have changed Crosley. Now he's a butter pecan kind of guy. So I bought him a pint and brought myself a pint of coconut (my new favorite).

More: Torres: Arguing for Crosley Green to remain free is easy | Opinion

"You know why I like butter pecan?" he asked me with a smile that revealed a memory. "My father loved butter pecan and my mother, man she liked pecans and cashews and stuff like that. When I came out I only ate strawberry but then I tasted butter pecan and I started reminiscing how good it was."

Crosley was convicted for the 1989 murder of Charles "Chip" Flynn though many, including the responding officers, felt he had nothing to do with the shooting. His case has seen its share of ups and downs as his conviction was vacated by one court and then reinstated by another. He has lived the last two years on house arrest while the appeals played out.

But this day wasn't about the case. This day was just about talking ... and ice cream.

Crosley lost his parents to a murder/suicide when he was a young teenaager. Still, he remembers them fondly and proudly showed me a few of the dozens of framed photos that hang on the walls of his sister's house in Titusville where he has been living. Also on the walls were various Astronaut High School awards for athletics and a Sacred Heart of Jesus.

It wasn't the perfect evening for ice cream but we made do. We sat under the carport amid the light rain that had fallen all day and continued to do so.

And we just talked.

Incredibly, Crosley has shown up for work every day at his metal fabrication job since finding out he had to return to prison on April 17.

"My boss said 'what are you doing here?' I said I have a job to do," he said.

More: Torres: Denied Crosley Green's death, Florida will now get its pound of flesh | Opinion

It's not so much the work he will miss but the camaraderie with his coworkers, many of whom were left teary-eyed when they learned he would be leaving them.

"I show up with a smile on my face and cheer them up in the mornings," Crosley said. "I get a kick out of clowning around with them and say things like 'hey, you got my coffee ready?'

"They know my whole story, all nine yards but they treat me as regular person," he said. "They see me as someone they can talk to, someone who is upbeat. I'm human, just like everybody else."

He told me about returning to prison and that he has little trepidation about it.

"I'll be well-fed. I know what's expected," he said, adding that one of the keys is to keep to himself. "I can live anywhere. You can put me in a cage with a lion and I'd be able to survive in there. The lion can growl all it wants. Just leave me be and let me mind my own business."

During our ice cream-infused conversation, Crosley snuck something in that caught me by surprise. I had to back up and ask him about it. It turns out he has gotten engaged to a woman named Kathy. (I wound up giving her the rest of my coconut ice cream.)

"She's a good woman and the way she's been by my side, that's the kind of woman I truly would want to marry and have for the rest of my life," he said. "That would be the happy ending."

We talked about his extended family, about how they are going to react Monday morning when he says goodbye, about the things he still wants to do like ride a motorcycle and go horseback riding, and have cookouts with family as a truly free man.

"There's still a feeling of joy in my heart," he said as the rain finally let up. "I may have to go back for a month, six months, whatever, but I will be coming back home. That day is coming. I can't tell you when but it's coming."

Not wanting to take up more of his evening, I thanked him for the time and told him I would see him again. Then I insisted he try some of my coconut ice cream. In the end I don't think I persuaded him to give up butter pecan, but his eyes widened and he asked me where I had gotten it.

"Man, that's pretty good," he said.

Contact Torres at jtorres@floridatoday.com. You can follow him on Twitter @johnalbertorres or on Facebook at facebook.com/FTjohntorres.

Support local journalism and become a subscriber. Visit floridatoday.com/subscribe

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Crosley Green insists that one day he will be free.