Set Up: The Story of Trinity

By Desiree Cochran

A man is shot to death sitting in his rental car. A young mother fights to maintain her freedom and innocence. Who really killed the man? What happened to her lover? The truth will be revealed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312317789

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Set Up: The Story of Trinity

SET UP: The Story of Trinity

By Desiree’ Cochran

Written in memory of LaTroy McIntosh.  Also, I would like to thank my children, my mother, my aunt’s, my grandparents, E.J., Dez, Mika, and Chris for helping me out through this whole process. Special acknowledgement’s goes to Carlos and Ken Driggs.

Set Up: The Story of Trinity

Copyright © 2014 by Desiree Cochran

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Published in the United States by Lulu.com

No part of this work may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except brief quotations for review purposes.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real characters, places or events is purely coincidental.

Cover art designed by Jahtavis Duncan

ISBN: 978-1-312-31778-9

Author’s Note

On July 2, 2008, a black drug dealer in his late twenties was shot to death in the head by a family friend he had known for almost twelve years.  This is the story of his death, the circumstances related to his death and the events leading up to and after his death.  Names of the individuals involved in this case have been changed throughout this story to protect their identities.  Names of the actual places, street names, etc. have been changed to further protect the individuals involved.

This was a senseless and tragic death.  My heart and prayers go out to the victim’s family and also to the families that were irreversibly affected by these events.  Many lives were ruined by this pointless murder.  I felt it was my duty to share these events with the world.  The victim’s family has forever lost a dear loved one, yet they were not the only ones who lost out.  Murder affects everyone involved and their families.

The story is told through the point of view of one of the suspects in the case.  I felt it necessary to show the world how crime and street life do not pay off.    This death caused a ripple effect to many, many people.  Everyone involved and their family and friend’s lives changed forever.

Special thanks go to Ken Driggs for being such a light and an inspiration during this whole experience.

You will find an inserted box with content inside of the box every so often in this book.  These are police reports and other information so that you, the reader can have a better understanding of the events.  I inserted these case notes statements investigative reports and others so you can have other view points of the events that occurred.  I hope that you will find them helpful.

This book is also meant to help inspire others.  It is my hopes that after reading this book, you will find a new way of life.  If just one person is saved from a life of sin by reading this, then all the hard work and dedication it took to write this was worth it.  I hope you will find the scriptures and story both entertaining and informative.

Thank you for reading this book.  I hope that this book can bring some solace and peace of mind to all parties involved.  I also hope that this will inspire others to never put themselves in the same position or follow that road paved by a life without God

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. Isaiah 55:8.

Prologue

Trey McEllis sat slumped over in the driver seat of the 2007 Dodge Magnum.  Blood dripped from the wounds in his head.  His pants were pulled down past his knees but not all the way to his ankles.  Deep crimson was seeping into the white cotton fabric of his undershirt.  The medallion he wore around his neck was quickly turning red with blood.

His last words had been, No, man, don’t!  These pitiful cries of mercy uttered only milliseconds before a deafening shatter of bullets exploded inside the car and pierced his flesh.  Bullets flying everywhere shattered the driver side door window and exited into the great unknown.  An entire clip and one in the chamber were emptied into the darkness of that oddly cool July night.

The first bullet entered through his right arm that he was using to feebly protect himself and went through his skull around the right temple and lodged somewhere around the other side of his brain.  Death was instantaneous.  The second grazed his forearm as his arm went down and then pierced the skull a little farther back but exited on the other side of his head leaving a gaping hole.  The third went through the skin connecting his thumb to his index finger and then lodged itself directly inside Trey’s mouth, shattering a few teeth as it entered.

In the dead of the night, neighbors were awakened by the piercing tones that echoed off the trees.  They eagerly jumped from their beds and ran to their windows hoping their worst nightmares were not coming true.  They were.  The small community safety net had been shattered.  Those were not fireworks that had roused them from their sleep.  As each of them reached the windows, they all caught a glimpse of two black males running away.  But none could really see who the black men were.

Another of the neighbors had pulled into a parking space just moments before but saw the two black men lurking in the shadows.  He was terrified and drove off calling the police as he did.  Police arrived in response to the original call only moments after the gun shots were heard throughout the apartment complex.  As police officer’s were talking to the Hispanic man about his run in with the two would be assailants, a silver car rounded the corner slowly, and proceeded to creep past the patrol cars.  Once the officer got a good look at the terrified look on the girl driver’s face, he knew.

He knew the two black men in the car with her were who he was looking for.  That girl looked terrified.  When the driver got just past the patrol car she gunned it.  Peddle to the floor and tires squealing, the car roared into action and speed off into the night.  The police officers were just not fast enough.  They were parked facing the opposite direction.  They were out of their cars.  There was nothing they could do to catch the fleeing suspects.

Who would have known that night would be the night Trey would die?  Who would have known that night would be the night that police officers would find the drug dealer dead in his rented car parked in his old apartment complex?  Who could have guessed who the murderer would really be?

AZARIAH MOVES IN

Thursday June 12, 2008 - Come get me, he huffed frantically into the phone.  Where are you? she replied. 

I'm in the woods around my mom's house.

I'll be there in a few minutes, was her response and then she hung up the phone.

Trinity didn't know why Azariah was calling her in the middle of the day like that.  He had his own car.  Why did he sound like he was in danger?  She ran and slipped on her loafers, grabbed her car keys and shouted that she was leaving up the stairs to her roommate.  She hurried out the front door and let it slam behind her with a loud thud.  She scurried down the stairs almost missing one and tumbling head first into the holly bushes at the bottom of the long stair case.  As the car's engine roared to life, she couldn't help but feel a foreboding sense about the air.  Something just was not right.

She raced down the back roads to avoid mid-afternoon traffic in the ever busy city.  It would take her at least half an hour to get there, but she had the feeling that she had to hurry.  She weaved in and out of traffic seeming to herself like a NASCAR driver.  She could imagine being behind the wheel of something so powerful that you could hit 0 to 60 in 3 seconds flat.  Trinity could hear the crowd cheering from the stands as she raced lap after lap around the Daytona, Florida track doing speeds only thought of in this rush hour traffic.

A yellow light quickly changed to red and she was forced to slam on her breaks and snap back into reality.  Trinity was not at Daytona, but she was about to run that light.  Getting a ticket or getting into an accident was just not something she could afford to go through at the moment.  She had to focus on going to pick up her ex-boyfriend, Azariah.  She had not seen or heard from him since they broke up. 

They had not parted on bad terms, but they just did not talk anymore.  She wondered why he had called her of all people.  He owed her money for having paid to fix that jalopy of a car he had.  She wondered if his car had broken down and he was stuck on the side of the road.  But if he was stuck on the side of the road, then why would he be in the woods in his mom's neighborhood?

There were too many questions racing through her head as she pulled into the neighborhood.  She could see a pregnant girl sitting on the sidewalk at the entrance of the neighborhood.  She had a bag next to her like she was running away from home.  She laughed to herself remembering how she felt when she found out she was pregnant at 17 years old.

Her trip down memory lane vanished as she realized that she wasn't exactly sure where Azariah was.  She flipped open her cell phone and dialed the number he had called from.

Hello?

Hey, where are you?  I just pulled in your hood.

Take the first left and go down to the cul-de-sac and wait.

O.k.

Trinity wondered if she was being set up.  It wouldn't be the first time.  Everyone knew that she made a lot of money every day in cash.  She was a dancer at one of the largest adult entertainment clubs in the city.  She was also about the only girl who made $500 plus every night.  She was so popular, that all the regulars came to see only her and another girl perform their nightly show on the center stage.  The club even put her picture in their magazine advertisement in a national magazine. 

She knew that people had stolen large sums of money from her.  Trinity couldn't understand why anyone would steal from her.  She had a six bedroom house and let anyone stay there rent free.  She bought all the food and paid all the bills.  Anyone staying with her only had to ask and she would give them money for whatever it was they needed.  Even the people she knew that did not live with her only had to ask and she would give them whatever amount of money they needed; even if she really didn't have it to give.

Suddenly to her right she saw movement from the trees in between two houses in the cul-de-sac.  Then she saw him, Azariah was running towards her car at an alarming speed.  He almost slammed into the car as he tried to stop to jump in.  He hurried into the car and slumped way down past where the door and window meet so as not to be seen by anyone.

Go.

Trinity didn't say anything.  She just drove away.  As she was pulling out of the neighborhood with him crouching down in the front seat, she saw the same pregnant teenager sitting there.  Trinity's window was up so she couldn't hear what the girl was saying, but she could see clearly that the girl was trying to talk to her or at least get her attention. 

Trinity rolled down the window to see what the girl needed.  The teen was explaining that she had to get away from the house she was living in because nobody wanted her there now that she was pregnant.  Trinity looked at Azariah who was mouthing no and let’s go.  Trinity looked at the girl and said, I've got to go somewhere right now, but I'll be back.  Trinity never saw that girl again.

As they got farther down the road she glanced into the passenger seat and Azariah started to straighten up.  She noticed how he kept looking around worriedly and checking the rear view mirrors for any would be tails.  She smiled and almost laughed as she said, What happened?

Azariah didn't find it the least bit funny and the look on his face made Trinity's smile disappear.  He began to explain how he had been asleep and his mother had gone into his room and woke him up by telling him that she took his car keys.  He had just bought that car from his mother's boyfriend, but apparently he wasn't paying him for the car fast enough.  He had just given him a hundred dollars the week before, but his mother said that he needed to give her boyfriend another hundred to get the keys back. 

He got very angry and tried to storm out the door to get to his car, but instead of the glass door just opening for him the way it always has, the door did not budge and he kicked it.  It shattered into thousands of tiny pieces.  He ran out the door and into the woods.  He was afraid his mother had called the police on him so he just hid in the woods until Trinity had arrived.

They made it back to Trinity's house and she showed him to his new room.  She missed him terribly and wanted to just tell him that he could sleep in her room, but she had other issues to deal with.  Her roommate was also her best friend.  He was also a guy.  He was also her man.

Elijah and Trinity had this on-going relationship for about three years.  They were never official because he was still technically with his child's mother.  But Elijah and Trinity were everything that embodies a couple.  They ate together, slept together, made love to each other, showered together, read the Bible with each other, prayed together, and even argued like they were together.  Everyone in the entire crew knew that Trinity was Elijah's girl.

Elijah had gone to prison and during the year he was away, one of his friends, Tay, had contacted Trinity.  He asked her if he and his three children could move in.  She gladly accepted them in with open arms.  She had taken care of all four of them.  Then his child's mother moved in briefly and they argued all the time.  The children’s mother ended up leaving and taking the three kids with her.  Trinity did not want to kick Tay out but she couldn't afford to have him living there and not contributing anything, not even cleaning the house.

During his stay at her home, Tay invited Azariah to a party that Trinity threw around mid October.  It was a house warming party for her friends with a wild side to attend as she had a pole set up and hired strippers to entertain the guests.  Trinity remembered always liking Azariah, so while he was at her house, she made a move.  Trinity and Azariah ended up in her bedroom talking for hours that night which led to making passionate love for hours.  Eventually he left in the early morning hours, and they began dating from that moment on.  That is until he owed her money for fixing that car of his.

Azariah eventually told Trinity that the real reason he stopped calling her and accepting her calls was that he knew Elijah  would be out of prison soon and he couldn't interfere with what they had going on.  Trinity knew that was all a load of crap, but she accepted it and moved on.  She looked into Azariah's eyes and gave him a hug.  She didn't want to let go of him.  She breathed in deep taking in his amazing smell.  He smelled like blue water cologne, the type she couldn't resist.  She wanted him right then and there, but she just let him go and told him that if he needed anything to just go get her.

She went upstairs to Elijah's room and told him what just happened and that Azariah was downstairs about to take a shower.  Elijah went downstairs to speak to him.  He was very excited.  Azariah was his best friend.  They were such good friends that they called each other cousins.  Everyone knew they were not blood related, but they swore they were.  Trinity sauntered slowly into her master suite and allowed herself to fall heavily onto her over-expensive queen sized bed equipped with a leather, padded headboard and old English column posts.  She gazed up at the green ceiling fan for what seemed like an eternity until she dozed off to sleep.

WE NEED MONEY

Trinity couldn't believe her eyes at what she was witnessing.  She had gone into a night club to see if they were hiring and when she came back out, both Elijah and Azariah were running back towards her and her car was nowhere to be seen.  They were beckoning her to come towards them.  She picked up her pace and finally reached the two of them.  Elijah began to walk away and Azariah told her they had to move the car so nobody would see what they were driving.  The first thought that went through her head was what did they do?

Azariah told her to go get the car and meet them on the other side of the street.  She ran through two parking lots and finally reached her car.  There were some strange men sitting there watching her every move.  She did not feel comfortable about this at all.  She quickly jumped in her car, cranked it up, and zoomed back through the parking lots she had just come from.  She did not know exactly where the boy's had gone, but she was sure she would spot them, or they would spot her.

Just as she was turning out of the last parking lot, she spotted Elijah to her left searching for something on the ground.  Trinity parked the car and got out to see what it was both Elijah and Azariah were searching for.  Apparently Azariah had lost his cell phone somewhere in the area and they were now trying to locate it.

Azariah escorted Trinity back to her car and put $50 in her sun visor.  He told her that this was not much, but to use it toward the mortgage.  They continued to search for the phone for another 15 minutes, but gave up and headed back to the car.  They got in and explained how they had been walking down through the cut and had come across this drunken man.  They told the poor drunk man that they needed a cigarette.  When he reached in his pocket to give them both a cigarette, Elijah said, Um, buddy, we need your wallet and your phone too. 

They all laughed at how he had said that particular phrase.  Trinity thought they were kidding until they kept on telling her all the details about how they had just robbed that poor drunk guy.  But they way they put it, they didn't necessarily rob him, they really just asked him for his money and he freely just handed it to them.  They didn't force him to do anything.  That was the most hilarious story she had ever heard and they all had a laugh about it for the rest of the night.

After that night, it became routine for Trinity to hear stories about the boy's taking other people’s money or cell phones.  Some of the stories were hilarious to hear about, and others just sounded like they were beginning to get a little too reckless.  At one point Trinity heard they had taken a Benz and a Truck!  She told them they needed to get rid of them as soon as they could and that was the end of that.  She did not hear about them doing anything stupid for a long time. 

Trinity was beginning to believe that she had actually solved the problem of them going out and robbing people.  They seemed to have a thing for robbing Mexican’s.  They said that they always carried around money and usually walked around alone at night.  She guessed they were right, because they always seemed to come back with extreme amounts of money.  Then after she told them to get rid of the cars, the money stopped and she figured they had stopped as well.

She was wrong.  One night Azariah told her about how he robbed this man, but he thought the man was a cop because his wallet had a gun carrying permit in it.  He told her that he was really scared and that he was not ever going to do that again.  He said the man tried to fight back and almost took his gun away from him.  He was scared because he had almost lost his own life that night.  He told Trinity that he wasn't going to rob anyone again.  That was his last time and he was going to get a real job and take care of her.  Trinity really was pleased to hear the news.  She didn't want him to go out there and risk his life or his freedom for some money, especially when she was making enough to take care of them all.  Trinity was falling more and more in love with him every day.  She didn't tell him that she was, but her actions and the look in her eyes told him all he needed to know.

THE LOVE TRIANGLE

Trinity had been dating Elijah on and off for almost three years.  She still loved him very much, she always would, but each passing day her love grew stronger and stronger for Azariah.  Azariah cared about her deeply.  He cooked for her, cleaned for her, sang to her, wrote her little love notes and poetry, and he did the little things no other man had done for her before.  She would sit in the bathroom while he was taking a shower.  They would turn the lights off and light a candle.  She would sit on the edge of the bath tub while he showered and they would talk the entire time. 

Azariah told her that he did not want to have sex because that would be disrespectful to his cousin, even though Azariah and Trinity were secretly together.  Trinity had already told Elijah she didn't want to be with him anymore.  Elijah and Trinity had also stopped having sex altogether!  Trinity had finally made up her mind that she wanted to be with Azariah and only Azariah.  She even stopped dancing at the club so she could be 100 percent faithful to Azariah.

Azariah and Trinity would sneak off into his room or hers every now and then to talk.  Trinity decided that she wanted to please him without having sex.  She began to please him every few days by kissing all over his body and using her tongue to do things he had never dreamed of.  He couldn't get enough of her.  The torture of not having sex was weighing on them both heavily.

One day Azariah came up behind Trinity.  He put his arms around her and told her that he loved her.  The look on her face told him she didn't believe him.  He then turned her around to face him and looked directly into her dreamy green eyes and said, Really, I really do love you.  She didn't respond.  She didn't know how.  Should she tell him how madly in love she was with him too? 

Could she tell him that just yet?  No, she shouldn't, she should just keep her mouth closed.  So she did just that.  She just stared back into his deep brown eyes and smiled that goofy I'm in love smile back at him.  They hugged and then she went to her room and prayed for what seemed like forever that they would finally get to be together for a life time.

That evening Trinity was joking around with Elijah in the living room.  He was lying on the floor and Trinity jokingly said, What if I did you like you guys do females?  She got down on the floor in front of him and pretended to be having sex with him.  She grabbed his legs and pushed them up toward his head in the missionary position.  They were both laughing.  Eli was yelling, No, don’t!  Trinity thought it was so funny.

Then she said, Turn over!  She flipped his leg over to where he was lying on his stomach.  Trinity laid on his back and pretended to be humping him very hard.  He was laughing and telling her to stop at the same time.  Trinity had Azariah on her mind so she called out, Azariah!  Azariah!  Come here!  Elijah screamed, No!  Don’t call my cuzo!  Trinity laughed.

Azariah came walking into the living room all nonchalantly.  When he saw the scenario that was taking place he smiled and half galloped over to the two on the floor.  He got down on top of Trinity’s back and pretended to hump her really hard.  Trinity and Elijah were both laughing and telling him to stop in between breaths.

Azariah jumped up and walked back into his room like nothing happened.  Trinity rolled off of Elijah and laid on the floor panting for air.  She was laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes.  She got up and went into Azariah’s room.  When she walked into the room she noticed him standing by his bed.  He had a rag in his hand and he was wiping off the gun.  The box of bullets was lying on the bed.  Trinity stifled a laugh when she saw him dancing while he was cleaning the gun.  Trinity thought it was adorable.

She walked over to the bed and sat down.  She picked up the gun and started to examine every detail about it.  She looked up to Azariah and asked him how to load it.  He told her to pull the clip out.  She had a hard time opening the chamber and the clip.  He had to do both for her.  She looked at each piece and watched how he disassembled the gun.  He explained how to do each step.

Trinity loaded in the last two bullets into the clip.  He showed her how to put a bullet into the chamber.  Trinity had just bought the pistol three weeks before and had never used it.  This was the first time she had ever been shown how to use it.  She had never fired the gun.  She told Azariah to keep the gun in his room because she did not want Elijah to find out she had one.

They both figured that if Elijah thought the gun was in Azariah’s room, that Elijah would not touch it.  If Elijah thought the gun was Trinity’s, he would use it.  Neither Trinity nor Azariah wanted Elijah to get his hands on a loaded hand gun.  He was unpredictable and they did not want him to do anything stupid.  So they agreed to keep it in Azariah’s room for safe keeping until Trinity could get to a firing range and learn to use it.  She wanted to get a concealed weapon permit so she could carry it in her glove box.

She bought the gun because people had been following the girl’s home from the club.  Elijah convinced her to buy one.  She had originally been absolutely against the idea, but Elijah was very persuasive.  She swore he should be a salesman.  Trinity never told him she was approved to buy the gun.  It was a High Point 9mm black, semi-automatic hand gun.

Azariah put the gun and the bullets on the dresser and turned towards Trinity.  Trinity kept giving him that seductive look as though she wanted his entire body.  He smiled at her and shook his head.  He was very against having sex with her.  He knew she wanted to, but he did not want to disrespect his cousin, Elijah.

To Trinity’s complete surprise, Azariah said, Alright!  You want this?  He reached over and ripped her pants off her body.  He did not want to wait so he only pulled the pants down to her knees.  He pushed her legs up and slipped his shorts down slightly.  He pulled out his throbbing manhood and slid it deep inside of Trinity.

Each stroke was excruciatingly pleasurable for Trinity.  She stared into his deep brown eyes questioningly.  He thrust inside of her deeper and deeper.  She was in pure ecstasy.  She began wondering why he was going back on his word not to make love to her.  He had told her that their relationship was deeper than just sex.  Her eyes told her secrets because he stopped.  He pulled out of her and pulled his pants back up.  He said, That’s enough for now.

Trinity groaned while sliding her pants back up.  She laughed and said, No!  Why?  He smiled back at her but did not answer.  She wondered if he came inside of her.  He had not had sex in a while so she figured he wouldn’t last very long to begin with.  She was not displeased with what happened because she wanted more.  Her mind wondered about why he stopped, but it was probably not because he peaked, but because Elijah was in the next room.

Azariah went into the bathroom to clean up.  Trinity stood up to look into the mirror.  Elijah came to the door and started knocking.  Azariah glanced back at Trinity with an, I told you so look.  Trinity just cut her eyes to the floor with a smirk and started fixing her hair in the bedroom mirror.  Elijah walked into the bathroom and began talking to Azariah.  Trinity went up to her bedroom to take a cold shower.  Elijah was none the wiser.

TWO DAYS BEFORE

Trinity came home from work around 4 A.M. and heard some noise coming from Azariah's room.  She wandered down to see what all the fuss was about.  She walked in and saw Elijah, Azariah and Tay sitting there playing a video game.  She wondered why Azariah had even invited Tay back into her house after he knew she had kicked him out for not contributing and also for finding a used crack pipe on her kitchen table.  Tay looked like a deer in headlights when she entered the room and made eye contact with him.  She decided not to lose her cool because this was her love's friend and she would follow Azariah to the ends of the earth if he asked her to.  She respected his decision to have him over there in his part of the house.  She told the boys good night and retired to her master suite to get some much needed rest.

The next morning she got up and crept down the stairs as to not wake Elijah whose room was just across the hall from her own.  She rounded the corner to see if Azariah was awake yet.  To her dismay, he was not.  To her further dismay, Tay was asleep on the couch in Azariah's room.  Why was he still there?  She did not want that snake in her house.  Later that afternoon everyone was up and in the kitchen cooking dinner. 

Trinity guessed that Tay was trying to earn his keep for her letting him stay there over night by cooking her, a really big meal.  She really didn't mind, because the baby was not at home and it was Azariah's decision to have him over.  She really loved that man Azariah.

That night she decided not to go to work and stayed home to catch up on her rest.  The next morning she woke up and decided that she would make breakfast for everyone.  She made eggs, French toast, sausage and bacon for the boys.  She added some cheese into Azariah's eggs because she knew he liked his eggs that way.  She knew she had to hide that fact from Elijah because he still didn't know that Trinity and Azariah were seeing each other secretly.  She then went upstairs to take a shower. 

Elijah went into Azariah's room and discovered the uneaten plate of food and immediately ran upstairs and knocked on the door of Trinity's bathroom.  He began complaining that she showed his cousin more favor and that he thought she liked Azariah more than him.  Trinity knew she had deeply wounded Elijah.  She didn't want to hurt him because she still had very deep feelings for him, but she was in love with Azariah.

Once she had showered and gotten changed, she came down to find all the boys playing the video game again.  She went back to her room and began to read the last of her book.  She knew that if she dedicated that day and the next to reading, she would have the book finished and she could move on to the next set of books in the series.  She was already on the last book of the main series.  After she had fallen asleep and napped for a few hours she woke to Azariah sitting on her bed.  He smiled that gorgeous, perfect smile of his and asked her if she would take Tay home.  She gladly got dressed and rounded them all up in the car.

They had to make a pit stop at the grocery store.  Tay asked Trinity if he could borrow $10 so that he could get some groceries because his kids had nothing to eat.  She gave him a twenty dollar bill.  He and Azariah went in and took their sweet time about coming back out to the car.  The weather was bad and it was raining outside.  Trinity pulled up to the curb far away from the door. 

Trinity noticed a Hispanic guy standing on the sidewalk with his very small daughter.  His daughter looked to be about the same age as Trinity’s daughter, Liliana.  Trinity got out of the car and asked him if he wanted her to watch the child while he pulled his vehicle up to the