‘You're never the sum of your worst mistake': April Barber Scales, from prisoner to advocate

Yahoo

2 days ago

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Sentenced to prison for the rest of her life for the murder of her grandparents, April Barber Scales now spends her time on the outside making amends.
Thirty years after the then 15-year-old pleaded guilty, April was granted clemency.
In the decades that followed her guilty plea, new research on adolescent brain development emerged and laws regarding juvenile sentencing changed across the country, including North Carolina.
In 2021, the newly established Juvenile Sentencing Review Board considered 300 petitions. Of those, April was one of three people to be granted clemency by then governor Roy Cooper. After three years of probation, she is now fully free.
To understand how April received her freedom, a moment that was full of joyful tears, you have to know the story of the tears of sorrow, regret and fear that were shed in Wilkes County back in 1991 and 1992.
'I didn't understand that I was actually being mistreated, so to speak, by him. I was still very much in love. You know, this was my boyfriend. This was my son's father. This happened, but somehow, some way, we're still going to work through it. And my naive mind said it's going to be okay at some point somehow,' April told CBS 17's Russ Bowen.
At 14 years-old, April became pregnant by a 29-year-old. It was a relationship that was encouraged by her own mother. But it was a pregnancy that was discouraged by her grandparents who had adopted April.
'It was supposed to be like a Lifetime movie. Everyone paints this picture where some tragedy happens, and everyone is all so accepting and comes out on the lawn and hugs everyone and all the bad is forgiven and everyone moves forward. And that's the way it was supposed to be. And then it wasn't. And it couldn't be undone.'
As for what April would say to her grandparents, if she could see them face-to-face, she said she would, 'profusely apologize and explain to them I never wanted to harm them; I only wanted them to see my point of view.'
The house fire she and her then boyfriend, Clinton Johnson, were accused of setting killed her grandparents, Aaron and Lillie barber. April faced two murder charges at 15 years old.
'They had me kind of painted like Long Island Lolita, like I was the mastermind and that he was under my influence. 106 days after I gave birth, he [the defense attorney] brought a plea to me saying that I would be wasting the taxpayer's time and money if I took it to trial. And I plead guilty to murder, to the two counts, not knowing that the judge was going to make the sentences consecutive.' April was also threatened with the death penalty.
After entering prison, the teenage mother did get the opportunity to create a relationship with her son, Colt. Colt went on to attend Appalachian State and played on the university's football team. It's a relationship that has survived.
'He's been by my side since he has been able to do so. And we maintain a very still close and open relationship. He is now 33. He is a very accomplished young man. He's a marine with a lot of good things behind him. And we still maintain that, just communicating and visiting as much as we can,' she said.
Ten years into her sentence, April was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In one of April's published books, she recalls what that was like.
Reading an excerpt for CBS 17, she said, 'MS is such an iffy, scary disease. How could my life be over at 25? We discussed treatments to slow the progression of the disease. I began to research as much as I could.'
April has also written about coming to terms with her mother's decisions as a child and as an adult.
'Shelia attempted to leave on a better note than she came—promising to write, visit, send money and find a lawyer to help April obtain freedom. April heard these words, but deep down knew they were false,' she read.
April's mother died while April was in prison, however she has become close with her biological father.
Since her release in 2022, April has become an advocate for juvenile defenders and a messenger of hope and frank reality for those on the inside. She said she does believe that she is reaching people.
'I do. I do in in small increments,' she said. 'I do think I'm reaching them. I developed this mantra in there: 'One-day, one-step, one-moment at a time.' And I think that's how I reach them.'
April continued to say, 'I would like to reach them all and snap my fingers and be able to go back and change policy and how they're treated in prison. But you know, that's not going to happen overnight. I wasn't released overnight, so I know that big changes don't come overnight, but that's why I keep at it, because I do believe they will come.
April recognized that there are people who might say that she should not have been released from prison for a crime that she admitted committing, even if she was 15 years old at the time.
'I want those people to know you're never the sum of your worst mistake and I am not a juvenile. I am not someone who will make rash decisions now or be influenced. You know I have made a lot of mistakes, as a lot of people, and I've learned to live with those mistakes, and I understand that not everyone is going to be as supportive. And I just let my success be something that those people can hopefully look up to one day as opposed to looking down on me.'
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