Prison Break actor Lane Garrison had his own horror experience behind bars after being convicted of vehicular manslaughter.
The actor was best known for playing David “Tweener” Apolskis in the hit US drama alongside Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell. But in December 2006, his life changed forever when he was involved in a crash that killed 17-year-old student Vahagn Setian, who was a passenger in his car.
Thirty years old at the time, Garrison pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter, drunk driving and providing alcohol to a minor in 2007, following the crash. At the time, Garrison had cocaine in his system as well as alcohol. He was handed a 40-month prison sentence after also injuring two 15-year-old girls in the accident.
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The conviction came just after Garrison landed his breakout role in Prison Break, and he spent two years in jail for real, being released in 2009. He opened up about the “terrifying” experience on the Today Show, admitting it was his “worst nightmare”.
(Image: Getty Images)
He said: “You have to trust that one of these guys, when you close your eyes, isn’t just going to wake up in the middle of the night, pull you off your rack and beat you with a lock or stab you. If you speak to anyone who’s ever done time, the fact that you make it out of there alive is a miracle.
“It’s like a bomb went off inside; it’s your worst nightmare. Your hardcore gang members are there, and the guards are pretty hard there as well. I probably saw about 300 fights; I had a bunkie who was killed; I saw people stabbed.”
He served in eight different prisons throughout his sentence, and admitted he lived in cells that were infested with ants and cockroaches, as well as being “tortured” by guards and living with nothing “but four walls”.
He told MSNBC: “One of the things about jail that’s weird is that you’re sent to a place where you’re supposed to sit there and think about your actions and their consequences and why you’re there. And I think now, it turns more into – the minute you go there, it’s just survival.
“My nervous system was shot. You’re desensitised after, by all that you’ve seen. And as an actor, that’s the worst thing you can be. To be a good actor you have to feel life, and observe life. And it felt like I came back from war.”
It took the star a year to be able to hug someone or even hold a coffee cup as he was so “jittery” after being released. He was also ordered to pay $300,000 in restitution to the victims and their families after the crash.
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Garrison’s legal troubles didn’t end there, however. In 2012 he was accused of slapping his ex-girlfriend Ashley Mattingly at her apartment, and pleaded no contest to the charge. In 2013, he was ordered to attend self-help classes, 52 AA meetings and eight hours of community service in response to the charge.
Now things are looking up for the actor, who has welcomed two daughters with his fiancée Mary Kaitlin – Linden Rose and Livingston Kate.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
