Ex-con shares life story with Yuma students

Dale Messmer said when he walked out of a federal prison at age 50, he was wearing a set of clothes from Goodwill and had a $25 check from the state in his pocket.

At one time a successful businessman worth $3.8 million, Messmer spent nearly 11 years in prison after smuggling drugs for the Colombian cocaine cartel run by Pablo Escobar.

"I knew what I was doing was wrong but I did it anyway," said Messmer, who used to own a limousine and charter airplane service. "I knew what would happen if I got caught, but I thought I could get away with it. Instead it cost me everything I ever loved on this earth, my family, friends, good name and reputation."

Now a nationally recognized speaker, Messmer was at Gila Vista Junior High School on Tuesday as part of his Straight Talk Outreach Program (STOP) to talk to youths about the consequences of making bad choices.

"You will make hundreds of choices every day," Messmer said to a packed cafeteria of students, of his choice to break the law. "But some of those choices can dramatically change your life forever. Because of mine I will be a convicted felon for the rest of my life."

He was speaking at the junior high school as part of five-school Yuma area tour sponsored by the Yuma Police Department, in cooperation with Yuma School District 1.

"What he has to say, children and parents have to hear," said Gila Vista Principal Rusty Tyndall, who was instrumental in getting the funding from the school district to fund Messmer's appearance. "I was given a tape of him and after listening to only 30 minutes of it I knew I had to get this guy here."

"My message is simple, gangs drugs and breaking the law can do the same thing for you it did to me," Messmer said. "All I want them to do is stop and and think before they make that decision."

He will also hold a public presentation that is free of charge and designed for middle school aged youths and above. It will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Post Auditorium, 400 W. 4th St.

School Resource Officer Alan Ienn, who first heard Messmer's message five years ago at a National Association of School Resource Officers Convention, said while students hear about the dangers of drugs and gang from police and school officials, Messmer's message comes from the perspective of someone who has been on the other side.

"I knew that his message had to be given to the kids here, given the drugs and violence we are seeing in our community," said Ienn. "He brings the same message the students get from us, just one from a different perspective. He is seen as having credibility."

Talking from his first-hand experience Messmer warned the students about the harsh and brutal realities of life behind bars.

"I'm sorry. I know what you are going to deal with and you aren't ready for it," Messmer said. "It's not what you think it is. It's not a rite of passage or a badge of honor with your buddies. It's a flashing neon sign of stupidity about how you ruined your life."

Originally arrested on 36 felony charges, Messmer told the students that being involved with gangs and drugs will set them on the path to prison.

"Forget your name because you won't need it anymore if you make that trip," Messmer said. "Just remember your prison identification number."

He also touched on the brutal violence, such as fighting, that occurs every day in prison between inmates.

"I don't remember a day that I didn't see blood on the floor," Messmer said. "You will also have to fight to defend something, and you are sitting on it, and it isn't the chair."

He went on to say young people, specifically those under 25, who are sent to prison are typically the targets of other inmates, especially those who aren't ever getting out or serving long sentences, and they will have to deal with that violence in some form every day.

Messmer wound up serving prison time in four different states, including the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Tennessee.

"I was six doors down from James Earl Ray, the man who shot Rev. Martin Luther King," Messmer said. "It was a serious prison."

A martial arts expert, body guard, former Marine, a sniper, a bounty hunter, bouncer and a trained sniper, his wanted poster described him as "armed and dangerous," and advised "never approach alone." He even trained SWAT teams.

Messmer told the students that there are new federal laws that specifically target teens ages 14 to 18 that could send them to prison for the rest of their lives if convicted of a drug-related felony offense.

"Once you go in it's a different world," Messmer said. "It's jungle rules, survival of the fittest."

Messmer said while he was in prison he saw first-hand what happened to young people who made bad choices and wound up in prison. It was by accident that he learned he could make a difference.

He said nearing his parole, the warden at the prison asked him to speak at a school during Red Ribbon Week, a national anti-drug effort. At first reluctant, Dale gave in to the promise of a McDonald's hamburger.

"You forget I had been eating prison food for many years at that point," he said.

That talk, he said, led to another and then more until one day he spoke at a school attended by the son of then Arkansas Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee. Now governor Huckabee, helped Dale speak in nearly all Arkansas schools.

Messmer, who has been talking to students for the past 15 years, averages 150 schools per year and estimates 800,000 kids have heard his message. He said youths who attend his program hear some tough talk. The Gila Vista visit was his 1,496th school visit.

"I don't sugar coat anything," Messmer said. "I don't use foul language but it is graphic and detailed and I leave them with no doubts."

He says he knows he's doing some good because he often hears from students who changed their lives after hearing him speak.

"I know I can change lives. I can get youths to wake up and wise up," Messmer said. "Not all the kids get the message. Some have already started down that path, the ones that do are a winning deal for me."

Messmer also told the students about the day he turned his life around. He said one day, while working for a construction company in Phoenix, a young man in a suit walked in the office.

He went on to say he could see the man drove a car similar to what FBI agents drove. From a desk drawer Messmer said he quietly drew a 9mm pistol, waiting for him to pull a badge.

"He didn't know I had a gun on him. I just thought, no, I'm not going to prison for the rest of my life. I had made up my mind to dust him and run" said Messmer, who had been on the run for 16 months at the time. "that was the first time in my life I have ever considered harming someone who wasn't harming me."

Ultimately the man who came into his office turned out to be an insurance salesman, who instead of showing Messmer a badge and handcuffs, showed him pictures of his wife and children.

So stunned about what he had done, Messmer told the student that he drank heavily that night and wound up pulling into a church parking lot because he was too drunk to drive.

"The minister was still there that night," Messmer said. "He had been putting off cleaning the carpets for some time and the night he finally decided to do it was the night I wound up there."

Messmer said broke down into tears as he told the minister about his past. That minister, he said, convinced him to turn himself in, which he did three days later.

"I walked into the FBI office in Tennessee and said I hear you guys are looking for me," said Messmer, who was given a plea-bargained sentence for turning himself in.

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James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.