Bring Austin Wilson Home to His Family

My name is Amy English, I'm located in Mississippi, and I am swallowing every ounce of pride and hesitation I've had about doing this, and reaching out for help. Doing so in a time where so many other people seem to also be facing hard times financially, definitely adds another level of guilt to this. But at the same time, we won't stop fighting until our son-in-law, Austin Wilson, is home with his wife and two children where he should have been all this time. If you don’t know me, I will warn you now that I’m unable to ‘nutshell’ a story to save my life. Long-winded is in my DNA, so I apologize for the length of this, but our family would be so grateful if you would read to the end.

Some of you are already aware of certain aspects of Austin's situation, and some of you reading this may be completely in the dark. On January 7th, 2024, Austin began serving a 5 year sentence for something he was accused of back in December of 2020. His accuser alleged this took place on a specific date, at a specific time, and named the specific location. The really good news is that thanks to modern technology he could tell exactly where he was at the alleged time, along with several friends and family members - including our daughter, Haley. He was at his house with these people at the alleged time and for many hours leading up to and after the alleged time, and GPS evidence could and DID most definitely back this up. The bad news is….well, there’s so much it’s hard to know where to even start. But, on day 1 of the week leading up to his trial in November 2023, the judge refused to allow the GPS data because Austin’s lawyer did not have a qualified person there to testify to the validity of the computer generated data, how it’s obtained etc…what he had was a printed data report obtained from OnStar, and that was not sufficient. His lawyer asked for a continuation in order to get someone lined up, and the judge basically told him he’s had two years to get that done, so no. And I totally get where that judge is coming from because he was exactly right. This lawyer who was paid $18,000 the day he was hired, failed Austin in so many ways, but we did not know the scope of this until after the fact when we requested his case file and began looking through it. In the 2 plus year time span that he was hired, we were told multiple times things looked good for Austin, because of all the evidence he had. His accuser had their word, and two people lined up to testify on their behalf and they were the two arresting officers. We were all very confident going into trial week. When the judge throws out THE most critical evidence you had - the evidence that would shut this case down in seconds, you are left with a his word against their word case and this is the point where Austin’s lawyer began to basically give up on this case. This was EXTREMELY confusing for us, because there was other evidence and several people who were going to testify on his behalf, but it wasn’t concrete evidence like the GPS data. This was key but I’m unable to go into more detail on that. Austin still wanted to take it to trial because he was innocent, and he wasn’t about to take a plea deal for something he didn’t do. But his lawyer wasn’t entertaining the idea of taking it to trial because the chances of the jury finding him guilty were very high without that GPS evidence. So it was a pressure cooker environment of Austin basically begging to fight - he’s crying, Haley is crying - and his lawyer ends up giving him two options. You can fire me right now, or you can take the plea deal they are offering. Austin is sitting there thinking there is no way we can afford to hire another lawyer….if he fights it and is found guilty, his sentence would be lengthier. In this moment he did what he had to do in order to get back home to his wife and kids the quickest - and that was take the plea deal. I know y’all are sitting there right now thinking WHY WHY WHY not do exactly what you are doing right now and at least try the GoFundMe route, or sell your home and live in a van down by the river, rob a bank - DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING BUT TAKE A PLEA DEAL!!! And hear me when I say you cannot possibly know how badly we wished things were done differently, but they were not, and he/we can only dwell on the regrets so much before we just lose all sanity, so our focus has to be in the now and what we need to do to fix this absolute nightmare.

After Austin was taken to jail on 1/7/24, we requested his entire case file from his lawyer. Once we started going through what we were given, it became much more clear as to why this lawyer gave Austin the two options he did that day. He had failed to do what he was hired to do, and shocked is a complete understatement. He (lawyer) did not attempt to request ANY form of evidence until 12/16/22…. If you are like me and bad at math, that’s 644 days AFTER the date he was hired. Yeah, read that again. We had NO IDEA that nothing was being done by his office that entire time. We just ‘assumed’ that they knew getting things like we had discussed/requested (IN THE BEGINNING) such as phone records, pinged locations, etc… should be done ASAP but apparently this wasn’t on their to-do list. The cell phone company responded to their subpoena to say that they only hold the requested type data for 18 months. He had 18 months to do this and didn’t, again - we had no idea none of this was being gathered when it should have been. His lawyer never even attempted to request any phone records etc...for any of the people with Austin that whole night, he only requested for Austin, and way too late.

Y’all there is SO MUCH wrong with this case, so many red flags, so many ‘DO WHAT???’ situations like one of the officers who questioned him ripped up one of Austin’s statements in front of him because he wrote something along the lines of “I did not do this - I’m writing what I’m being told to say”. And the officer eventually even admitted to doing this. We are already 12 chapters into this novel and the amount of stuff I could tell you is mind boggling. It is absolutely terrifying to know that someone can be arrested with ZERO evidence other than someone’s word, and a case like that get pushed thru the ‘justice’ system. Our eyes have been opened to so much that is so very wrong with this system. I’m leaving out tons of information that I’d love to be able to shout from the rooftop, but for now, we cannot discuss it. The reason we cannot discuss it is because we have found a new legal team for Austin, and this will involve private investigators doing what SHOULD have been done the day he was taken in for questioning. It’s been very challenging to have to be silent on this for over 3 years, but Austin getting home asap is the top priority. So for now, we wait and we pray with every fiber of our being that the truth behind ‘why’ this happened is finally revealed. But in order to fight this route with private investigators involved, not just a lawyer, it involves much more expense. As you can see, the current goal is $20,000 as I type this on 8/25/24. I want to be fully transparent with the goal amounts. I have no doubt we will exceed the retainer fee quickly and that is $15,000 to even begin the process with this new legal team. For now that leaves $5,000 that can go towards additional cost to the team, but it also can hopefully give Haley some much needed breathing room. She is doing as much as she can with the two jobs she has, and essentially being a single Mother now. If you've never had a loved one in jail (something I never EVER thought would come out of my mouth), you don't realize how EXPENSIVE it is for them to be there and to maintain communication with them. Not a day goes by that Austin doesn't talk to his wife, but even more importantly, his two children (age 5 and almost 12 months). He's missing out on so many special milestones with his children. He's always been a very hands on Daddy, present for all the things from ballgames to school programs and anything in between for his son. He started serving time when his daughter was just over 3 months old. So it is extremely important to both Haley and Austin that he is able to talk to them and 'see' them via FaceTime calls at least once a day, and maintain as much of a relationship as humanly possible considering the circumstances. I'm asking for financial help on behalf of Austin and Haley to help cover the expense of not only his new legal team, but like I said - to give Haley some breathing room when it comes to everything she is responsible for now that Austin is no longer able to financially contribute to their family. I know this would also take a heavy area of worry from Austin’s plate because it kills him to not be able to financially take care of his family. We help where we can, when we can and will continue to do so, but I'm again swallowing my pride here and being blunt in saying that this has grown bigger than we can currently handle financially. I will also add that my husband and I knew about the charge against Austin before he ever proposed to Haley. Anyone who knows Austin can say that he is one of the kindest and most respectful souls to ever walk this Earth, and we could not have hand picked a better man for our daughter to share her life with. He’s an amazing husband and Daddy, even through this awful situation.

If you are unable to donate, that is totally understandable. I assure you, we absolutely get it. But there are two other extremely important ways that you CAN help that don’t cost a thing, and that is to pray with everything you've got that Austin gets the justice he so greatly deserves, and the other thing you can do is PLEASE PLEASE share this on every social media platform you are on. I know that not all of the puzzle pieces are here for you to fully understand, but I assure you that when this part of the fight is complete, it will all make much more sense. Every single dollar, every single share, every prayer for our family as we go through this emotional roller coaster - it’s all so very appreciated, and we can’t thank you enough.

(Any updates on his case that I’m allowed to make, will be posted within this GoFundMe account just to keep things all in one location. I also have a burning desire to share so much of what we have learned thru this process from how messed up the system is to my totally changed view in many aspects on inmates and the environment they are in and how they are treated.....it's a lot to digest, but very eye opening and I think more people need to be educated like we have been)

**I purposefully left out names, law enforcement agencies, towns etc....but I do want to make it clear that neither the Pontotoc Police Department nor the Pontotoc Sheriff's Department had anything to do with any aspect of his case. This is where we are located, so I just wanted to be sure to include this.**

Thank you again for actually reading this far. I know it was a lot.