Have you ever pondered the twists of fate that can send a life spiraling in unforeseen directions? Our latest conversation with Scott Hilton, founder of Eagle Rock Boys Ranch, presents a powerful narrative centered on Cuhuatemoc Peraita, a teen whose potential was eclipsed by misfortune and missteps. Scott unveils Peraita's story with a blend of regret and wisdom, detailing the misaligned stars that led a promising youth to a life of crime and, ultimately, to a cell on death row. Through the recounting of Peraita's journey, we come to understand the profound necessity of providing a firm foundation for our youth – and the terrible cost when we fail to do so.
We also step into the shadowed recollections of time, a figure synonymous with lost possibility and the haunting 'what-ifs' that accompany a tale of wasted youth. As Scott shares, the past may be immovable, but within it, we uncover glimmers of hope – the lessons borne from tragedy and the resilience of the human spirit. Through this episode, listeners are invited into a space of contemplation and called upon to acknowledge the ripple effects of our collective actions. Join us for an exploration of life's precarious path and the power that lies in redemption and support.
Have you ever pondered the twists of fate that can send a life spiraling in unforeseen directions? Our latest conversation with Scott Hilton, founder of Eagle Rock Boys Ranch, presents a powerful narrative centered on Cuhuatemoc Peraita, a teen whose potential was eclipsed by misfortune and missteps. Scott unveils Peraita's story with a blend of regret and wisdom, detailing the misaligned stars that led a promising youth to a life of crime and, ultimately, to a cell on death row. Through the recounting of Peraita's journey, we come to understand the profound necessity of providing a firm foundation for our youth – and the terrible cost when we fail to do so.
We also step into the shadowed recollections of time, a figure synonymous with lost possibility and the haunting 'what-ifs' that accompany a tale of wasted youth. As Scott shares, the past may be immovable, but within it, we uncover glimmers of hope – the lessons borne from tragedy and the resilience of the human spirit. Through this episode, listeners are invited into a space of contemplation and called upon to acknowledge the ripple effects of our collective actions. Join us for an exploration of life's precarious path and the power that lies in redemption and support.
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Scott Hilton:
I'm Scott Hilton and I'm the founder of the Eagle Rock Boys Ranch in Gadsden and Attalla. So, my interest in talking about this story is I think we can learn a lot from it. I think a lot of young men can learn a lot from it and I think we as a society can learn a lot from the things that went wrong with the unfortunate Popeye's Slayings. So back in the early 90's I had to begin talking about opening a boys' ranch for exceptionally distressed kids, kids that really weren't fitting in in other places, kids, kids that really weren't fitting in in other places. And as a result of that, work kind of got out that I was thinking about doing that and someone introduced me to Temoc. So, he was just a young man, I think 15, 16 years old at the time, and we actually had a very good relationship. I thought I found Temoc to be personable. I found him to be fairly humble. He was a kid who came out of a difficult situation and was just looking for somebody to stick with him. So I was toying with the idea of opening a ranch just for kids just like him. And he was one of the kids. There was three or four others who kind of pushed me over the edge to say I've really got to do this. I've got to get this done because I saw some of the kids just kind of out there floundering and unfortunately we opened Eagle Rock Ranch on March the 17th of 94, and I believe Temoc committed the murders on April the 16th. I had not had any contact with him that month. You know, looking back on it, I can't help thinking maybe we would have gladly taken him into our ranch because we weren't established well enough at that time and I lost contact with him.
Scott Hilton:
But I think the thing that I want to say is there's a lot of young men out there who are just like he was, and I've known a lot of them. As I said, he was a likable kid, he was intelligent, so he had a bright future, and some of them along the line just gave up, and I think a lot of people gave up on him, so he gave up on himself. I think a lot of people gave up on him, so he gave up on himself. And, as I understand it, he was not the sugar puller in the incident with Popeye's. It's hard for me to imagine that this kid that I knew would even think about doing that, but he was involved in it. So so you know lessons to be learned. You can't even entertain the thought of being involved in something. Maybe in his mind it was just I need a little money and he did. He was struggling as a young man but it turned into a lot more and his story just kind of spiraled from there. He killed somebody in prison and is now on death row. But it's a sad story of a kid who could have done something with his life and made some bad choices and it's a sad story of we as a society not recognizing some things and reaching out. So that was kind of my motivation for being involved. But I also want to say that, if anything good came out, that he was one of the young men who really made me think I need to do something. Of course, that kind of pushed me over the edge to open Eagle Rock Ranch, and Eagle Rock's been home to over 400 kids now for the last 30 years. So if there's any good that could have came out of it, it might have been that. So that's what I want to say about the whole situation. Obviously, there are a lot of victims to this day who are suffering the consequences of his poor choices. He did not have to make those choices and he's gotten what he deserves. Unfortunately, it still breaks my heart to see, because I could have seen his life growing in a totally different direction.
Scott Hilton:
Did you see any kind of signs from his actions that might have led up to this demise? There was no indication that he was going to do something like this. I was just pretty shocked. But I think kids get frustrated when things continually go wrong and we didn't have a lot of resources and I think he just got frustrated and gave up. So yeah, I was really surprised. There was nothing that you could tell just by being around him, at least when I was really pretty close at one time. No indication that it would get this way.
Scott Hilton:
You said at some point you lost contact. Do you know if you had any other outside sources possibly related to gang activity or any other knowledge of Robert Nelson? At the time that I knew him, I probably had not talked to him in three or four months at least. I think he'd gone to live with relatives locally and to my knowledge he wasn't involved in anything like that. He had been. I think his family was from another state. So I don't know what he could have done. That's the reason he's here.
Scott Hilton:
Can you tell me as far as how the ranch is set up? You have a few different locations or houses. The kids go to different channels. Can you tell me where he might have been staying? We opened the ranch just one month before he committed his crime, so he never lived at Eagle Rock. But had he come there, one of our focuses is that we at Eagle Rock stick with kids.
Scott Hilton:
He was a kid that didn't somebody who was really stick with it At first. He was a big one. He wasn't the kind of kid who was going to fit into a lot of places and I think we would have probably stuck with him. That's not to say he wouldn't have gone on and made some bad decisions, but I think he probably got really frustrated with people giving up on him. I think that led to him giving up. You know, making some choices, I don't care, I'm going to do this. I really don't think he went into that situation with the intention of killing anybody. I think he was. From what I understand from the police officers, he was the background worker, planned it all A lot of times kids think. You know, as long as I'm just doing that part, I'm not involved in the violent part I'll be okay. I've had other kids who were charged with murder who weren't even there. If you're a part of a scheme of any kind, you're guilty.
Scott Hilton:
And finally, what are the overall statistics of the success of the children that are coming out of the Eagle Rock homes? Well, it's a difficult question to answer because everybody defines success differently. We like to kind of sarcastically say it's 100%, because every kid who comes there is going to get an opportunity. When they take advantage of that opportunity, they do well. When they don't take advantage of the opportunity, there's nothing they can do about it. So I don't know how to answer the question. We've had a lot of kids become very successful, good fathers and good husbands, good citizens, and then we've had a handful that have actually gone out and committed crimes, serious crimes. Depends on what they want to do with it. But from our perspective we don't give up on them. We don't just kick them out for anything. We really try to work with people, try to hook them up with people who are going to mentor them and be their life, and it works. And be there for life, and it works, I do.
Scott Hilton:
I think about Temoc quite a bit. You know it's been 30 years. I'm sure he's totally forgotten about me, but I do think about him and just how sad it is that he took this path because it really didn't have to be that way, that he took this path because it really didn't have to do that with it. He was a really decent kid who just felt I don't want to use the word victim, but he fell victim to some poor circumstances, and he allowed those to take over. Had he made some better choices and had maybe had some people encouraged him more, none of this would have happened. So maybe that's something we can all learn from unfortunate events. My heart goes out to the victims because it's never over and actually you never got to know it. Some of them you know there's no excuse for what happened. Maybe sun grill can come out of it just a little bit.