08/02/2026
My open letter to the courts, during my son's sentencing hearing, in 2025, where he received a 20-40 year sentence on the charge of 3rd Degree Homicide...
My name is Yolanda L. Reynolds. I am highly disappointed to be standing here, before you, today. The individual rocking the fluorescent green jumpsuit, with his wrists cuffed at his waist, belongs to me. He is my son. When they say both sides lose, both sides truly lose. Before Zahvair received his first mental health diagnosis, at the age of 5, I knew we would be here one day. It just wasn't fully clear which side of the courtroom we were going to be on. But my parental instincts knew the criminal justice system fear would one day become a reality. The hurt and pain that has consumed my body for the past 3 years, is not only for the loss of my son but, most importantly for the loss of yours.
Please understand that my empathy runs deeply for your loss. The moral injury that my son is accused of imposing has been nothing short of devastating. As his mother, I am standing here to humbly ask for you to understand that there is zero comfort knowing that AC is deceased and Zahvair is alive. There is zero comfort knowing that you will visit your loved one at the graveyard and I'll be visiting mine at the State Department of Corrections. Zero comfort.
While you pray he rots in the depths of hell, as his mom, I have no choice but to stand alongside him, simultaneously burning, while continuing to provide the unconditional love our heavenly father designated me to do, through rights, wrongs, and indifferences. As he sits in prison and pays his debt to society as deemed paid by Judge Todd's sentencing decision today, I'll be praying that he receives a second opportunity to conquer his life's goals and allow this situation to inspire him to be a model inmate and come home ready to be successful in the second half of his life. I pray that there is a second opportunity for self-redemption.
On behalf of our family, to the family of AC, we apologize that this is your current reality. I also pray that eventually forgiveness arrives in your hearts, knowingly not to-day but some-day.
Respectfully,
The Mother of the Defendant
Yolanda L. Reynolds
Mothers of Incarcerated Children
Group Facilitator
