People say, "You needed to come to prison
to become the person that you are."
Right, 'cause you are gonna be a person that's gonna help shift the culture,
you gonna help change the world one day.
I wanna be a beacon that redemption is possible, right?
Demonstrating reconciliation is possible.
You don't have to come to prison and just let yourself just waste away.
You can grow.
Look at me. I am a person who has achieved it.
I think we could all be dangerous people.
People say you're a monster.
I'm not sitting here saying I'm innocent.
I just murdered some guy in cold blood.
Thank you for your patience. Mm-hm.
Just count to ten for me, please.
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
I was born in Cleveland, Ohio.
My upbringing was one of poverty.
As a young man, I was always ambitious and creative.
Always wanted to do some type of music or some type of poetry.
But I was being pulled between two worlds,
my... my creativity and the negativity in which I lived there.
The neighborhood that I grew up in,
it was drugs being sold, it was people being shot.
I remember you couldn't even go too far up the street without getting jumped
'cause you was outside of your neighborhood.
There was always violence.
We get taught from this high that you got to be hard.
You don't let nobody punk you. You... You do this.
This is the code of the street. That's the code.
Toxic masculinity is the norm, right? And I picked it up.
I started doing everything that others in my environment was doing.
I started taking chances, like trying to sell dope.
Drugs and alcohol kind of stifled a lot of my... a lot of my dreams.
As a person, Danielle was way different than what I was used to.
I'm used to dealing with girls from a certain demographic, right?
And this was, like, um, a young girl from the suburbs, right?
And she was just so happy, and sunny, and bubbly all the time,
like, every time.
She kept me out of the streets
because she always believed in whatever I was doing.
So far as, like, she pushed my creativity,
she kept me grounded and kept me chasing my dreams,
making me believe that it was... that it was real.
Everything was looking good. I was working.
I was going to night school, getting my diploma. Right?
And I was really non-existent in the streets.
I was just mostly with Danielle.
She was the most excited to be a mother that I've ever seen.
All right? And I was excited.
I was at all the classes to breathe and breathe
and every prenatal appointment.
So we were... we were stoked. We had a big baby shower.
So yeah, it was... it was... it was a wonderful experience.
I needed money.
So I started kind of like, trying to, you know, go back out with my friends,
go in the streets, go bust a few moves,
like, trying to get back into the groove of things.
It was just like the hood or the gangster thing to do, you know.
That's how my mindset was back then.
My friends leave.
So, I'm going to, you know, get my money, count my stuff up for the day,
and I'm going to look for this one particular gun that I had.
And I can't find it.
Now, in hindsight, I'm drunk, but I'm looking for it
and I can't find it.
So I'm looking all around.
And Danielle was like,
"One of your friends might do got it, right?"
So, like, now, I get... I get pissed.
I grab this big gun, right?
So now, I guess she sees how serious I'm getting,
and now, she's telling me, like,
"Chill, relax," like, "You're going to find it."
I'm like, "No, they got me..."
"I invited y'all to my house, and y'all gonna steal!"
This, that, and the third.
And I'm still... going.
I'm more enraged, and I got the gun like this,
and I'm pointing it and telling her,
"No, I'm about to go there, I'm gonna do this and do that."
And as I'm demonstrating, the gun goes off.
I kind of like paused for a second.
And then,
I run over to her 'cause I thought maybe she jumped out the way,
or maybe she's just playing, trying to teach me a lesson. All right?
So I grab her.
And I'm... And I'm holding her, I'm like, "Stop playing!" Like, "Get up!"
And then I feel, like, blood on my forearm.
All right? And I kind of was scared to look at first.
So then I kind of turned and looked, and I seen that she was actually shot.
And in that moment...
...it was shock. All right?
And when I say shock, I mean like disbelief. Like, I don't... I don't...
Like, this can't be actually real. This can't be actually happening.
After that, I done went through a thousand different emotions
of what I should do.
I started thinking, like, it was... it was guilt and shame.
And it went from shock to... panic.
I could hear the police coming.
And I see the flashing lights.
So I go and run the other way. I'm gonna flee, right?
I know this run is probably going to be short-lived,
but I'm panicking and I'm not thinking.
I'm just trying to just get away from the situation.
So I just keep... I keep going.
What happened?
It was just like a deep hurt and regret and remorse.
And it changed everything, right?
It was... It was the day that I lost everything, right?
I lost Danielle.
I lost my family, lost my... my... my respect.
I could probably accept it more if I did something on purpose,
but for this to be an accident, like, why was her life cut short?
And why did I have to be responsible for it?
What's the lesson?
I always hear people say that everything happens for a reason,
and a lot of things changed in my life after that.
I stopped drinking and smoking in prison.
Now, that led me to finally be able to know myself
for the first time since I was eight or nine years old,
where I wasn't on some type of drug.
And after I got clean, I was able to grow into the leader
that I actually'd always been.
Everything that I do
is so that other people don't have to make the same mistakes that I made.
And I just want you to know that redemption and reconciliation, right,
it's not... it's not something that's out the picture. It's possible.
So I started reading certain books
like, on cognitive behavioral therapy and things of that nature,
and reading those books on fertile mind
opened my eyes up to different thinking areas,
different communication techniques.
I taught people communication skills
and conflict resolution skills,
because I noticed that a lot of people in here,
that's what we lack.
And starting that program was probably
the most transformational thing for me in my personal journey.
When I leave here, I wanna take the Danielle Project
and be able to implement it on a grand scale.
So I just see myself getting out and being a thought leader.
In the prison system,
Black folks make up nearly 40% of those who are incarcerated.
Despite the fact that in Minnesota,
they make up less than 7% of the population.
We have a dominant narrative in this country
that people who have a darker skin are more susceptible to crime.
Jamel, he should have never gotten 20 years for what was an accident.
I've seen way too many people take the same path that Jamel took
because that was the one that was broad and wide,
and you were almost pushed down it.
I am Minister Janaé Bates,
and I'm the communications director
for a faith-based and community-based organizing, uh, vehicle
for regular Minnesotans right here in Minnesota.
I met Dontez when we were 16 years old.
I call him Dontez as well as most of his family and friends.
Um, even though of course, he's Jamel Dontez Hatcher.
He has always had this, like, high level of emotional intelligence,
and he really cares about how people are feeling.
I had just gotten licensed as a minister.
I thought, surely, this is God, you know, opening a pathway for me
to be able to provide pastoral care to a friend who really needs it.
And I got to learn about all of the work that he had been doing in the prison.
For him to use this time not just as his punishment,
but also for preparation
to prepare himself to be the man that... that he's becoming today.
You know, the work that he's doing in the prison really does deserve to...
to get some light outside of the prison.
Right now,
the prosecutors are in communication with the family of Danielle,
and they're talking to them about, you know, what this would mean for them
if Dontez were released early.
We miss her every day.
Absolutely.
There isn't a day go by that I don't think about her.
And a lot of time where...
I'm driving and we pass the cemetery where she is,
and we'd send her our love.
I just love this one with this smile.
Because this is how she kind of lived her life.
Absolutely.
- Always has a great smile. Always had a smile.
She was kind of a magnet.
She had a bright spirit some people were drawn to.
Dontez was drawn to that spirit as well.
Dontez's trial, it was kind of a blur to me.
I don't remember what he said,
what anybody said.
All I remember is sadness.
I don't know if I ever really got angry towards him
because I felt like he loved her too much to hurt her.
He asked for forgiveness.
He was saying that it was an accident,
that he really didn't mean
to kill the woman that he loved so much.
And he said he had to find restitution.
And he wanted to do something more with his life,
so Danielle wouldn't have died in vain.
He talked about reading the Bible.
And I could just see that he was really serious about...
what he wanted to do, how... the direction that he was going in.
I think he has proven
that he is trying to be the best he can be.
I'm really happy about the way he has evolved.
My prayers, I would say, have been answered.
I'm hoping to see Dontez and his wife have a happy life.
His wife, she's a wonderful woman,
and I see that relationship working out very well.
And if there's any way I can...
can help that happen, I'm... I'm all for it.
Okay. So, I just want to acknowledge,
we have a bunch of folks in the room.
I know there's people from Ohio and from Minnesota.
We have people here from Scotland.
I had been praying for a partner for years.
Um, and I had been praying with a very long checklist of things
that this person needed to be. And he checked all the boxes.
I did not put on the list
"He probably shouldn't be in prison"... ...but...
We have family and loved ones who have joined us from all over.
So we're watching my wedding.
You can barely see me,
but I'm in this corner and I'm cheesing so hard.
I smiled so hard through the entire experience.
I would say the most special moment is happening right now.
It's when Dontez was telling me his vows.
They're incredibly beautiful because he's a poet.
The love of my life.
You have made my life so bright.
You have picked me up from the deepest depths of darkness.
I was a man with rips and tears in my soul.
Oh, but here we go. This is where we tie the knot.
Will you honor and cherish him as long as you shall live?
Oh yes, I do.
I love you, baby.
Oh, I love you.
Janet and Ernest Jenkins were also present,
and it was beautiful,
because they are the grandparents of, uh, Danielle.
It has been incredible to have their support,
and they represent what I really hope for a lot of the world.
Truly.
We've dreamed about
what it's gonna finally be like to be able to be together,
living together in one place.
And Dontez could be out as soon as a few weeks from now.
And we are certainly wanting to spend a bunch of time with Chyanne,
Dontez and Danielle's daughter.
Because for him,
it is so incredibly important to have a relationship with her.
When I first heard the name Danielle, I was young.
I also thought she was related. I just didn't know how she was related.
I found out who Danielle really was to me, uh, when I was about 17.
And I found out who my dad was at the same time.
- Chyanne, you want some toast? - Yeah.
I'm gonna make some toast. Some eggs, toast and bacon.
Are you gonna put it on the...
You can make a sandwich if you want, I don't care.
I was not ready to tell her.
She was that, uh, light that was brought back into my life
after Danielle died
that kept me going.
I didn't feel I needed to tell her until later in her life.
My goal was to first
set up either counseling or something in place so that when I did tell her,
she had somewhere to go for help or had other people to help her.
I had found out the truth from my dad's side.
I was sent a link.
And it was actually a link to my dad's website.
He wrote this letter before I knew who he was.
It says, "I love you. I always have and always will."
And he just talked about how, like, one day I will find this,
and he hope I will, and that we can start a bond.
I was shocked, but I was mainly confused 'cause I had so many questions.
I wish I had been contacted first.
Conversation should have went through me first before contacting her.
I... I thought it was quite selfish to... just call her
or text her out of the blue.
But I would say that the situation has panned out pretty well.
She does have a relationship with her father now.
So she can start that journey with him.
The first time I talked to my dad was on the telephone.
I was... I was very nervous.
I feel like he was very nervous.
I could hear it in his voice.
I felt very good after we had our first talk
'cause that's when I knew that...
I'm gonna have a bond with him now.
I can't know who my mom was,
which I wish I could, but I at least want to know who my dad is.
Oh, I didn't even see this. He just added these pictures.
That's my dad.
That's me.
Those are my great-grandparents.
That's my dad again. That's me. And that's, uh, Janaé, his wife.
Very special days, except when we had to leave.
That was the hardest part.
- Here. - I'm just debating if I want some eggs.
That's... That's enough... Yeah, that's enough. Mm-hm.
That's not enough.
The difference between him then and now is that he's grown a lot mentally.
I think he has come a long way.
But about what happened to Danielle...
There really has not been a clear discussion
on exactly what happened.
Because I don't know exactly what happened.
I didn't want to hear it. I wasn't ready.
I want Chyanne to find out the truth from him.
And I think that is something that has to come from him.
To face her.
To face Chyanne and say, "This is what I did."
Danielle was shot in the face with a shotgun.
But Hatcher denied having any involvement in her death.
So I have a trust issue with anything that he has to say.
My name is Jeff Cook.
I was the lead detective on the Jamel Hatcher murder case.
I felt absolutely terrible for the family to have to go through this,
as I do with any homicide victim.
There are things that can't be unseen by family members.
And that her family had to go and find her,
you know, it's heartbreaking.
The mother was notified by the grandparents
that people couldn't get ahold of Danielle.
So she took her 11-year-old son, Danielle's little brother, with her,
and they came to the apartment.
They found that the apartment door was unlocked, and entered.
They found Danielle laying on the floor between the closet and the bed.
They then found the baby on the bed in a bouncy seat.
And she had been sitting there so long and been crying and... and thrashing around
that she almost worked her way out of the seat.
The child was left alone for approximately 18 hours.
Have a seat right here.
My name's Detective Cook, okay?
You go by Dontez, right?
- [Jamel] Yeah. - Okay.
When we questioned him,
he did a number of things to try to put up roadblocks in the investigation,
uh, to try to create an alibi for himself.
He said he had been to the apartment earlier in the evening, but he had left,
and she was fine when he left.
He, uh, initially said that he had gone to a friend's house,
LaTanya Harper.
And spent the night there.
He not only claimed that he went to Ms. Harper's residence,
but that he engaged in sexual activity with her that evening.
But it was part of the overall plan to create an alibi.
That... That told us a lot about Mr. Hatcher.
His cold, calculated nature of going and having sex with somebody
after he just killed his baby's mother.
So this is LaTanya Harper.
Here's a copy of the statement that you made to us.
I want you to read that before we start.
Her assertion initially was that he arrived around one o'clock
with her there.
She then admitted that he didn't get there till around four in the morning.
Through witness interviews, what we believe occurred that night was,
Mr. Hatcher and Danielle got into a very heated argument.
Several of the neighbors had actually gone and complained
to management about the arguing in that apartment.
And we... we believe the argument continued from there on,
and that's when Jamel ended up shooting her.
It was very frustrating to have the prosecutor's office tell us
we didn't have enough.
We wanted Mr. Hatcher charged with murder
because we learned that Mr. Hatcher had been
physically abusive to Danielle in the past.
He had kicked her.
He was very demeaning to her
and talked down to her and was very controlling of her.
That gave us a feeling
that he was a very callous person when it came to his baby's mother,
and perhaps he didn't care for her
as much as he liked to make everybody believe he did.
The last words I said to him was that I curse you.
For what you've taken from our family.
I hope that you are forever haunted by the image of Danielle.
Because she loved you completely
and unconditionally.
And may you never find that again.
She called me that day,
the day that she had died.
And she says to me,
"Auntie, do you ever stop worrying about your child?"
And I said to her, "No, baby, you don't."
It was an abusive relationship.
And I was so happy thinking,
"She gets it now."
"She's gonna leave him."
And then when I hung up, I was happy.
But I shouldn't have been happy.
I should have gone over there.
I should've picked her up.
After Danielle was killed,
he ran away
and hid.
He left a baby.
His child.
There was no anonymous phone call
to the police, to our family.
Nothing.
So my sister and my nephew have to walk in and find her,
the baby crying, and find... and find Danielle.
- Why?
Because he was too cowardly to make an anonymous phone call?
I want to be a beacon of
that redemption is possible, right?
A lot of things changed in my life.
So I started reading certain books,
like, on cognitive behavioral therapy and things of that nature,
and I was actually able to grow into the leader
that I actually'd always been.
And through... through the Danielle Project,
I'm actually helping to... to switch people's mindsets, right?
So I need to take this
and be as impactful as possible,
make it as big as possible, because every time I do it
is a celebration of Danielle, right?
Every time I do it, it's my way of keeping her alive,
and invested in people and being that role model for people.
It helps me to keep personally growing, right?
I don't believe that. I don't believe any of that.
I didn't know that he was doing classes named after Danielle.
That seems like using her name
for personal gain.
I want to believe everyone's capable of change,
but I think he's gotten an education on how to manipulate the system,
courtesy of the state.
My thoughts on him getting early release and getting my family on board,
I don't think that's okay at all.
I totally believe that he is using them
and that this is, uh, some sort of manipulation.
My parents believe that it is important for healing.
That is their journey.
And my sister,
she'll do what's necessary to protect Chyanne
and give her what she needs.
This is where I am with Jamel right now.
Eighteen years ago, I would have hunted him down
and taken him out myself.
But the only thing that stopped me from doing that
is my children and Chyanne.
I can't tell people how to heal.
Everybody heals on their own... time,
and their own way.
But I had to be able to let go of some of the hatred I had.
I felt that it was time to give up
that diet of
wanting revenge,
wanting to hate.
And I have to support Chyanne.
Because she wanted to put a face to this person
that now she knows as being her father.
So I had to, um...
deal with that.
I know there's going to be a million opinions around the world
about my story.
Some good, some bad. But at the end of the day,
I'm gonna be that great father. I'm gonna be that great husband.
I'm going to do the stuff with the Danielle Project.
That's all I can do.
In terms of my release, we're still waiting on the prosecution.
It feels frustrating because I feel I've done everything I can
to prove that I'm ready to be released early.
Through our investigation, we learned that Mr. Hatcher had been
physically abusive to Danielle in the past.
And what we believe occurred that night was they got into a very heated argument,
and that's when Jamel ended up shooting her.
And he did a number of things to try
to put up roadblocks in the investigation.
He not only claimed that he went to Ms. Harper's residence,
but that he engaged in sexual activity with her that evening.
That... That told us a lot about Mr. Hatcher.
Okay.
When you look at the situation, right,
it doesn't look too good, right?
I was definitely verbally abusive to Danielle.
I may have not been, like, beating her, beating her, right?
But if me and her get into it, like, I would take her
and hold her down on the bed or maybe shake her or something like that,
but make no mistake, Danielle's death was an accident.
I would have never killed her on purpose.
In terms of me lying,
on the day after Danielle's death,
I was so high off of PCP that I don't remember my first interview.
But that night, I don't never remember having sex with LaTanya.
If something like that did happen...
...that's terrible.
That's terrible. Like I said, I was high,
and I don't... I don't... I don't... I don't know.
I know after the fact I did a whole bunch of unsavory stuff, right?
Trying to cover it up, or whatever.
But I didn't want to go to jail for life
or get the death penalty or something like that.
So that's what I was hiding. I was hiding the truth.
I did it out of fear.
He only cared about himself.
After Danielle was killed,
he ran away
and hid.
He left a baby.
His child.
There was no anonymous phone call.
Nothing.
So my sister and my nephew have to walk in and find her.
My thoughts on him getting early release
and getting my family on board,
I don't think that's okay at all.
I totally believe that he is using them.
I think he's gotten an education on how to manipulate the system,
courtesy of the state.
I can understand where Monica's coming from.
In hindsight, like, yes, I was... I was absolutely wrong.
I could have made an anonymous tip.
But that was the last thing on my mind.
I was... I was 19.
I was... I was selfish.
I was self-centered, right?
And a lot of stuff that I... A lot of stuff that I did,
it probably was to... to save my own skin,
save my own self, and I have to dedicate my life to make amends for that.
As far as me using the family to secure early release...
Me personally,
I hadn't... I hadn't even
considered the fact...
Like, this is about
the fact that I'm a father who loves his daughter. All right?
Monica is still in that place of pain and skepticism, right?
And I don't blame her.
And yes, I have a lot of negativity in my past,
but onward has to be my only direction, right?
And with Melanie and my daughter and the Jenkins' support,
I'm going to do everything that I said that I was going to do.
And prove to the world time and time again that I am who I say I am.
And that my transformation is... is legitimate.
The first thought that went through my head
was, "Damn, it would be so much easier in life
if I were to just kill her and get this over with."
I... I could have made the choice to try to stop him.
I could have made the choice to get help.
I stabbed this guy one single time. That was it.
One split second can determine the rest of your life.
How do you say "I'm sorry" for taking away someone's loved one?
He came to our house to kill our family.
Oh, fuck. This is where it's gonna get bad.
He said, "Bro, I've got these voices in my head."
I'm out to kill any and every motherfucker I can get my hands on.
My only regret is that I didn't finish what I started.
People say, "You're a monster,"
but nobody stops to think what made us that way.
I don't have remorse for her being dead as a person.
I just hate that it was... ...my dumb ass who did it.