MEMPHIS, Tennessee — Two teens have now been charged with the murder of beloved Memphis Pastor Autura Eason-Williams, and one of them will be tried as an adult.
Miguel Andrade will be transferred on a $200,000 bond, according to the Shelby County Juvenile Court. The other teenager will stay in the custody of DCS until he turns 19, according to the Shelby County Juvenile Court.
Through "Young Man University," Dr. Futrell mentors inmates and those who have been released. He also knew Pastor Eason-Williams.
"She was just a genuine person," Dr. Futrell said. "You don’t replace someone like Autura because she’s someone God sent along.”
Eason-Williams was fatally shot in her her Whitehaven home driveway.
"I don’t think any of us escapes culpability for a 15-year-old being involved in a crime like that," Futrell said. "So it’s on all of us.”
Dr. Futrell said his focus is on entrepreneurship and education.
"The choice I made landed me in prison," Altonius Meyers said. "Ask me 'Would I do that now?' — never, my choices are different. My choices were poor and I was young —I was 18, 19 .”
Altonius Myers went through his program when he was released from prison. For Myers, it was life-changing.
"That was a soul-searching purpose for us," Myers said. "I came back to Memphis, and my mentality was still the same. He [Dr. Futrell] used to drill me with that ‘Who are you? Go look in the mirror.'”
A look in the mirror is part of what Dr. Futrell calls a "debriefing."
"For us to waste all that time and not extract positive information from it, so we can kind of have things to prevent this from happening again," Futrell said. "He has something to offer.”
His program, "Freedom of Release," is about re-inspiring; dreams, hopes and purpose.
“Some things prison is going to take away from you that you can’t replace," he said. "So you have to strategize how [you're] going to restructure a positive life with pieces that will always be missing.”
In other words, rekindling what's been lost.