Prisoner Of Conscience

Actor Richard Cabral’s past as a gang member and prison inmate is at least as dramatic as his latest vehicle: the propulsive Sons of Anarchy spinoff Mayans M.C.

- Scott Porch

If he had taken the first deal a district attorney offered him 13 years ago, one week before he was scheduled to go on trial for attempted murder, things today would be very different for Richard Cabral.

He would not have been discovered by the showrunner for Southland. He would not have been featured on multiple episodes of that show and then moved on to American Crime, which netted him an Emmy nomination. He would not be starring this fall on the Sons of Anarchy spinoff Mayans M.C. If Cabral had taken that deal, he would probably be on probation right now, working whatever job he could find with a violent felony conviction — for shooting a man in a gang incident — on his record. And if he had gone to trial and lost, he would still be locked up at Ironwood State Prison in Blythe, California.