Leon Omar Mason (left) and William "Pete" Duncan.
Right now Omar is incarcerated. Three months after we stopped filming, he committed a new crime. He relapsed. He did an armed robbery with a deadly weapon in the store that he first started working in, the Goodwill Store you see in the film. They gave him 25 years without parole, and he's in an incredible amount of pain. I saw him a couple months ago and showed him the film. He gave me the best compliment that you could get in making a film like this, which is: it's honest, it's true. He felt that everything in the film was true about his life, and he wept during parts of it. Right now he's pulling away from everybody, he's just incredibly withdrawn. And that's what's happened to Omar. Pete, on the other hand, is doing incredibly well. He's still counseling and making a life for himself and he's staying very focused and he's doing remarkably well.
— Tod Lending
June, 2005