I’ve told a few close friends that on August 5th, 2022, my brother Stephen Cartwright was charged with murder. It’s a horrifying thing to learn. I imagine it will be the subject of some future posts. My brother knows better than to talk to anyone but a lawyer about this. He has been reminded of this by several family members on the phone and in video visits. But he talks about it anyway, not denying that he is responsible for the death, but very much denying that it was in any way planned or premeditated as such. In his accounting, he put himself in a very dumb situation and that situation blew up into a man dying.

He was rather quickly assigned a public defender. I’m told that public defender is Shawn Myrick. My brother has been in jail for nearly a month. He claims that his lawyer has not spoken to him and has not returned his calls. I’ve finally sent Mr. Myrick an email to ask if either or both of these things is actually true. I await his reply.