Leon Hotchkiss, now 68, remains behind bars in Alabama, spending decades imprisoned for growing pot.
Authorities seized about five and half pounds of the plant on his property in Baldwin County, allowing authorities to charge him under the state’s marijuana trafficking law.
In 2013, Hotchkiss was sentenced to spend the next 40 years in prison.
And when he came up for parole in February, after serving a decade, the three-member Alabama parole board voted to keep him there.
The board set his next hearing in 2028 – the furthest they could push it back. He’ll be 73.
Today, Hotchkiss is incarcerated at the Loxley Community Work Center, although he spends most days outside the lockup. Each morning, he is dropped off at his job at a Fairhope boat dealership.
Jody Cullifer recently retired from the dealership, but he’s the person who secured the job for Hotchkiss. He said he had trouble finding a person to wash the boats, so he called the prison and asked if they had anyone who could do the job and provide general maintenance. They sent Hotchkiss.
On Hotchkiss’s first day, Cullifer explained the job. “He picked up really quick… and did a phenomenal job,” he said.
Cullifer called Hotchkiss a good worker and a trustworthy employee, and said the bosses gave him his own key to the dealership. That way, Hotchkiss could let himself inside in case the prison van dropped him off too early in the morning.
Hellbound and Down 