"No one wanted to be around me... What happened with this trial and where I was going with my life, I'd either end up dead or in prison. I got a chance to be clean and I like it"."

With approximately 60 plus potential witnesses scheduled, and only  8 having testified so far, the Bodhi Tree trial has just begun. Each day, you can see glimpses of the prosecution and defense theory.

Drugs are something many people read about, have no first-hand knowledge. People get upset about addicts, who to many, often are, those people. We see them in and out of the criminal justice system.

I sat through pre-trial motions and jury selection and like many, I read about the Bodhi Tree case in the media.

Now with the trial and watching the witnesses, most of whom, are just young adults, hearing their stories amidst the testimonies of the struggle, you cannot help but be affected. Besides the deaths, there are other tragedies in this case. The lives of the survivors, forever changed by a few moments.

This  is not fiction. The stories at this trial daily are : of poverty; of being at the wrong place at the wrong time; of being stuck in a culture that provides easy access to drugs; of young people from good families, of youth wanting to change their lives.

Sean Butler-Smith said it best, when he described why he had to change his life after the murder of his friend Sunshine and Christina and being at the scene of the attempted murder of Rhett August.

"No one wanted to be around me,"  said Smith. This was because of his drug addiction. "What happened with this trial and where I was going with my life, I'd either end up dead or in prison. I got a chance to be clean and I like it."