Gary Alan Coe — the excited-to-be-here bus tourist traipsing through the Oscars Sunday night — had been released from a California prison only two days earlier.
“While paying his debt to society, he said he found Vickie Vines, his fiancee, and religion,” the station said after a phone interview with “Gary from Chicago.”
“Change is possible,” Coe told the station. “It’s a sad day to be in prison for 20 years and not be able to be a dad, granddad to your children. You know what my son told me today, man, and I almost come to tears. He said he’s proud of me. So to hear your children say that they’re proud of me means the world to me.”
The Chicago Tribune said Coe, 59, had been released Friday.
“It’s unclear what crimes led to his imprisonment.,” the paper said. “His attorney, public defender Karen Nash, posted on Facebook that he had received a life sentence in 1997 for stealing perfume,” but the term was shortened after a ballot measure was approved.
Nash confirmed to the Tribune that she represented Coe but said she could not discuss his case further without his permission.
She described him as a “very special human being.” But on Facebook, she disputed an earlier report that Coe had faced rape charges.