He went from convict to cross-maker

Jasen Lube decided to turn his life around in prison while listening to a preacher on the radio during a 44-day stint in solitary confinement.

He had multiple drunk driving convictions. He would often get drunk and drive recklessly.

He had two DUIs before he rear-ended a car at 90 mph – on a 45 mph road in the university area – and caused a four-car pile up. No one died, but that 2007 DUI eventually landed him in prison. Then, before being sentenced to three years in prison for assault with a deadly weapon, he got another DUI.

Today, sober at 35, he builds crosses for local churches, Adirondack furniture and other custom pieces as part of his new business Top Notch Woodworking. He also provides work to newly released inmates through his tree-cutting and landscaping business, Top Notch Tree and Lawn Service, which he started in 2001.

He learned about the woodworking craft from his father, but he perfected it while serving his 37-month sentence in four prisons.

Recalling the accident took some time, he said, because he was slightly unconscious afterward. He broke his back, had to be removed from his vehicle with the Jaws of Life and spent two days in the intensive care unit.

“It was a little confusing at first, but it all came back to me slowly and surely,” he said. “And I kind of know exactly what happened at this point, and I had three years to think about it.”

While in prison, he carried around a picture of the accident in his wallet and would share his story with others during Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

“This is what I lived through,” he’d tell people. “If this is your first time having problems with drinking and driving, I encourage you to not do it anymore, because you can die or kill someone else.”

As part of his sentence, he went through a 90-day Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Treatment program at Piedmont Correctional Institution in Salisbury in 2008. He then transferred to Tabor City Prison near Myrtle Beach, where he got a tattoo from another inmate and was sent to solitary confinement for the possibility of spreading communicable diseases.

“That’s where I got in trouble, but it’s also where I got saved,” said Lube. “I had my radio and I was listening to some (program), and this guy just kind of touched of my heart strings and said, ‘Even if you’re in prison right now and you want to be saved, you can be.’ ”

Lube can’t fight back the tears while sharing his story.

“I got saved, that’s all I can say,” he said.

He recalled the moment he said the Bible’s Salvation Prayer, or the Sinner’s Prayer.

“Something came over me, I had a feeling – a physical feeling – an emotion and I cried and prayed about it, and it just saved me. I can’t explain it any other way then I was a born-again Christian.”

He said he eventually came to terms with his mistakes and realized they weren’t his to bear anymore.

After he got out of solitary confinement, he began attending Bible study groups, AA meetings and got a job as a janitor before transferring to Alexander Correctional Institution in Taylorsville, where he enrolled in a one-year, college-level woodworking course.

“When I got into that program I really liked it, I was digging it. I was all about it, and I was good at it,” he said. “On the weekends, everybody else was watching senseless programs on TV, gambling or playing cards. But me and this guy, Bob, were designing stuff and writing down punch lists for Monday morning for what we’re going to do when we get back to the shop. Those weekends were terrible for us; we just wanted to get back to it.”

He’s still waiting for his drivers license to be restored, but said he’s been able to move forward with help from his parents and now fiancée, Kim Kennedy.

“After you’ve been locked in a cage for three years, you don’t want a party any more,” he said. “You don’t want to go back to that lifestyle because you know it’ll bring you back there. I don’t think if I had been listening to the radio that day… I don’t think I would have gotten out of the hole and found the path that I found.”

Later during his sentence, while praying about his future, he had another moment of clarity.

“I heard Him tell me that his son was a carpenter, and that He wanted me to be a carpenter, too,” Lube said. “When I heard that, I knew it was destiny.”

Lube said there’s always time to change, and a key to finding inner peace is doing something you love – but also being a good person.

“Ever since he’s come out, I’ve been wanting him to tell his story,” said Kennedy. “I feel he can help somebody because he’s gone from bad to positive. And that can have a big impact on somebody...

“If somebody as messed up as he was can turn out to be as positive and as wonderful as he’s turned out to be – I can’t even put it into words. But when he shares his story he’ll start tearing up, and this big old smile and sparkle will come into his eyes. It’s a wonderful thing to see. It really is.”