CODY SINGLETON (SOBER COWBOY’S DAD)- METHAMPHETAMINE ADDICTION

My story starts out as a young boy living on the Beulah highway, west about 6 miles west of town. I went to Beulah school from kindergarten through 8th grade. After 8th grade I went to Pueblo South High school from my freshman year until I graduated.

During my grade school and middle school years, Beulah school had a total of 120 kids. My class quantity fluctuated from year to year, but averaged 12-18 kids.

Needless to say it was a small school which was, thinking back, very good from an educational stand point, but not so good from a social stand point.

Regardless, i was probably blessed to go there and definitely was comfortable going there as my brother and sister as well as numerous cousins from both sides of my family went there before my time, during my time and after my time over the years. In fact my dad also went there when he was growing up as well.

Ever since I could remember my dad worked for and ran our family business along side of his brother, and the founder of the business, Leonard Singleton (my grandpa). The business name is Singleton Sheet Metal Works Inc. Grandpa Leonard started the business in the basement of his home in 1950, the same year that my dad was born.

Most of my memories of the business start for me at our current location in Pueblo West, Colorado. However, I have memory of accidentally driving my grandpas electric Volkswagon Bug “Herby” into a dumpster in the shop when I was a very young kid. I was playing in it and pressed th gas pedal like you could do in a gas powered car when you were pretending to drive. Not such a good idea in an electric car, not this one anyway, as it jolted forward into a metal dumpster. I don’t think any damage was done and I didn’t get in trouble, but was not allowed to play in the car anymore.

I grew up in a house on 52 acres. We always had horses and grew up riding and competing in Saddle Club, SCHA and 4H riding events. I loved riding horses, but did not like the events, so after a while I’d just ride my horse around and have fun playing with other kids. Chasing girls, racing the horses against one another, etc. I had a lot of fun and developed a lot of friends along the way.

I grew up learning to work around the house doing chores, feeding horses and cows, landscaping, mowing, etc. I had a Honda 50 and then a Honda 125 three wheeler, which I rode the wheels off of all over not only the 52 acres that surrounded our house, but as many of the 2,000 acres that my dad, grandpa and uncle had bought together.

My Aunt and Uncle along with their kids, lived across the highway from us and my cousins were my best friends growing up. One of my cousins and I were the same age and were in the same grade and went to school together from kindergarten to when we graduated.

Our families were close and like i said they were my oldest and closest friends that I can remember. My cousins on my Mom’s side were also very close with us growing up. One of them I am still very close with today, and we talk often.

My family life was what I felt was good. We ate 2-3 meals per day together, as a family and spent a lot of family time together. My dad always said “The family that plays together, stays together.”He had all sorts of funny sayings like that.

I felt very loved while I was growing up. My Mom and Dad were good parents, but my dad had a drinking problem and they had issues that would escalate to fights a lot. I feel like my dad would use the issues as an excuse to get drunk and blame my mom for his actions.

I think that was bullshit, and I always resented him for that. When he was sober in the daytime we would be the happiest family ever, but when he’d drink at night, every night, he would become a hateful asshole. I loved him very much but I hated his actions when drinking every night. The turmoil that I’d feel when dealing with the issues was so stressful, embarrassing and created extreme anxiety I’m sure for all of us… And just like that the next morning would come and everything would be back to normal, and we’d all accept it and even appreciate the normalcy but dread the drama that would inevitably come with the night.

My mom did everything she could to keep our lives regular and stable. In fact at the time I felt stable, more stable than some families, and less stable than others. But stable nonetheless.

As I got older, 11-13 years old, I feel like I became a peace keeper between my dad and brother. At this time if my dad wasn’t picking on my mom he was picking on my brother… But only at night when he was drinking…

In the day time my brother and him worked together and him worked together and they got along good, until my dad would start drinking and then it was insults and arguments.

My brother was at the point where he could leave and do his own thing, which he would normally do after dinner most nights. Heather (my sister) was also getting to that point at least where she could be out until a curfew. A lot of times that left my mom and I to deal with the situations.

I think we made a good team at it. We’d always let him settle down after dinner, and pass out so we could enjoy watching TV or do whatever we were going to do around the house for the evening. That’s how a lot of the nights would go. Then there were those nights that ran long and we’d have to deal with it a little longer, a little more drama.

I remember not being able to go to dinner at certain places because they didn’t serve alcohol. I remember thinking that I would never need something in my life that bad that would control me like that. I remember thinking that I would never put something like alcohol ahead of my family whenever I had one in the future.

The summer between my 7th and 8th grade year I worked for Singleton Sheet Metal building insulation pillows. I was turning 13 that summer and worked with an older guy named Art who was in his 30s or so. My brother and uncle ran the shop and I also worked with my cousin who was turning 16 that summer. I was able to ride to work and home with Chad and hangout a lot with him and other friends at night. We had a great time drinking, chasing girls, etc. On Fridays the crew at the shop would have a cooler of beer to share with everybody and it was called ‘beer-thirty.’ One night my cousin and I stayed for the duration of that and didn’t get home until well after 7:00 pm or so. We only went home to clean up and get ready as we had plans with some girls later that night. However, when I got home that late after work, and already pretty drunk, my mom told me I wasn’t going to be able to go back out because she wasn’t happy about me being out so late drinking with the older guys and doing whatever I wanted.

My dad was already passed out on the couch, so I showered and got ready and woke my dad up to explain to him that I had plans with some girls that night and wanted to go with my cousin to go out. He was okay with it and said something like, “Yeah go ahead buddy, be careful and good luck”… I loved it! I had learned how to manipulate our negative situation in my favor. My mom was mad, but accepted it and told me to be careful.

That entire summer went that way and what a fun summer it was. I was 13, but all of my friends ranged in age from 16-19 years old. It was around that time that I started relating to some of my Dad’s thought process.

I went to high school and continued my activities. Working, hanging out with older people, etc. At that point I had some older friends in their 30s and living independently as adults do. I had a few different groups of people I’d hang out with and alternated between my cousins, my other cousins and my friends. Going to South from Beulah school was like a party in itself to me. Imagine going to a school that had 130 kids total K-8 to a school that had over 1,000 students 9th-12th. So much opportunity, many varieties of people.

I met the love of my life my freshman year. Her name is Leanne and I thought she was perfect from the start. I got to know her over the next two years, but we didn’t get together until our junior year. We started dating and pretty soon I was consumed by her. I loved everything about her. I loved all the time we spent together. In fact, I was content staying home most nights with her at her parents house, or at mine. Simply playing cards with each other and visiting and just hanging out. I had started a lawn service and did pretty well with it so I’d do that and hang out with her until her midnight curfew and go home most of the time. There were some times when I’d sneak off with my buddies or cousins after her curfew and spend the night partying, but for the most part I was living sober and right. She definitely steered me in a better direction and I accomplished things so easy when I stayed pointing in that direction.

We enjoyed things like prom and homecoming, and other events along the way and I always wanted to make her happy. I did little things like using a set of stairs for her to get into my truck when going to the prom. I always wanted to surprise her with things and make her smile as much as possible.

I remember relating to my Dad’s thinking when contemplating whether or not to drink while going to events like prom. I thought to myself that I wouldn’t even want to go if I couldn’t drink… I started understanding my Dad’s way of thinking and I realized I was doing it.

For the most part my high school years were a success, however, I was developing habits and recognizing traits that were coming out along the way.

Leanne and I both graduated in June of 1996 and we had our first baby, Lacey, in October of the same year. I used money that I was making from my lawn service along with about $3,000 I received in graduation gifts to by our first house in Pueblo. It was a house that Singleton Sheet Metal had owned and sold/rented out over the years and repossessed numerous times. I bought it on terms from SSMW for $25,000. I worked on it most of the summer of 96’ and moved in with Leanne late that summer prior to Lacey being born.

I worked my lawn service until summer ran out and took a job with some relatives of Leanne, doing construction and mud jacking. I worked for them through the winter into the next summer and learned a lot along the way. They treated me good and kept me busy, always.

Over the next year or so I continued with my lawn service and started an HVAC business, and sold my lawn service. We sold that first house of ours for $46,500 and used the excess money to buy a trailer home from my grand parents on my moms side and I moved it to a piece of land that I bought from my dad. I was running my HVAC business and working for my Dad at SSMW as a salesman. I would travel and make contact with customers all over and try to develop new contracts for them. I would run my HVAC business along the way. I was doing good at both and started to feel like I could accomplish anything, or like I could walk on water.

We were living at the trailer that I moved, and had it for sale, and eventually sold it for a decent profit. We had bought 40 acres on a road back on the Beulah highway and were slowly going to build a home there. I got as far as getting the foundation in, but was planning to slowly build it as I could afford it. We also had bought 25 acres down the same road and set up a modular to live in while we were building the other home with intentions of selling it after we were done building. While we were doing all of this we rented a home in Pueblo West.

Along with my HVAC business, I hired my uncle and started a plumbing business. Once again, I felt like I was walking on water and could do anything. One day while working I asked my Uncle where we could get some speed and he told me to ask my brother. I did and the next thing I knew I/we were spinning out of control.

As the addiction got worse, my life started spiraling out of control. I managed to finish the modular and move Leanne and Lacey and myself in there only to leave them shortly after. Around this time, we learned that Leanne was pregnant with our next baby, Maverick.

While using meth, I lost the 40 acres down the road, my HVAC and plumbing business. I left my family, and was running the streets with a new set of people and a totally different life style. I also lost horses to a horse trainer that I owed money to, and everything else I worked for along the way.

While Leanne was pregnant, I was running amuck and doing nothing that a father should do. I was in and out at best, and not dependable for anything. I managed to get into trouble for driving into a bar during a fight my brother and I were in. I was put on probation, dropped a hot UA and was told by my probation officer to go to court for the hot UA. I never showed up for court and an arrest warrant was issued, and I was hiding out from it all.

During this time I was making meth to make ends meet for myself, but not taking care of any of my financial responsibility for Leanne or my family at all.

Maverick was born and I was there, but not in the right state of mind. I was more worried about my street life than my real life, and that is something I am really ashamed of.

My dad helped Leanne financially and tried to get me to listen to reason. Both him and my mom tried but I was out of control.

August 22nd of 2002 I was caught behind the modular with a full meth lab. I was arrested along with others and sentenced to 42 months DOC. I was in DOC until early 2005 at which time I was released to a halfway house in Pueblo. During my incarceration I filed for bankruptcy and cleared a lot of my debts that had accumulated over the years of me not taking care of business. I used the time to get healthy. Workout, develop a routine, and focus on staying sober upon my release.

Which is exactly what I did. From the halfway house, I was able to go to work for my Dad at SSMW. Ironically, my brother was at the other halfway house in Pueblo. Our dad would pick up him and another guy that went to work for us, and then pick me up along the way with others we hired from my halfway house and drive us all to work. Our dad called us the Motley Crew.

Our dad and his brother were splitting up as business partners and after it was all said and done we had all of our equipment and the building owned free and clear along with $150,000 in the bank. My brother and I focused on running the business and our Dad, who was in the beginning stages of a lengthy divorce case with our mom, basically turned us loose to run things as we saw fit. And we did just that.

We started by taking on numerous small jobs ranging from $5,000 to $300,000. We developed a customer base and after a lot of long hours and hard work by my brother, the guy from his halfway house, and myself, we were steadily performing $2,000,000 to $5,000,000 worth of work per year and by 2008 had upwards of $2,300,000 in the bank. We bought/updated equipment paid off mom in her and dad’s divorce, and moved forward with plans to expand our shop with a new 90’ x 200’ building added to our main building. The building would be equipped with a 15 ton overhead crane which spanned every square inch of the building. The new building ha 40’ of eve height, therefor our crane hood height is 36’. The building also has 6 EA Jib cranes at 6 stations. (3 Jibs were bought brand new for new building and 3 were taken from the older building.) The expansion cost $1,300,000 and was paid for in cash, no loans.

The expansion was completed in 2009 and we were trying to increase our work loads and volume. Plans were in place and once again I felt like I could walk on water.

Regarding my personal and family life; my wife and kids stood by me through my incarceration from August of 2002 through early 2005, my halfway house stint of 9 months, my release to ISP which required an ankle monitor to be worn and me to have my own apartment until I completed all of the 36 weeks of domestic violence classes I was required to attend and did. At that point I was allowed to finally move home to Leanne, Lacey and Maverick.

Lacey was playing softball and basketball along with riding horses, and Maverick was just starting to play baseball, football and basketball which I was allowed to help coach along with a family friend and the head coach. I had to get special approval to help with the kids because of my criminal background. Special approval was granted and I was allowed to be involved in the kids teams and I enjoyed that very much.

As the years were passing by, we were constantly at one practice or another, or game to game, or tournament to tournament and sometimes we’d have to divide and conquer. Our lives were very, very busy, however, so enjoyable along the way.

Watching both kids and their teams progress was a very rewarding parenting experience. Being involved with the teams made it even more so.

We lived at a different home that Leanne had bought while I was in prison. We worked on it, fenced it, got a well hooked up, and did all sorts of improvements to it.

We started planning to build a home, our dream home. We bought the land and hired a very good builder to build it. It is a beautiful home and everything we wanted… My life was everything I wanted. I was accomplishing everything I set out to do and then some. My kids were growing up good, we spent every available hour we had together as a family. I was healthy and working out, making gains and generally being happy and resembling an all American type family that I was proud to be a part of and the head of. Very proud. Again walking on water.

At one point, I was taking both kids to school in the mornings. We would talk about goals, homework, school events etc. I would make jokes and tell them to ‘Make good choices…’ in a really loud voice when they were getting out of my truck to go into school each morning.

The goal thing was going good so I started texting goals and receiving goals of my kids, nieces, and maybe a few of the kids friends as well every Monday morning. Funny little things like that simple little task can mean so much along the way.

All this time I maintained my sobriety. Even after parole was over. I traveled a little for work and we took on some very good and substantial jobs that kept us very busy. We averaged 20 to 25 employees and sometimes up to 45 depending on the work load.

At some point my Dad found himself in trouble with the law and all of a sudden we (the guy from halfway house, my brother and I) were picking him up at a halfway house and taking him to work with us. Funny how things work… He got through with his trouble and during those short years, was a very sober and stable time of our life. Both of us were sober and living productively.

My brother’s aorta valve on his heart deteriorated and he had to have a stainless steel valve put in. He was in the hospital for weeks and had open heart surgery. He recovered and was back at work after a few months.

At work my brother ran the shop and I was in charge of estimating, project management and the general manager of things. I helped run the shop when we were overloaded, which was often.

Our dad got sick with phenomena and was put on a ventilator for 14 days. At that time they eased him off the ventilator and he responded well and was able to breathe on his own. He recovered after a lot of rehab and basically had to relearn to walk and get around. He never fully recovered but he was able to get around, breathe on his own, etc. He just was never able to be as mobile again. We worked through it and moved him from his house to my sister’s house. He bought her house and she bought his. It was easier to help him there in town than having to go out to where he lived, so they made a trade deal.

Around this time I started using pain pills. Just a little, but more and more everyday. Leanne and the kids and I were living at our new house that we built. Life was still going okay.

One day our dad and us (my brother and I) had a falling out. He fired us and sid some insulting things along the way. We made up a week or so later and were back at work, but for some reason my brother way mad that we made up.

Right around that time I relapsed and was starting to use meth again. I left my wife and kids in October of 2010 and was hiding the fact that I had relapsed but I couldn’t make myself stay or go home. I had to be out fucking around all the time. I still worked, but let’s face it, my mind wasn’t right. I went along with marriage and family counseling but I wasn’t being real about any of it. I was stringing everybody along and I’m still haunted by the empty look in Leanne and both of my kids’ eyes when I’d see them in the counseling. They were so confused as I just ripped myself from their lives, just like I snapped my finger. One day we were fine, and the next we were separated and they didn’t know why. It was the worst thing I ever did, leaving them like that.

My brother didn’t come back to work right away. In fact, I don’t think that relationship ever recovered. I only saw my dad a couple more times. I went and visited him at his home on Christmas Eve. He was bedridden or in a wheelchair but I was able to have a very good talk with him about life, business, etc. He was worried about me because I had left my family and wasn’t living right, as I should have been. It was a nice talk and I’m glad we were able to have it. He died on Christmas night, or early the following morning on December 26th 2010. Although I knew it was coming, I was not expecting it so soon, and definitely was not prepared for it.

My brother, sister and I inherited the company. My brother sold out almost immediately and spent the next couple of years away from me/us as a family. He died on September 9th, 2012.

Since my relapse in 2010, my life has been on a steady decline. Both personally and professionally.

I caught a drug and gun case 9/4/12. I took it to trial and beat it in 2014. I caught another case in 2018 and it was dismissed due to a technicality in the warrant.

I was happy to beat the cases, but I didn’t do anything to change my lifestyle and protect myself from getting in trouble.

I had numerous meaningless relationships and friendships. I had very few meaningful relationships, and I basically lived a very unproductive and chaotic life.

I drug my business down along the way. We went from being debt free with hundreds of thousands of dollars in numerous banks to now owing $1,400,000 to numerous lenders, having no operating capitol and poor credit with vendors, banks, etc.

For 12 years I lived this way. On October 13th 2022, while on vacation in California, my shop was raided by the FBI. On November 17th, 2022 I was arrested and charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute over 500 grams of methamphetamines and two 922-6’s which is possession of a gun by a previous offender.

It is now January of 2024 and I’ve been here at FDC for 14 months. My trial is set for August of this year, however, I’m hoping to have a plea agreement soon. The current plea agreement that I’ve been presented is recommending that I should receive a sentence equal to the low end of the guidelines which is 188 months. 15 years and 8 months… Going to trial and loosing could get me life. I’m in quite the predicament.

My life had become unmanageable. My business, which we are now starting to try to liquidate, cannot stay afloat, and in fact, is sinking fast. All because I chose to live a fast lifestyle for the last 12 years prior to 11/17/23. So much for walking on water…

I’m finding and leaning on God. I appreciate every day that I have. I appreciate my family who is standing by me, even though I left them high and dry.

Ironically, I appreciate that I am in here, and able to get my head straight. I feel that if I would have stayed living like I was I would not have lived another 10 years. I’m confident that my life has been saved and will be extended because of this situation. I’m working on surrendering it to God and it’s helping me find my way.

I can’t wait to be able to be in my kid’s lives again. I can’t wait to be ready for all of that and to be able to maintain my place in their lives. I’m ready to get back to reality.

While writing this I realized once again how meaningless the last 12 years were. I don’t want to talk about them. I have nothing good to say about them. I wasted 12 years and now I’ll be forced to deal with it for the next 15 years. I’m focusing on trying to make something positive out of every day that I’m incarcerated. I’m in a negative situation, so if I can create something, anything, positive out of each day then I should be better off at the end of all this. I work out 5 to 7 days per week. Go to Bible study 5 to 7 days per week. Read the Bible and pray daily. Read and try to stay as productive as possible. I talk to my kids as much as I can and try to get at least one call in per week. I talk to my mom and sister through the week and we’re trying to figure out how to get through everything with the business.

I’ve let everybody in my life down. I’m sorry for the decisions I made which landed me where I am. I’m ready to take responsibility for my actions and hopefully become better and stronger through it all.

I miss my life. I miss my wife and I’m sorry that I didn’t follow through with the goals that we set out to accomplish. I’m sorry that I let my kids down and damaged them the same way that I was damaged.

I hope and pray for the opportunity to make it better and be positive in their lives again. I hope and pray that I can be free and in my Mom’s life again.

I hope we have time. Too bad I wasted so much of it…

I hope you enjoyed my story and that maybe, it can help steer someone, anyone, away from making the same mistakes that I have made.

I’m sure Lacey can update my status along the way.

I want to thank Lacey for asking me to do this. It helped me to get some things out, and again I hope it can help someone else.

Good luck and God bless.

-Leonard M Cody Singleton

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