It just didn't look right.

It wasn't what inmates of the Dade Correctional Institute in Florida City, Fla., normally did.

But 19-year-old Kenny Turner, wearing his customary life-is-good grin, approached an older man in the prison's rec yard and asked for help.

"He just walked over to me and asked would I teach him how to work out," Kevin Issac, a 37-year-old inmate now incarcerated at the Moore Haven (Fla.) Correctional Facility, wrote in a letter to The New Mexican.

Inside the walls of a prison, unsolicited conversations asking for help are not only unheard of, they’re suspicious.

"He was just standing there smiling like we already knew each other," Issac said. "So I asked him what he was trying to do and he said when he got out he wanted to play college football and he needed to be ready. ...

"I didn't think he would last a week. He probably weighed 150 pounds and always had that smile on his face. So the very first thing I wanted to do was wipe that smile off his face."

Five years later, Turner is still smiling.

He can't help himself.

Turner's dream of playing football at a Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I) school is about to become a reality this fall at New Mexico State University — a reality many never thought would come to fruition when the once-promising high-school football star nearly threw it all away at the age of 16, shooting and injuring two men outside an Orlando, Fla., gas station.

It was a crime that left Turner watching from afar as his two best friends — Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans and Mike Sims-Walker of the Jacksonville Jaguars — flourished on the football field in college and became multi-millionaires in the National Football League.

An unlikely path back to the football field has brought Turner, once considered a better football prospect than either Johnson or Sims-Walker, to Las Cruces and to DeWayne Walker, NMSU's second-year football coach, who is trying desperately to change the fortunes of a program entering its 51st season since last playing in a bowl game, the longest such drought in college football.

It's an opportunity many colleges didn't want to give Turner, a 5-foot-10, 195-pound athletic powerhouse who runs a 4.37 40-yard dash and rushed for more than 1,500 yards while earning Junior College All-American honors in 2009 playing for the Fullerton (Calif.) College Hornets. Recruiters hesitated both because of his criminal past and a pair of devastating knee injuries suffered in the past three years.

"I could be mad at the world about everything that has happened," Turner says. "I always say that if this didn't happen, I'd be in the NFL already. I know that for a fact, but that ain't the way the story goes."


'Regret isn't the right word'

In 22 years of coaching high school football, including the last 10 as a successful head coach in Florida, Mike Cullison has helped guide at least 100 players to college-scholarship opportunities.

Of all of them, none could make a better case for playing with an elite program than Turner.

"He was unbelievable," recalls Cullison, who coached Turner and Johnson at Olympia High School in Orlando. "He could have played at any school he wanted to because he could have played any position on the field. He's just that good. He knows football. And Chris (Johnson) might not admit it, but at that time, Kenny had him. He was that good."

That promise came to a screeching halt on July 27, 2002, outside of a Chevron gas station sometime around 3 a.m.

Turner and his friends, including Sims-Walker, were getting back into a car after a heated exchange with a group of young men. When Turner heard gunshots he thought were aimed in his direction — 21-year-old Yvon Bernard, a member of the other group of kids, fired a revolver in the air — he reacted in way that changed his life forever.

He reached under the seat of the car he was in, grabbed a 9-mm handgun and fired the weapon, hitting Bernard and 18-year-old Aruni Andre. Both were treated and released from a hospital that same day.

"You've got to look at it like if somebody was trying to take your life, or take your friend's life, your mom's life or someone that you love, would you just let them?" Turner says of the shooting. "I don't want nobody to think that I'm crazy, but I don't want to say I regret it, either. Regret isn't the right word. It was unfortunate. I feel bad about all of it, but to this day, I believe I was acting like I was defending myself."

Turner was rarely, if ever, in any serious trouble as a kid before the shooting. He is the son of divorced parents — a preacher father who was in the military and a mother who owns a day-care center — and has two younger sisters and an involved, loving aunt and uncle who have stood by him throughout his life.

With every reason to go on to bigger and brighter things, Turner put himself in a situation that could have ruined it all.

Turner was charged as an adult with two counts of attempted murder. Prosecutors offered, and Turner accepted, a plea deal that dismissed both attempted murder charges for his guilty plea to one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Eleven days before he turned 17, Kenny Turner was sentenced by a judge to five years in prison.


Inmate X41592

A young athlete's jersey number often becomes his identity. Turner will don the number 3 in crimson and white for the Aggies this fall.

But while Johnson and Sims-Walker were closing out their prep careers and going on to become college and NFL stars, Turner navigated his late teenage years simply as inmate X41592.

"I think a lot about the time I was in there, about the nights I just wished I was at home," Turner says. "About how I wished I got to go to the prom. I think about the times I missed. You go in at 16, you've got to figure you're still a boy. You come out at 21. That place kind of raised me. I missed being out, being a kid, growing into a man out in society."

While earning his GED and getting licensed as an electrician and plumber in prison, his goal was always returning to football.

His motivation derived from a variety of sources, including mixed emotions about following the football careers of his best friends while he sat in a cell.

"I felt bad while he was in there because that could have been me," Sims-Walker said. "I'm out here playing football, and he's in there never letting prison get to him. I don't know many people that could have done that."


'He will never come back'

Once Turner got over any feelings of pity for himself and his situation, he began focusing on preparing himself for a football life outside of prison.

In an environment not always conducive to such things, Turner asked for help. He sought guidance from older inmates. He soaked up the things he thought could help him on the outside and tried desperately to fight off adopting those traits that would lead him back to prison.

When he saw an inmate from whom he thought he could learn workout techniques, he simply walked up to him and asked.

He didn't know any better.

"Not taking him seriously, I agreed (to help Turner work out) and told him we start tomorrow just to see if he would show up," Issac wrote in his letter to The New Mexican. "Sure enough, he was there the next day."

Issac tried putting Turner through such strenuous workouts, the young inmate would quit and never bother him again.

It never happened.

Not only did Turner never stop working out, or never stop smiling, he made a believer out of Issac inside the walls of that Florida prison.

“He didn’t belong here,” Issac said. “He was like a fish out of water . . . I’m willing to bet my freedom that he will never come back. Am I crazy? How can I be so confident in KT? Because I know me and every time I looked at KT, I’m looking at myself.”

Issac, one of nine kids who says he had a stable, trouble-free upbringing, was a promising track and football athlete at Tallahasee (Fla.) Community College awaiting paperwork clearance to enroll and compete at Florida State University. When he was 19, he and a friend made the ill-advised decision to find a way to make a little extra money.

“Two months later and my second robbery attempt, I was arrested for attempted murder of an undercover cop, armed robbery and other various crimes from that one criminal episode,” Issac wrote. “Luckily no one was injured. So I never got to enroll or play for FSU. My big break was gone in the blink of an eye.”


Injury setbacks

On June 1, 2007, at the age of 21, Turner walked out of the Mayo (Fla.) Correctional Institution.

He swore he’d never return — a silent promise not unlike the one made by countless other inmates embarking on their long-awaited freedom walk.

With the help of an old high-school friend who played junior college football in California, and with Sims-Walker and Johnson at his side throughout the process, Turner signed on to play at Fullerton College.

Finally, Turner thought, all was back on track.

"I hadn't played football in five years, so I sat out that first year and was the scout-team running back," Turner said. "I was a beast, too."

As it always seems to happen, once the somber talk of his time in prison turns to football, so, too, comes a growing grin on Turner's face.

As humbled and open as he can be about his past demons, Turner is downright cocky about his abilities on the field.

"I told all my teammates that if they could handle me on scout team, they'd have no problem with any player they faced all season ... They couldn't stop me though."

By now, the teeth are flashing again and the tempo of Turner's talk has turned into a high-energy banter about the sport he loves.

It quickly subsides, however, when he talks about a September 2007 practice in which he tore his right anterior crucial ligament, requiring surgery.

A vigorous rehabilitation regimen consumed the next year of his life.

By the fall of 2008, he was again ready — ready for Fullerton's first game of the season and his first actual game since he was a sophomore in high school.

"It just popped again," Turner recalls of the sound he heard in his right knee during a kick return in that game. "I knew I tore something, but I hopped up, and fell. Hopped back up, fell again. I'm not ever going to lay there on the field hurt, so I got up a third time and dragged my leg all the way off the field."

He later reinjured the knee, tearing his lateral collateral ligament, which required another surgery.

"They said I was done," Turner said. "I cried and was ready to get on a plane and go home. Them telling me that, that hurt me more than the judge slapping that gavel."

While the injury was enough to force Turner to finally call it quits, those around him — Johnson, Sims-Walker, Turner's family, teammates and coaches — wouldn't let it happen.

After more than a few pep talks, and many words of encouragement, Turner decided to give it one more try, a try that ended up leading to his gaining 1,850 yards from scrimmage (1,513 rushing yards and 337 receiving yards) and scoring 18 touchdowns in 2009, leading the Hornets to a 10-2 record.

He was rewarded with All-American distinction after the season, but little else.


'I had to be patient'

In the fall of 2009, the phone calls began.

College recruiters wanted to know more about the speedy running back who was tearing up the Southern California Football Association.

"When they found out about my past, they just stopped talking to me," Turner said. "It wasn't about the football, it was about the past. But I knew that was going to happen. I had to be patient."

The knee injuries and his age — he will be 24 when the Aggies open the 2010 season on Sept. 11 against San Diego State — were part of the hesitation from recruiters, but there obviously was more.

"Could I have just decided to sign him based on talent? Sure," NMSU's coach said. "But then everyone starts Googling all your signees and they find all this background on Kenny Turner. I know that would be semi-professional suicide."

So when Walker, who has deep roots in California coaching circles, took the advice of several of his peers to give Turner a look, he knew the process would be unlike any other recruiting situation he had experienced.

He brought in NMSU director of athletics McKinley Boston, who on more than one occasion during his five-plus years at NMSU said he views athletic scholarships as "a means to an end" for many athletes from troubled backgrounds.

"I see a kid who made a huge mistake when he was just that, a kid," Boston said. "With my background, in a lot of ways, I could have been Kenny."

Walker and Boston sought campus-wide involvement. A group of would-be recruiters was assembled to grill Turner about his past during his official visit to the Southern New Mexico campus. The committee included Julie Weber, director of Housing and Residential Life; Jim Peach, professor of economics and international business; Jack Thomas, NCAA faculty representative; Bobbie Green, professor of business; and David Keys, professor of criminal justice.

Each bought into Turner's appreciation of the opportunity at hand and desire to make the most of his life on and off the field. With that, and with the blessing of NMSU President Barbara Couture, Boston and Walker formally offered Turner a scholarship.

"All through the 'buy-in' process around campus, I never knew what type of football player he was," Boston said. "When the committee gave their OK, I went to coach Walker's office and said, 'Damn, coach, after all this, I hope he can play.' "


'A man among men'

"We were sitting in a cover-two," recalls former University of Southern California defensive back Jesse Davis of the biggest football moment of his life. "I saw a guy coming across the field, and I went to break on him and the ball was thrown kind of high. It pretty much just fell in my lap."

Davis' interception sealed the 1996 Rose Bowl victory for the USC Trojans over the Northwestern Wildcats.

It's a play that Davis, who later was on the practice squad of the NFL's New York Jets and also played in the Canadian Football League, says would have never happened had it not been for current NMSU football coach DeWayne Walker.

"He's a man among men," Davis said. "I probably would have ended up back in jail if it wasn't for him, and as long as we've got people like DeWayne Walker in this world, we'll be all right."

It was the early 1990s when a young DeWayne Walker, still in the infancy of his career coaching defensive backs at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif., took on the challenge of trying to turn a 20-year-old kid fresh out of six years in a juvenile correctional facility into football player, and more importantly, a productive member of society.

Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1980s, the height of the country's crack-cocaine epidemic, Davis wasn't unlike many teenagers who found themselves lured by the temptations around them.

The fact that his uncle was "Freeway" Rick Ross, a nationally known drug dealer who was featured in episode two of the first season of BET's documentary series American Gangster, brought those temptations even closer.

"I was hanging around some grown-ups and doing things I shouldn't have been doing," Davis said of being arrested at the age of 14 on interstate drug-trafficking charges.

Davis spent six years in jail at the Herman G. Stark Youth Training Center.

"When I first saw him, he was raw, but man I could tell he had some ability," Walker said of the day Davis walked on to the Mt. San Antonio College practice field. "We went from there, and I just tried treating him like a man — just like I treat everyone else on the team."

To Davis, who now owns a construction company and coaches defense at West Adams High School in Los Angeles, Walker did more than treat him like just one of the guys.

"I know that I wouldn't have gone on to USC or stayed out of trouble without the way Walker guided me through those years," Davis said. "He's still the man I call when I have major decisions to make in my life. And I know that this kid they've got at New Mexico State right now, he's in the best possible situation he can be in to make this second chance work for him because DeWayne Walker is his coach."


'They don't have a 2,000-yard rusher, yet.'

On the July 4th holiday weekend, Turner, Johnson and Sims-Walker got together in New Orleans for the last time this summer before all three reported to their respective preseason football camps. For Turner, that included a July 5 move to Las Cruces to enroll in summer-session classes and begin offseason workouts with the Aggies.

The New Orleans visit took on an old, familiar tone.

"Every time we get together, Kenny and Chris go at it the whole time talking about who's better," Sims-Walker said. "I play receiver, so I'm not in the discussion, but they argue about who the better running back is, all the time."

This is the same Chris Johnson who last year became just the sixth player in NFL history to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season.

"Kenny just keeps pointing out Chris had more games," Sims-Walker said. "He says, 'You give Kenny Turner 16 games and he's rushing for more than 2,000 yards, too.' "

For the record, Turner's 12-game rushing average in 2009, albeit at the junior college level, was 126.1 yards per game. Johnson's 2,006-yard season in 16 games for the Tennessee Titans resulted in a 125.4 per-game rushing average.

When it was pointed out that he was joining an NMSU team that has a 1,000-yard rusher returning to the roster this fall in running back Seth Smith, Turner grinned and fired right back.

"I know, but they don't have a 2,000-yard rusher, yet."

Walker, who has coached numerous NFL players while at UCLA and USC and even flirted with the notion of rejoining friend and former colleague Pete Carroll as a defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks this season, knows what he sees in his prized recruit.

Turner, a player with knee injuries who would be 27 if he played all three years of his eligibility at NMSU, will most likely leave for the NFL if given any opportunity.

"I don't anticipate him being here all three years," Walker said. "The first big year this guy has, he's got to get out of here."

While the NFL being run by a commissioner who is cracking down on players with questionable associations and unbecoming conduct, Turner's best friends are still willing to stand by him.

"I keep telling everybody it's just a waiting game," Sims-Walker said. When he, Turner and Johnson work out together, he said, it is Turner who sets the pace. "New Mexico State got a steal, and I promise you he'll be (in the NFL). I'll put my house on it. Kenny Turner will be in the league."


'A long way to go'

When NMSU decided to let Turner join the team this summer, the university did so with no strings attached.

"I'm going to treat him like every other player on the team," Walker said. "I think if anyone knows what the repercussions are going to be if he screws up, it's Kenny Turner."

Turner suspects there are more people waiting to see a train wreck this fall in Las Cruces than there are people expecting him to succeed.

Such thoughts just fuel his fire.

"All those people who turned their back had the right to do that," Turner said. "I deserved that. But I just want them to keep those backs turned when this works out.

"I'm going to give everyone something else to watch down here this season."

Those around Turner are sold on what this fall could bring.

"From my understanding," Issac wrote, "success arises when opportunity meets preparation. KT has been physically and mentally prepared for this opportunity."

And for all the cockiness and boasting Turner does in front of reporters or his new teammates about his talents and about how his time making millions in the NFL is just around the corner, there's a serious determination born from years of struggle hidden beneath that infectious smile.

"I talked to him on the phone (in mid-July) and was asking him how things at New Mexico State were going for him, and just wanted to tell him he's come a long way," Sims-Walker said. "I told him 'Pat yourself on the back. You're a Division I football player.'

"His response to me was, 'Don't remind me. I've still got a long way to go because I'm not where I need to be just yet.' "

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3076 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com.