A Felon’s Last Days of Freedom

Busted for his role in a massive heroin ring, Luis “Green Eyes” Charleman is about to start a very long stint behind bars. But his prison sentence is ripping his family apart before it even begins.

Photos by Ben Cleeton

Luis Charleman, known among friends and family for his brilliant green eyes, grew up in Puerto Rico, stealing cars and selling them to the chop shop for fast cash, eventually dropping out of school at fourteen. He was in prison for two years before he turned eighteen. “Green Eyes” moved to Brooklyn in the late 1980s and began selling drugs to support his mother and brother, also living in New York City. He spent about twenty years in the city — selling drugs, working as a mechanic, battling his own drug addiction and moving in and out of jail and prison.

In 2008, Green Eyes and his wife, India Bolden, moved to Syracuse, where they opened a small car repair shop on the Southside. Green Eyes relapsed shortly after he was cut off from his methadone treatment program. Soon the auto shop shut down. His wife was able to get a job at SUNY Upstate Medical Hospital. Green Eyes’ most recent brush with the law came in September 2014 as part of a massive bust of a drug ring th…