In another instance, her drug-addicted loser of a husband went to a nearby town and cashed a paycheck of hers and used the ill-gotten gains to buy drugs. Vikki thought she had lost the check and asked for another one to be drawn.
"He pretended that I'd lost it," remembers Vikki, still disgusted by her then-husband's actions.
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Photo supplied by Vikki Hankins
Vikki Hankins' high school graduation photo
Check fraud charges were filed against Vikki, but later dropped when her employer realized what had happened via the signature evidence. That charge remained on her record, however.
Hankins was now officially on the other side, considered to be a criminal to anyone with access to her records.
Eventually, the drugs and drug dealing caught up to her husband and the pair had to hit the road, becoming nomads, moving from hotel to hotel and always short on cash.
"I knew nothing of days," recalls Hankins.
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This went on for more than a year. Then one day, he suddenly wanted to head back to Crescent City.
"We got a room ... and the next morning we stopped at ... a 7-11 and a person on the outside of the store asked me if my mom was OK," says Hankins. "I said 'yeah, she's fine.'"
The person quickly realized that Vikki had not heard the news of her mother shooting herself.
"That's how I found out that my mother had committed suicide," says Hankins. "My life shifted ...
I died. ... I changed inside. I just didn't care. I wanted to die too."
Now young Vikki was really in a deepened pit of despair. Her marriage was a joke, her husband a small-time drug dealer and spousal abuser and her mom had just shot herself, most likely the result of Vikki leaving the house and marrying a no-good thug.
Then things got worse - within three or four months of her mom's suicide, her husband was picked up by police and was now in jail. Their rocky marriage - which lasted a year, maybe a year-and-a-half - was, for all intents and purposes, over.
The less-than-street wise Hankins was now totally on her own, wandering the streets, unsure of who she was anymore or where she was going.
It wasn't until her step dad said something to her that she was able to snap out of it.
"I was walking looking spaced out and he called me over and was talking about how the people in my home town were talking about me in negative ways," recalls Hankins of the pivotal moment her tough-guy step dad cried. "That little tear just made me feel or sense somewhere in my dead soul that this is a person that cares and that it was genuine."
"Somehow that made me snap out of it a little bit, I guess."
Determined ... To Make A Mess Of Things
The other thing her stepfather's tear made her think of was her younger brother and sister, and how their mom wasn't around for them anymore. She resolved to do something about it.
She was now determined to make a home for herself, so that she could take care of her younger siblings who were now without their mother. But how could she make any money? She was basically a street urchin. No one would hire her for any real job making real money.
She was determined now, but her options were limited.
Then she remembered those little zip-lock baggies ...
"Those little square things that my husband was selling and getting $20 for them," remembers Hankins. "I took my last paycheck and bought some of those little squares to make money quite fast, clueless about what I was doing."
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Photo: Gian Pietri/Sunshine Slate Images
Vikki Hankins is looking for justice from her government And make money she did. Hankins proved to be an excellent drug dealer. First, she didn't get high on her own supply. Second, who would believe that a cute young girl was slinging rocks?
Well, she didn't stay the cute innocent young girl for long. Soon she was sporting gold teeth, tons of jewelry and a ever-hardening street attitude. The drug dealing and the lifestyle that goes along with it was making Hankins sick inside.
Her success quickly led her up the drug dealer food chain, where she got to meet "Mr. Big" - not his real name or nickname - who was one of Daytona's bigger players on the drug distribution scene.
He fronted Hankins a large amount of crack, even though she had no idea what "fronting" was.
After her crash course in dealing, she headed back to her hometown and sold everything she had.
She definitely surprised Mr. Big and his whole crew by returning the next day with all of his money and a desire for more product. Big was impressed. He was also keen on the little girl from Crescent City and the two eventually developed an intimate relationship.
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She lived the life of a drug dealer for 1.5 years before she wanted out. The people. The violence. The product. She was changing into someone who she didn't want to become: an actual thug.
Besides, Hankins had started the process of getting her cosmetology license. It was time to say goodbye to the drug life.
"I went to Daytona Beach Community College and got my hours and passed the courses and took the exam ... got my license. I knew I was working my way out of [the drug-dealing]
lifestyle," says Hankins. "I wanted to open up some hair salons."
But it was not to be - Vikki was busted before she could get out.
"That particular package of drugs is where I said 'this is it, this is my last little trip here,'" recalls Hankins. "I had already told [Mr. Big] that I didn't want to be with him anymore. I was gonna take my money, he could have his money and I am going to go on about my way. But I ended up getting arrested instead."
In May of 1990, Hankins checked into the Hilton Hotel in DeLand under the name Vanessa Wade, "Because I didn't want [Mr. Big] to find me. ... I switched cars. I didn't want him or anybody else to know I was around."
She succeeded in eluding everyone. She was gonna finish this score and move on. Except that her great escape turned into a horrible nightmare lasting 20 years.
"When I cut open one of the gray packages of cocaine base, I left the [empty] gray package in the room," recalls Hankins. "When the maid came in to clean up she saw it and turned it into management. They set up surveillance across the hall."
She was arrested by state officers. The charge? Possession of more than 50 grams of cocaine base with intent to distribute, and conspiracy. But the state - who has basically made an
"accidental" arrest - quickly handed the case over to the feds, which, unbeknownst to Hankins, was already building their own case against her and Mr. Big.
Her goose was cooked, they told her, it was time to roll over on Mr. Big. She didn't, and then made yet another huge mistake: she utilized the defense attorney supplied by ... Mr. Big.
He kept telling her it was nothing to worry about, obviously more concerned about his paying client than some naive girl with gold teeth. Until the day she was sentenced, Hankins was being advised that she would most likely walk out of court that day with little more than a slap on the wrist.
Or at worst, she would do ten years.
What she wasn't aware of was the fact that due to the media frenzy surrounding a new super-addictive form of cocaine dubbed "crack," that new federal sentencing guidelines enacted in 1989 mandated that Hankins spend an obscenely long time in prison compared to other crimes.
Or even compared to powdered cocaine.
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Photo: Supplied by Vikki Hankins
Free at last, free at last: Hankins enjoys her life after many years of incarceration In November of 1990, she was sentenced to 23 years and 4 months in federal prison. She could earn no more than 54 days a year time off for good behavior.