Oscars-crashing tourist “Gary From Chicago” revealed to the media that he had been released from prison only three days before becoming a surprise attendee of the awards show, where he rubbed elbows with stars like Jennifer Aniston and Denzel Washington.
Gary Alan Coe and his fiancée Vickie Vines were part of a group of tourists that host Jimmy Kimmel had brought into the ceremony unsuspectingly as a random kind of bit.
Coe stole the show by taking selfies and shaking hands with stars like Ryan Gosling and Meryl Streep.
He then was “married” by Denzel Washington after his fiancée admitted that he was her favorite actor, and Jennifer Aniston gave them her sunglasses as a “wedding gift,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
Coe revealed his past before it could be made public because he wanted to be forthcoming. He had just finished a 20-year prison sentence for crimes committed under the three strikes law when he was a teen and young adult, according to USA Today.
His public defender Karen Nash had worked for years to get him released from a life sentence. The California law was changed in 2012 to give 25-year sentences for those with three felony convictions rather than life.
“I spent years working on Gary’s case,” Nash said. He got a life sentence for stealing perfume in 1997, and we finally won release this year,” USA Today reported. Coe’s rap sheet also included attempted rape, which was committed when he was a teen.
Coe plans to marry fiancée Vines for real this summer in California, and “Black-ish” star Anthony Anderson, who is ordained in California, has offered to marry them, USA Today reported.
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