AS I LAY DYING “FREE” by David Maloney
Back in 2013, metalcore monsters As I Lay Dying quickly disbanded after frontman Tim Lambesis was convicted of hiring a hitman to kill his wife. His arrest and subsequent six year jail sentence would have had him out of jail in 2020. However, according to former Dokken guitarist George Lynch, who’s daughter had been engaged to AILD guitarist Nick Hipa, Lambesis is out of jail after serving less than three years. Speaking to Eddie Trunk, Lynch said the following:
“[Tim] is a Biola-trained theologian. The guy’s really super bright. He had an IQ of 160; the guy had a brain like a freaking vice.
I had every freaking argument out there, and he just was able to really kind of battle every argument, ’cause he had every counter-argument prepared in his mind; he had studied so hard. And as silly as his argument was, and as much as it didn’t really hold water when you thought about it — it was all fallacious arguments — but…”
“Anyways, he just got out of jail for attempting to kill his wife. Now I’m not saying this as an indictment against anything. All I’m saying is, there is a guy who could argue Christianity beyond anybody I’ve ever spoken to in my life; I had these very heated debates with this guy… He had a beautiful wife; they had adopted three Cambodian children. And then he discovered cocaine, strippers, heroin and steroids. He went completely off the rails, abandoned his family, his wife threatened to divorce him, he hired an off-duty cop to kill her.
He recently got out of jail. He destroyed his band. They don’t have a pot to piss in now; they’re all struggling. [They are] a great band. I know them very well because, actually, the guitar player was my daughter’s fiancé. And, actually, the drummer [Jordan Mancino] played in another project I had ways back, Souls Of We. So, anyways, he’s out, he’s got a mega record deal, he’s got a book deal, everything’s lined up for him. I mean, he’s gonna skate through life. Everybody else is suffering. His wife is living in fear, his children are living in fear. His band doesn’t have a pot to piss in.”
Lambgoat, who have covered this story extensively, say that a search of inmates doesn’t turn up his name, suggesting that he is, indeed, free.
David Maloney / MHF
