INSIDE EDITION spoke exclusively to the wife and mother of the prison inmate who became known as the ‘Hot Mugshot Guy.’
It's become one of the most famous mugshots ever.
Jeremy Meeks is the guy with the piercing blue eyes who could pass for a male model instead of a suspect being held on a million dollars bail.
Now, for the first time, the women behind the hunky guy speak out. INSIDE EDITION spoke to his wife and his mother exclusively.
Melissa Meeks broke her silence about her husband's rise to internet fame.
INSIDE EDITION’s Jim Moret held up the mugshot and asked, “This is the picture that started it all. How do you feel when you see this picture?”
She replied, “I have mixed emotions about the picture.”
Moret asked, “How shocked were you that your husband became an overnight internet sensation?”
She said, “It was very shocking to me. I didn't see this coming, of course who would?”
Jeremy and Melissa have been married for six years. Their simple ceremony was held at a friends house. Melissa, who is a nurse, says Jeremy is a family man, a devoted husband and father.
Cops paint quite a different picture calling him a "violent street terrorist" busted in a gang sweep while on his way to work in his hometown of Stockton, it considered the most dangerous city in California.
Moret asked, “Is your husband a gang member?”
“No, my husband is not,” said Melissa.
Moret said, “He was picked up for having a gun in his car.”
She replied, “Allegedly.”
Jeremy Meeks has a long criminal record going back to when he was a teen and he served time in the state pen for robbery. On his right arm is a tattoo that says Crip that sure suggests he's a member of the notorious street gang The Crips. Underneath his left eye he has a teardrop tattoo, sometimes a symbol of a gang killing.
Moret asked, “Were you taken aback when you saw all those tattoos and said, 'Whoa, what's going on here?'”
Melisa said, “I think the first thing I saw was those blue eyes like everyone else, so, the tattoos were kind of blurred.”
Jeremy’s mom, Katherine says her son grew up without a father. She’s had her own series of run-ins with the law, serving time for petty crimes.
Moret said to Katherine, “Women look at this picture and see a heartthrob. You see something very different.”
She said, “That's my baby, my youngest child.”
Katherine put her son up for adoption when he was 10. Jeremy's older sister took him in.
“I don't like to think about him being gone for very long and his son, missing his son. That’s the bad part,” said Katherine.
Jeremy Meeks has pled not guilty, but if he's convicted he faces 10 years hard time. Where with those baby blue eyes, he would surely be a "model" prisoner.
Meliisa said, “I feel sad in a way because that's my husband and he's not here with me. I also feel like this picture could take him anywhere.”
Update May 2016: Meeks was sentenced to 27 months in prison last year on weapon charges but had hoped to get out early on good behavior. He was released in March and is now reportedly in a residential reentry program in California. He will be released on July 7, 2016.
