The real story behind ‘Jesus Christ’ who broke into NC Pizza Hut

HIGH POINT, N.C. — It’s a story that made headlines around the country: a Triad man breaking into a High Point Pizza Hut in the early hours of March 21 and then calling 911 on himself.

If you listen to the beginning of the 911 recording, you can hear a man telling the dispatcher he’s “Jesus Christ” and that he came from “heaven” and he broke in to Pizza Hut to eat some food. But if you listen all the way through, you hear the voice say “I’m schizophrenic, sir.”

That voice is Richard Quintero’s. The 46-year-old was arrested after the incident and charged with felony breaking and entering along with larceny. But it doesn’t stop there. In fact, that’s not even where this whole story starts.

RELATED: Hear The Full 911 Call From Man Who Calls Himself Jesus After Breaking Into Pizza Hut

“He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at age 19,” explains Alice Yorks, Richard’s mother, who lives in Greensboro.

After the diagnosis, Alice says Richard’s life was manageable for several years. He was married; he had a job. But around 2011-2012, things got worse. She says her son became a ward of the state, with a Guardian representative and a special treatment team. She thinks he was likely homeless the night of the break-in.

“It was the most heart-wrenching thing to turn on a radio and hear my son’s voice being used as a sound byte for entertainment,” Alice explains.

That heartache only got worse. After he was arrested, Alice wasn’t able to see her son at the Guilford County Jail because she wasn’t technically his legal guardian. She hasn’t been able to get an official update on his well-being. She says her son was assigned a court-appointed attorney, but initially she couldn’t get any information from her either.

About 3 weeks after the arrest, Alice says she learned second-hand that her son was taken to High Point Regional Hospital after sustaining a minor injury.

“The injury was actually major,” she explains. “He had bit off a large portion of the interior part of his tongue.”

At that point, with the help of her own attorney, Alice was able to visit her son for 30 minutes at the hospital. But she wanted more.

“I’d been blocked,” she says. “I’ve been left out of all the communications. I’d been left out of being able to see him. Because if you or I were in the hospital, we would have someone with us in the hospital and he’s done this completely alone, without anybody by his side.”

After High Point Regional, Alice says Richard was taken to the hospital at Central Prison in Raleigh. Law enforcement and prison officials could not confirm this, due to HIPPA laws, but Alice says she knows that’s where her son is now, 6 weeks after his initial arrest. She’s made calls of her own to several prison officials to try and see if they would allow her visitation. This week, she hit a break through: she’ll be allowed to visit her son on Saturday.

” I’m a little afraid,” she admits. “I don’t know what I’m going to see or what I’m going to encounter but I do get to see him, so that’s the best news.”

Although visitation is a victory, she’s still worried about his future.

“He had a guardian. He’s a ward of the state. He has a treatment team. He has advocates. He has me as his mother and sisters and family that are his advocates and this still happened.”

Richard has two sisters, who along with Alice, are working to advocate for him while he’s incarcerated. They’ve started a Facebook page, called Help For Richard Quintero, with whatever updates they can get on his case. Alice says she hopes to see changes going forward when it comes to the criminal justice system and mental illness.

“If this can happen to my son, it’s just not my story,” she says. “It’s not Richard’s story. It’s the story of the mentally ill.”