A very powerful chain of true events has now been turned into an original film with TV One network. "When Love Kills: The Falicia Blakely Story" is a new original film that debuted in late August of 2017.
It quickly brought in over one million unique viewers on its first night and has continued to rise ever since.
Teen mom gets caught up in the fast life
The story of Falicia Blakely is an actual true story that happened in Atlanta, Georgia about 16 years ago during 2002. According to Essence.com, the real Falicia Blakely is currently serving three consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole after pleading guilty to the murders of three different men and multiple counts of armed robbery under the orders of her abusive boyfriend who was also her pimp.
She was born in Jacksonville, Florida to a single mother who struggled to provide the best lifestyle for her young daughter. Throughout the film, you can see her mother, played by Tami Roman, is constantly bringing different men in and out of her home all while in the presence of her own daughter, so Falicia didn't really have too many positive role models growing up. Her dad was nowhere to be seen in the film, and in reality, Falicia's dad was never around to help raise her. She ended up being moved to New York to stay with her grandmother after being sexually assaulted as a child.
Falicia moved back with her mom in Atlanta, Georgia when she turned 15-years-old and began her fast life by becoming an exotic dancer at a local nightclub while underage.
This led to her dropping out of school in hopes of making enough money to move out her mother's home. Her plan backfired though when he became pregnant shortly after working at the club during the year of 2000 and the father of her child bailed on her due to him already having another relationship going on at the time and the fact that Falicia was underage and by law at that time was illegal for him to have a child with the then 15 to 16-year-old.
In the film, Falicia has a daughter, but in reality, she has a son. Soon after the birth of her first child, Falicia was back working in the nightclub where she met an older man by the name of "Big Dino."
The neighborhood pimp
"Dino" was what you would call the neighborhood pimp. He managed multiple women for his own money hustles in his own way, normally by force and manipulation.
In the film, Dino is played by actor Lance Gross, but in reality, the Dino figure portrayed is really a man by the name of Michael Berry. In reality, Michael was everything that Falicia had dreamed of in a man. He took care of her and her child, fed her, and often times bought her nice and expensive things. But most of the time those expensive things were often purchased with Falicia's money that she had made at the clubs she worked at instead of him using any money he had of his own. He was overall robbing Falicia of not only her money but ultimately her life as a whole. What made this manipulation of his easy to do is the fact that Michael was at least 14 years older than Falicia in real life. Even in the film, this is shown, especially when Dino gives Falicia a padlock necklace signaling that Falicia was now his property to own.
