He is the convicted felon whose ‘criminally handsome’ mugshot went viral after it was released by a California police department last year – and now 32-year-old Jeremy Meeks is set to trade hobnobbing with crooks for brushing shoulders with royalty.
Meeks, a married father-of-three, was released from jail at 9am on Tuesday morning and is currently in a transitional home where he is adjusting to life on the outside and his new-found fame.
Now his close friend and agent, fashion photographer Jim Jordan, has revealed that the former felon is being deluged with offers from all over the world – among them a smattering of invitations from unnamed royals to visit them at their palace homes.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Online, he also said that the ‘humble’ Meeks is nothing like the hard man image conveyed by his life of crime and gang tattoos, and is instead a ‘soft-spoken family man’ who has been left totally overwhelmed by all the attention.
‘He’s overwhelmed, yeah, because he’s never been out of jail since this [attention] started happening,’ he explained.
‘Inside, he would be watching TV and all the inmates would run over and go, ‘Dude, you’re on TV!’ And the guards would tell him what’s going on out in the world about his name.
‘That’s what he really knew of the extent of it, from people who would tell him things and from speaking to his wife.’
Meeks, who served a previous sentence of two years for grand theft, was handed his most recent jail term in February 2015 but secured early release from the Nevada correctional center where he was being held.
The 32-year-old, who lived in the small town of Stockton in upstate California prior to his arrest, was brought up in a poor household and began his life of crime after becoming involved with the Northern Crips – a branch of the notorious Los Angeles gang.
Jeremy Meeks has a rap sheet that stretches back more than a decade and has been in and out of courtrooms in California and Washington over a panoply of offenses, ranging from gang crime to identity theft.
In 2002, when he was just 18, Meeks, who dropped out of high school in 10th grade, was arrested by police in California on gang offenses.
He was charged with grand theft from a person and spent two years in jail for his crimes.
Three years later, in 2005, he was in trouble again – this time in Spokane, Washington.
Caught stealing from a sporting goods store, he attempted to flee the business and had to be pepper-sprayed by security guards after threatening to assault them.
According to a police affidavit filed at the time, Meeks reportedly said he would ‘f*** you all up, mess you all up’ after being cornered.
He was later charged with theft, resisting arrest, forgery and identity theft, after claiming to be his older brother Emery.
Meeks was sentenced to 71 days in jail and fined $800.
On his return to California in 2007, Meeks was soon back in trouble – this time for driving offenses.
Charged with negligent driving and driving without a license, he was convicted of the first and fined $252 although the second charge was dropped.
In 2009, he was arrested yet again – this time in California and again on gang charges.
A mugshot taken at the time shows him with a Northern Crips gang tattoo on his neck – an inking that was absent in earlier photos.
Prior to his arrest in June 2014 on firearms charges and ‘street terrorism’, he was also collared for resisting a peace officer in San Joaquin County, although on that occasion, the case did not go to trial.
Already a father of two, aged 24, he married a local nurse named Melissa and went on to have a son, now five, with his wife.
When he was arrested in June 2014 as part of a crackdown on gangs by the Stockton police department, he was charged with five weapons offenses and two counts relating to gang membership.
Described as ‘one of the most violent criminals in the area’ by a police spokesman, the 32-year-old then hit the headlines when his mugshot went viral.
Dubbed ‘the hot felon’ and ‘a smooth criminal’ by the media, Meeks’ photo became one of the most shared in internet history – although that wasn’t enough to prevent a judge from handing down a 27-month jail term.
At the time, his mother Katherine Angier, 62, described the experience as ‘a nightmare’ and claimed Meeks had a job and was ‘trying to go straight’ at the time of his arrest.
She also said he was no longer involved in gangs but couldn’t afford to get his tattoos removed – and was being given a hard time by other inmates and guards as a result.
‘He is going through a terrible ordeal from the guards and some of the gang members,’ she said in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Online at the time.
‘We just want his life to be normal. Who knows what this is going to do to his life. This could mess it all up.’
Now a free man once more, Meeks is focusing on adjusting to life in the outside world according to Jordan and wants to spend more time with his three children before plotting his next steps.
He said: ‘I asked Jeremy what he was most looking forward to when he got released and he said the only thing I want to do is be with my kids, and sit with my boys and my daughter, to be with them and do things with them, just watch them be kids and grow up. That’s all I can focus on, just being with my wife and my family.
‘I really believed him and I know that’s the truth about who he really is. He said that he never thought that he would ever get a second chance like this and that he’s so humbled.
‘He had tears in his eyes. He’s so sensitive and he was there with tears in his eyes. He said, I cannot even believe I would have an opportunity like this and people would ever see me like this [in a positive light].’
Since being released, Meeks has remained largely silent but for an Instagram post in which he thanked his family and fans for ‘all your love, support and prayers.’
He added: ‘I’m overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead. I’m ready.’
However, all that is set to change when he is released from the transitional home in six weeks time, with Jordan revealing that lucrative offers have been piling up.
‘Well, we’ve had contact with a lot of big brands,’ he told Daily Mail Online. ‘We’ve had contact from all the major, major brands.
‘I can’t specify the names of them right now but the world will see very, very shortly what’s about to happen.
‘We have major, major fashion brands, designers on the table. We have movies on the table, we have book deals on the table, we have reality non-scripted television on the table, we have pilots on the table, we have club openings in Dubai, Vegas and all over the world.