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‘I’m scared for my son’

Parents of 16-year-old accused of murder share frustrations, fears

Mourners lay flowers and candles at the fence in the alley between Overflow Church and Jefferson Park on Feb. 28 prior to the candlelight vigil for the slain Devon Pfirsching. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

The parents of 16-year-old Owen Southerland — who is charged as an adult for allegedly shooting 15-year-old Devon Pfirsching in the head in late February — say they only want their son to get a fair shake.

His arrest Feb. 26, along with 16-year-old Logan Persing and 15-year-old Damien Green, was the culmination of what Southerland’s mother and stepfather, Stacey and Matt Jackson, say had been months, and even years, of trying to get help for their son — a boy they described as troubled but also quiet, meek and a bit of a follower.

Stacey and Matt Jackson reached out to the Mirror and agreed to an interview, which took place March 25. Devon Pfirsching’s mother, Misty Forlina, declined to be interviewed at this time.

The Jacksons said they want to get a change of venue, and ever since their son’s arrest, they’ve received threats and can’t go out in public. They even had the window of their car smashed.

Their other teenage son had to endure going to school and was forced to eat lunch by himself, and they had to make arrangements to take him in late and pick him up early, his mother said.

Southerland

Owen was a junior at Altoona Area High School.

Tracing problems

The Jacksons said they are not from Altoona and worry as outsiders, their son faces a disadvantage as his case moves through the courts.

“My son never had any kind of problems like this,” his mother said, adding that the family moved to Altoona from the Pittsburgh suburbs about three and a half years ago.

It was soon after the move that they had to place him in the UPMC Altoona Mental Health Unit, after which he was on medication and saw a counselor.

Mourners gather in the alley between Overflow Church and Jefferson Park during a candlelight vigil on Feb. 28 for slain Altoona Area High School student Devon Pfirsching. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

“When I brought him up here (to Altoona), I knew that he needed help,” Stacey Jackson said. “He wasn’t comfortable with the move — he didn’t at all like the situation. After so many things going on, I took him to the hospital, and they admitted him. Finally got him on medication.”

A year later, Stacey Jackson said, “when it was time to sign the paper again to tell you about your HIPAA rights — because I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but at 14 years old, you can decide whether you want to take medication or not” — Owen stopped taking the medication and didn’t want to see his counselor any longer.

He seemed to do OK, and he worked at McDonald’s and kept his grades up, since that was the deal they had, Stacey Jackson said.

Then he started hanging out with a new group of friends, who were not a good influence on their son, his parents said.

“He wanted friends, and he wanted to fit in,” Stacey Jackson said.

Persing

“He was fine until last summer, because he’s worked at McDonald’s for a year-and-a-half. Soon as he was able to get his permit, he went to work,” Matt Jackson said. “So, he was working there, going to school without an issue, and in the beginning of this school year is when all the problems started. He wasn’t going to school, so we had three or four meetings with the truancy officer and, you know, multiple people at the school, and they just kept threatening him and never did anything.”

Reached on Friday, Altoona Area School District spokeswoman Paula Foreman said she couldn’t comment.

Southerland and a friend whom the Jacksons said was a particularly negative influence on their son beat up another boy, off school property, in October, and he was placed on juvenile probation in mid-December.

“So he got in trouble there and then was put on probation, but I will say that his probation officer never came to the house, never followed through with the things he said he was going to until just the very end,” Stacey Jackson said.

Placed on probation

Green

Matt Jackson pointed out that after Southerland was placed on juvenile probation in December, he was charged in two new cases that same month.

One case included charges of harassment and assault after Southerland jumped on his stepfather’s back, and Jackson fell through a table, and the second was for possession of a small amount of marijuana.

He was also skipping school to the point that it became a truancy issue.

“And we were pushing — telling his probation officer, ‘he is not going to school, he was not coming home when he’s supposed to, he’s not coming home for curfew, he’s getting violent,'” Matt Jackson said, noting there were never any home visits or drug tests. “And we kept telling his probation officer something needs to be done and even after he caught those other charges, they still didn’t do anything. So, we go into the (juvenile) probation office to have a meeting with them to say something needs done now. He set up a court hearing two weeks later to get Owen into some kind of program.”

The hearing was scheduled for March 13, but Southerland never made it that far in the juvenile system. He was arrested a couple days after that meeting with juvenile probation and instead was in court on that date for his preliminary hearing on murder and robbery charges.

“And his probation officer did not even know it,” Stacey Jackson said of her son’s arrest. “He calls and we had to tell him.”

Blair County Juvenile Probation Director Jon Frank declined to comment, citing the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s restrictions on divulging information about juvenile cases.

‘System failed my son’

The Jacksons said they believe the system failed their son at many junctures leading up to the shooting on Feb. 25.

“This is the system failing my son because the school was supposed to pull his work permit and all they did was make threats,” Stacey Jackson said. “And that was going to be leverage for his situation to push forward to get him the help that he needed.”

The Jacksons said they were constantly pushing to get some help for their son — not just sporadically but daily. His mother said she put a tracker on his phone and even had a counselor come to the house, but Southerland walked out because he knew he didn’t have to participate if he didn’t want to.

“We called placement centers,” his stepfather said. “We tried everything to get him help somewhere because we knew he was getting violent, and things were just going downhill.

“And we wanted to get it taken care of before he turned into an adult, and something like this happened,” he added. “We kept pushing, and it took too long. He shouldn’t have been on the street for this to even happen.”

Night of the murder

The 16-year-old Southerland was on the street the night of the shooting, although the Jacksons said they still are not sure what happened or whether their son was involved to the point police allege.

They certainly don’t believe their son went out that night with the intention of killing anyone.

Stacey Jackson said on Feb. 25, she picked her son up from work at McDonald’s at 9:45 p.m. and drove home.

“I always took him back and forth to work,” she said, adding she and Matt then went to bed.

Southerland had sneaked out of the house, and his mother didn’t realize he was not home until about 12:10 a.m.

Southerland came in at 12:40 a.m.

Stacey Jackson said she went to the bathroom, saw Owen wasn’t in his room and then she checked around the house. She was getting ready to wake Matt to call police when she walked in the living room and saw Southerland.

She said she looked him up and down but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, with how he looked or acted.

“I said, ‘Owen, what are you doing up?'” Stacey Jackson said.

Southerland told her he had been at a friend’s house to pick up his bluetooth speaker.

She said she read him the “riot act” and reminded him he was on probation and not to be out after he was brought home from work.

“I think he was in total shock,” his mother said. “I think he was in shock and being threatened and scared.”

She said her son received messages after the shooting where he was told not to “fold.”

The next day, her son didn’t go to school. When the police showed up at 1 p.m., the Jacksons said they were shocked to learn it was about the shooting.

Admission to police

Once they were all at the Altoona Police Department, it was a whirlwind.

“They’re telling me that they have all this stuff — pretty much bullying me — telling me that they’re doing all this and if I don’t get Owen to tell them what’s going on they’re charging him as an adult and giving him life,” Matt Jackson said. “So the cop said if we got Owen to tell them what happened they were going to charge him as a juvenile.”

Matt Jackson said Southerland did tell police where the gun was thrown, but he would not say who pulled the trigger — until a detective got into a patrol vehicle with him after they drove to a spot to look for the gun and emerged to say Southerland had confessed to being the shooter.

The Jacksons said testimony at their son’s preliminary hearing didn’t match what they heard and saw when the detective got into the vehicle.

Police testified that Southerland, without prompting, uttered a confession to the shooting. Southerland’s parents dispute that and say they heard a detective say he wanted to talk to Southerland before he got into the vehicle where the teenager was sitting while police looked for the gun.

It wasn’t until later that he was read his rights, police testified at the preliminary hearing.

After the alleged unprompted confession, the Jacksons were told their son was being charged. They said their son never said anything in front of them, and the police won’t tell them what was said in the car.

After that, they all were taken back to the police station, where Southerland gave a statement to investigators. Neither parent was allowed inside and they were told their son didn’t want to give the statement with his parents in the room. Afterward, police wouldn’t tell them anything.

“We cooperated any way we could just to help everything, and as soon as they got what they wanted, they have just been complete assholes ever since,” Matt Jackson said.

Southerland’s natural father has not been part of his life since he was he was very young, his mother said.

“Now, everything is being put on Owen like he went down there purposely to do this, and it was his gun, and that’s not what happened,” Matt Jackson said. “The gun was shared by multiple kids. They’re running around doing a bunch of dumb stuff.”

The gun has not been found, but police believe it was a stolen weapon with an obliterated serial number.

The Jacksons said they really don’t know for sure what happened and are going off what they have heard since the shooting.

“Yeah, this is just what we’ve heard,” Matt Jackson said. “We don’t know exactly where (the gun) came from.”

More charges

The Jacksons said they’re concerned their son won’t be treated fairly by the criminal justice system, citing examples of what has happened up to this point as causes for concern.

Southerland faces additional witness intimidation charges, this time in juvenile court, stemming from his March 13 appearance in Blair County Court for his preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Daniel DeAntonio.

Southerland was removed after he allegedly started to silently mouth words while looking at the other two boys during testimony. He is then alleged to have threatened sheriff’s deputies who took him from the courtroom.

His parents said he wasn’t threatening anyone at the hearing, let alone sheriff’s deputies as is being alleged. He was merely a 16-year-old boy, overwhelmed by the proceedings, who was frustrated by what they said were lies.

His mother also alleges sheriff’s deputies told Southerland when he was being taken to court, “You’re going to get life, you’re going to get life.”

Placement questioned

The Jacksons also point out Southerland is currently being held apart from other inmates at the Blair County Prison, while his two co-defendants are still being held at SCI Pine Grove in Indiana.

“I do not sleep,” his mother said. “I’m worried for my son, how he’s being treated exactly. I’m worried about his mental state, about how he’s really able to handle this — being all isolated and not having any kind of real treatment he should be having.”

That’s because the three have been ordered by a judge to have no contact with one another, but the Jacksons can’t understand why it was their son who must be isolated in Blair County while the other two boys are at a facility that is equipped to hold juveniles.

Blair County Prison Warden Abbie Tate said the jail is required to keep juveniles away from adult offenders and said the current situation with COVID-19 has hampered efforts to address certain needs.

“He is being offered recreation and once we get past the COVID-19 issues, he will be meeting with a school teacher to continue his education needs and will also be allowed to have visits,” Tate said.

The Jacksons said they didn’t have contact with their son for a week and didn’t know he was moved from Pine Grove to Blair County. They only found out because Stacey checked online every day to see where he was located.

Immediately after their arrests, Southerland was housed at SCI Pine Grove with the other two teenagers, with his co-conspirators sharing a cell. That concerned the Jacksons because it gave the other two boys who are pointing the finger at their son an opportunity to talk.

“And that went on for two weeks until we freaked out, and they fixed it,” Matt Jackson said.

COVID effect

Attorney Robert Donaldson, who is representing Southerland, said this week he has worked out a system with the Jacksons to talk every week by conference call and admitted he is hampered by the COVID-19 situation when it comes to visiting Southerland.

Donaldson said it is early in the case, and while he can’t talk about the details, he said the next steps are procedural, with the first to try to get the case transferred to juvenile court. If that doesn’t happen, Southerland’s next appearance is for his formal arraignment on April 24.

The attorney said the discovery material and transcript of the preliminary hearing also will be reviewed to determine what motions he will file in Southerland’s defense ahead of any trial.

“It’s a really sad case,” Donaldson said, noting there is a parallel between the shooting death of Pfirsching and the COVID-19 crisis.

“It has had a tragic and deadly impact,” Donaldson said, adding that for those involved there is a lot of uncertainty and unknowns. “Everyone wishes it hadn’t happened in the first place and would be over.”

Sympathy for victim

Stacey Jackson said she believes all three cases should be handled in juvenile court.

“I’m really scared for my son,” she said. “Just as those other moms are, and I have total sympathy for what they’re going through.”

“We just want to make sure he doesn’t spend the rest of his life in jail,” Matt Jackson said. “Whether it’s 20 years — whatever, as long as he has a chance to better himself and has a chance of making a life later.”

Stacey Jackson said she has been reading where juveniles charged as adults reoffend more than juveniles who are prosecuted in juvenile court. She said her son is not irredeemable.

“Having him spend the rest of his life in jail. … If it was reversed, I would say the exact thing,” she said. “If you’re on this earth, you have a chance to redeem yourself. I believe that wholeheartedly.”

The Jacksons said their hearts go out to the Pfirsching family and said as Southerland’s parents, they have a duty to defend their son.

“I cried,” Stacey Jackson said. “I don’t even know those people, and I just couldn’t even imagine. But at the same time, I’m sticking up for my son because this is my job in life. He’s my son. I will be behind him a million percent, and that will never change.”

Mirror Staff Writer Greg Bock is at 946-7458.

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