Jacksonville, FL: Details still unclear in teacher's brutal slaying....
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Saturday, July 1, 2000
Story last updated at 10:56 p.m. on Friday, June 30, 2000
Details in slaying murky
How teen suspects met victim unclear
By Mark Reynolds
Times-Union staff writer
The information given by Jacksonville police does little to explain how two
youths charged with killing a popular Forrest High School teacher came into
contact with the 67-year-old man, a teacher of the year.
But the geography of the case suggests the answer probably lies somewhere in
Hyde Grove, the working-class Westside area where both 13-year-old Gene S.
Hughes and 18-year-old Sylvio Parent grew up.
Hyde Grove is where they both rode bicycles and frequented a strip of
businesses along bustling Lane Avenue South. It is close to the house where
police say Roderick Dickens' was "befriended," handcuffed, robbed and
killed.
Now, Hyde Grove is a place where two families anguish about how the two
teens' adolescent trajectories converged with the life of the standout
teacher, whose slaying led to their arrests this week on charges that may
land them in jail for life.
Bits of information offered by interviews with neighbors, friends, a lawyer
and police tell the story of two teens with their own troubles. The details
also sketch the efforts of adults who tried to help, including a Baptist
clergyman who may have seen Hughes and Parent with a vehicle similar to
Dickens' Nissan Pathfinder.
"It's just a sad situation," said John Dedmon, a 46-year-old neighbor who
was reminded of his own childhood as he watched Hughes grow up. "If there
ever is a case where a boy has been neglected and hasn't had a mentor in his
life, this is one of them."
Parents not there
Gene Shelly Hughes was abandoned in 1987 by his mother about two months
after he was born, according to his attorney Richard Kuritz.
Charles Hughes, his grandfather, eventually became his legal guardian, and
the teenager recently attended J.E.B. Stuart Middle School, police records
say.
Hughes grew up mostly with his grandfather in a single-story, olive-green
house on Lane Avenue near the Hyde Grove Elementary School and the Hyde Park
Baptist Church.
For most of the boy's life, his father, Gene Shelly Hughes, 39, circulated
through state prisons.
Records show the elder Hughes being imprisoned for trafficking stolen
property, forgery, burglary, robbery and fleeing a law-enforcement officer
in a high-speed chase. He is in a Gainesville prison.
But the man's 13-year-old son was following a different course, according to
Kuritz.
Kuritz, who is trying to keep the boy's case in juvenile court, said Hughes
has never been arrested as a juvenile.
"He is not like most kids who sit in the house and play Nintendo," said
Dedmon who lives in a house directly behind the 13-year-old's home. "He is a
kid who gets out and rides on his skateboard and bicycle."
He said Hughes also recognized the potency of narcotics and once told him he
would never use drugs because they ruined his family.
Dedmon, a brick mason by trade, said he tried to help the child by taking
him to church. He planned to hire the boy as summer help on his brick-laying
jobs when the boy reached working age.
"I tried to reach out to Gene," Dedmon said. "I just didn't do it enough. I
look back now and I realize I should have done more. I'm the one who should
have taken him fishing and stuff."
But Dedmon said he noticed about four months ago that an older youth had
started spending lots of time with Hughes.
He said he observed both the youth and Hughes riding bikes and go-carts
together.
Dedmon identified this youth as Sylvio "Norman" Parent.
Parent lived with his parents in a dark-colored house with white shutters on
McMullin Street, adjacent to a sandy, vacant lot bordering Lane Avenue and
the Masonic Lodge No. 370. His home is about a half mile from the Hughes
home.
Some people who know Parent also say he was a nice person.
"Norman did come here," said Jason Nettles, associate pastor of the Jones
Road Baptist Church. "He was very polite. He was always nice to us."
Parent started attending the church's Wednesday night youth worship service
several months ago.
He said clergy were aware that Parent previously had been charged with
automobile theft. He said the church was interested in trying to offer him
spiritual guidance.
"He wasn't receptive of the spiritual help," Nettles recalled, "but he was a
nice kid."
Nettles said the youth was interested in girls who often attend the
services.
During the past six to seven months, Parent frequented Blanding Billiards
where he would shoot pool for hours at a time on a daily basis, employees
said.
"He never said anything," said Chris Jefferson, 29. "He just shot pool."
Relationships unclear
Police have said both teens befriended Dickens and were invited into his
home shortly before he was killed and robbed.
The teacher's battered and stabbed body was found late at night on June 9.
The teens' lawyers were not able to answer questions about the youths'
relationship with the man they are accused of killing.
Kuritz, the 13-year-old's lawyer, said Hughes had "never met" and had "not
known" Dickens prior to the teacher's slaying. He said the boy's grandfather
told him he did not know of any relations between the 13-year-old and
Parent.
Parent's lawyer, Pat McGuinness, declined comment when asked about any prior
contact between his client and the teacher.
Two days before Dickens was found dead, Nettles, the associate pastor,
recalled seeing Parent with a much younger male resembling Hughes, whose
photograph was released by police following his arrest.
It was at Nettles' Westside church. Parent had missed the 7 p.m. service,
but he was in the parking lot with a new vehicle as the nightly activities
broke up and other youths started to leave between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m., said
Nettles.
He said other youths have told him that the vehicle was a Nissan Pathfinder.
Nettles said he is less certain but to the best of his recollection, the
vehicle was a sports utility vehicle.
He said the incident drew his attention because, with the exception of one
occasion when the youth had arrived in what Nettles later learned was a
stolen vehicle, Parent previously was dropped off at the church by his
mother or father. He said he briefly considered writing down the vehicle's
tag for police.
Nettles is aware of the skeletal account of Dickens' death related by
police: that the man was handcuffed in his home, robbed and stabbed to
death, that his 1992 Nissan Pathfinder was stolen, that his body was
discovered after a friend noticed the teacher's absence over several days
and went to check on him.
But the clergyman still wonders where the boys had been the night of June 7.
http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/070100/met_3445573.html
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