After teen shooter’s guilty plea, parents of 14-year-old victim condemn youth violence

The mother and stepmother of a 14-year-old Eugene shooting victim spoke to condemn youth gun violence at a Tuesday, Aug. 18, court hearing where the 16-year-old shooter pleaded guilty and other youths sat in attendance.

“We have to make a stand, and children have to stop making these choices,” said Sarah Erickson, mother of Major Clemens.

His stepmother, who identified herself in court as Nicole, said: “This was not an accident. This was intentional. This was an attempt to take Major’s life.”

Clemens spent days in a medically induced coma after being shot in the head Feb. 17 in Eugene, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help his family with medical expenses as he continues to recover from a serious brain injury. At the time of the shooting, Clemens attended the eighth grade at Monroe Middle School in Eugene.

Plea negotiations with prosecutors led to the dismissal of an attempted murder charge. The boy pleaded guilty to first-degree assault on the day of his scheduled fact-finding hearing, which is similar to a trial in adult court.

He will be committed to a secure facility run by the Oregon Youth Authority, possibly up to age 25, but, under Oregon law, no longer than that. His father and stepmother sat near him Tuesday.

Erickson said her son “is not an angel, I know he’s not.” 

But “these kids are our future,” she said, stating “this is not how it has to be.”

Erickson said she moved out of the area after her son’s shooting.

“I had to get him out, because it’s going down a destructive path, and I had to protect my kid,” Erickson said.

About 10 youths sat in the courtroom’s gallery. Their show of support for the 16-year-old boy pleading guilty led Lane County Circuit Judge Valeri Love to address them directly. Asking how many are 16, a majority of the youths raised their hands.

“We were this far away from somebody losing their life because people got in a fight,” Love told the youths.

“Every single one of you could be here … most often when I see youth here [in court] anymore it’s not one person doing something by themselves,” Love said. “And it affects everybody’s life, for the rest of their lives.”

Ongoing safety concerns

Clemens’ stepmother, who identified herself as Nicole, spoke in court, describing messages shared on social media that reference the shooting.

“There’s been songs … saying people are sent to finish the job,” she said. After the hearing, she declined to give her last name to a reporter, citing ongoing safety concerns.

“In our community, kids [are] fighting against each other for nothing,” Clemens’ stepmother told the court. 

“I hope everyone in this courtroom can learn from it. Because taking a life, or trying to, is not anything that any one of you want to live with. There are better ways to live, and I hope everyone in time can live with this,” she said.

Love and Lane County District Attorney Christopher Parosa have spoken about a need for greater community and educational efforts to address youth gun violence in the Eugene-Springfield area. 

Parosa in May said he’s seen multiple cases “over the last couple of years” involving youths from 14 to 16 years old involved in gun violence with each other, and he called the shooting of Clemens “a moment where it was like, something’s got to be done about this.”

Love earlier this year convened a meeting that included police and youth advocates to discuss gun violence.

“As I think we navigate this issue of the increased presence of firearms with youth in our community, it is going to take the community to work together to deal with this. Nobody can do it by themselves,” Love said in court Tuesday.

Shooting case

In Oregon, prosecutors can seek a waiver hearing to determine whether a youth’s case will be decided in adult court, with a potentially longer sentence if the youth is convicted as an adult. The mandatory minimum sentence for an adult convicted of first-degree assault is seven years and six months in Oregon.

Parosa and the Lane County District Attorney’s office declined to seek such a hearing for the boy who pleaded guilty to shooting Clemens.

Jeffrey Meray, the prosecutor in the shooting case, said after the hearing Tuesday that the gun used in the shooting had been stolen. As part of plea negotiations, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a theft charge in connection with the stolen gun. The 16-year-old boy was ordered to pay $599 in restitution.

Police responded at about 9:45 p.m. Feb. 17 to reports of shots fired in the Harlow neighborhood, near the intersection of Kinsrow Avenue and Marche Chase Drive, and also reports of people running and vehicles fleeing the area.

Officers found Clemens badly injured in the parking lot of 330 S. Garden Way, the Chase Gardens Medical Center.

While the law enforcement investigation has closed, Meray said “portions of the case are still under review” by prosecutors for possible additional charges.

A trajectory ‘halted’

Erickson, speaking after Tuesday’s hearing, said that, as a parent, she thought the outcome in court was “fair.”

“We want what’s best for these kids, and while I’m angry at [the boy’s] decisions, I also am a parent, and what if it was Major’s decision that we were fighting for today, and he would have done that?” Erickson said. In court, she said she hopes the boy “gets the help that he needs” and “takes this time to really learn from this.”

Outside the court building, Erickson said her son did not have any firearms at the time of the shooting. Asked if Clemens had a BB gun during the confrontation, Erickson said: “I don’t know, but he could have.”

She said she’s seen video of a confrontation involving her son in which “he does not take a gun out, he does not say he’s going to shoot them.”

Erickson said she felt “angry to see [in the courtroom] an outpouring of support for a young man that took a simple situation and turned it into a lethal situation.”

Her son “may never get to drive,” and he will be unable to pursue a career in the military as he once wanted because of his traumatic brain injury, she said. Another normal teen activity, playing football, is also now out of the question, she said.

“His whole trajectory has been halted, and now he can’t have the things that he cares about most,” Erickson said.

“We’re not in South Central LA. These kids aren’t dealing with chaos. They’re not dealing with that, but they’re trying to create that. We got to make it stop. We have to,” Erickson said.