Fleming Teen Charged in Double Stabbing at Student Party
Victims Badly Wounded, Requiring Medevac
Update 2:49 p.m. The story was changed to correct several errors, including the name of one of the people stabbed. The initial story referred to a witness as a victim.
A teenage boy faces up to 15 years in prison after being charged with stabbing two 18-year-olds at a house party for high school juniors and seniors Friday night in the Woodlands neighborhood of Fleming Island Plantation.
Jacob Dylan Parks, 17, of Fleming Island was charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and one count of simple assault with intent or threat to do violence, according to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. The attacks happened at around 11:30 p.m.
Two of the victims were seriously wounded—one in the neck, the other in the abdomen. They were driven to Clay Baptist Hospital then flown by medevac helicopters to the HCA hospital in Orange Park. Their names are Dominic Matthew Torres and Garrett Sayler.
Much of the arrest report was redacted, but a woman describing herself as “family” added key details in a Facebook post. “He was out to KILL that night,” Lynn Beale wrote, referring to Parks. “The two that were stabbed saved another boy’s life. They didn’t even know J.P. but saw he had a knife to another boy’s throat.”
This detail may have been part of the police report that has been redacted. If Beal’s account is accurate, the lesser charge of assault with intent to do violence may involve that third individual with the knife to his throat.
Sayler was the one stabbed in the neck. He was reported to have been in critical condition, suffering a “nick to his artery” that later required stent-implant surgery, according to Beal.
Deputies who searched the car used by the victims to get to Baptist reported that the interior was soaked in “what appeared to be large amounts of blood.”
Another local parent, commenting on Beal’s post, said he knew the alleged attacker. “He used to date my daughter until one night he put his hands on her. His relationship with her ended that night, and he’s lucky I didn’t get my hands on him. He then stalked my daughter at school and harassed her,” Chip Tatum wrote.
Clay News & Views asked Tatum to elaborate on his comment, but he declined to do so.
Park’s parents brought him to surrender at the Sheriff’s Office Substantion at Orange Park. After interviewing Jacob Parks—and searching a dumpster where they expected to find the knife—deputies placed him under arrest. Whether a knife was actually found may have been part of the redactions.
Parks made “self-harm statements,” so he was first taken to HCA for evaluation before being transported to the Duval County Juvenile Detention Center.
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