A day after a Villages Charter School student confessed to a school resource officer he was dealing with “bad depression” a search warrant was executed at his home.
Zachary Shearon, 13, was being questioned on the morning of Jan. 25 by the school principal and the resource officer about a Columbine-style attack the resource officer had learned of the prior evening. Shearon asked to speak in private to the school resource officer. He told her he had been dealing with “bad depression” and had been having thoughts of “ending it all.” He went on to tell the school resource officer, Deputy Beatrice Ayala, “I just want to die.”
Shearon continues to be held at a juvenile detention center on a charge of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder. The school shooting had been planned with another student for Jan. 27. Some students were reportedly warned to wear white and use the code word “Eugene” to avoid being shot. You can read more about it HERE
On the evening of Jan. 26, Sumter County sheriff’s deputies and Lake County sheriff’s deputies, armed with a search warrant, arrived at the Shearons’ home on Mill View Road in Fruitland Park. Thomas Shearon, Zachary’s father, was the first to speak to deputies who advised him they had a search warrant. Thomas Shearon told deputies he would not give permission for his son to be interviewed. At that point, Zachary Shearon was taken into custody.
Then 42-year-old Melynda Shearon, Zachary’s mother, arrived at the family home with Zachary’s older brother.
Melynda Shearon “was very upset and argumentative,” according to the case report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
During the search, an AR-15 rifle was seized as well as a magazine for the weapon and ammunition. Also taken in as evidence were iPhones, a Samsung Galaxy phone, a Samsung flip phone, a Blackberry, Kindle, Xbox and flash drives.
When deputies entered the master bedroom, they found on Melynda Shearon’s side of the bed “numerous burnt possible marijuana cigarettes in an ashtray along with a digital scale and wooden smoking pipe,” according to the law enforcement document. Discovered in Melynda Shearon’s closet were Ziploc bags containing cocaine.
Sumter County deputies took into evidence all of the items except for the drugs.
Melynda Shearon was not taken into custody that day, likely because the drugs were an unexpected discovery during the raid at the family’s home.
Warrants charging Melynda Shearon with possession of cocaine and possession of cannabis were issued March 2. She was arrested that same day at the Sumter County Courthouse. She remains free on $3,000 bond.
