Youth Convicted of Slaying Guardian Starts New Life of Freedom

A Dutch teen-ager convicted of manslaughter for shooting his legal guardian who sexually abused him has started a new life in a new town with a new family.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert Fitzgerald Friday placed Joeri DeBeer, 18, on three years’ probation, and the youth, who had spent the past year in custody, moved to Oakley to live with a sympathetic family.

DeBeer spent his first weekend of freedom taking long walks around the Contra Costa County town that will be his home for the next few years.

He was convicted of manslaughter in Orange County for shooting Phil Parsons, 51. But the Superior Court jury recommended leniency. Several jurors started a college trust fund for the defendant, while others bought him clothes and small gifts.

DeBeer now lives with Syd and Jenny Ward and their two sons.

“Basically, Joeri was kidnaped,” Jenny Ward said. “After all he’s been through, this kid is amazed that people who sat there in the jury box could give him back his life.”

Testimony at the trial said that Parsons was a convicted child molester who kept young boys for his own sexual gratification. When DeBeers finally shot him in April, 1985, Parsons had been molesting the youth four or five times a week for four years, testimony disclosed.

Parsons had persuaded DeBeer to leave his family, then living in Saudi Arabia, when he was about 14, by promising to make the boy a motocross racing star. After becoming DeBeer’s legal guardian, the pair lived for a time in Brentwood, a few miles from Oakley, then moved south to Dana Point in Orange County.

The Wards became acquainted with DeBeer through his passion for motorcycle racing. Jenny Ward is an organizer of regional races for the National Motocross Assn.

“Everybody out here at the time knew that something was wrong,” she said. “Phil Parsons was a very, very angry man. A lot of people here were suspicious of his relationship with Joeri.”

She attended the trial every day, and she said it has given her a new appreciation for the justice system.

“We have shown how it works,” she said. “The jury knew the facts, and they found Joeri guilty of manslaughter, but they also showed their compassion.

“On the other hand, this kid has served four years in Phil Parsons’ prison. . . . “