Still no answers in son's 2001 death

SALT LAKE CITY -- Darlene Juarez has spent almost every day for the past eight years trying to understand how her son died.

She had hoped on Tuesday to hear from the man who shot her son, but the snowstorm delayed her arrival at the Board of Pardons and Parole hearing for Seger Lorenzo Parker, now 27.

Parker pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in April 2002 for the death of 18-year-old Michael Paul Sabella. Parker was 19 when he shot Sabella with a shotgun on Sept. 21, 2001, in Clearfield.

Parker is serving one to 15 years in Utah State Prison for the conviction. Tuesday was his first parole hearing.

Jim Hatch, spokesman for the Board of Pardons, said because the victims were not present, the board member who supervised the hearing, Clark Harms, will not make a decision about Parker's parole until he has time to read statements from the victims.

"The offender (Parker) is saying that it was an accidental shooting," Hatch said.

Juarez said she planned to speak at the hearing about life without her son, who would be 26 if he had lived.

"I feel justice has not been served," Juarez said. "(Parker) has not spent enough time to think about his decision on Sept. 21, 2001."

Sabella was a senior at Clearfield High School when he died. He talked to his mother about enlisting in the military after he graduated, because of the Sept. 11 attacks, she said. He also was planning on a career as a mechanic.

Sabella's youngest brother, who was only 5 when he died, would have known him, Juarez said.

"It's really sad," Juarez said. "My youngest son was so young he doesn't remember his brother."

To this day, she said, it's hard to believe her firstborn child is gone.

"It's so shocking," Juarez said. "It's the most devastating thing that's happened to me and my family."

And she said she also does not understand, if it was an accident, why Parker has never sent her or her family a letter apologizing.

"The action he took was he aimed at my son's heart and pulled the trigger," she said.

Sabella was killed instantly when he was shot once directly in the chest while at Parker's Clearfield home, according to court documents.

Police said Parker bought the 12-gauge shotgun and a box of ammunition that day and had been showing it off to Sabella and another juvenile when the gun fired.

The gun was bought from a black market source in Ogden, Clearfield police said.

Because of a juvenile record, Parker was restricted from buying firearms.