THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997 TAG: 9701180384
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 85 lines
Every time Therese Gibson looks at her older son, Ryan, she realizes how much her family lost in the early morning hours of April 5, 1996.
That's when her husband, Frank, was shot dead in a parking lot off George Washington Highway, about a mile from home, while returning from a Norfolk Tides game.
Therese Gibson lost her husband of seven years. But 10-year-old Ryan seems to have felt his father's passing most acutely.
``My older son is still in counseling,'' Therese Gibson, 36, said during a recent interview at her home in Chesapeake. ``He is carrying a lot of anger.''
Police say the killer was 21-year-old Daerrico Austin, who had been sent to Portsmouth from Washington in 1991 for treatment at The Pines Residential Treatment Center. He left the center in 1993.
Austin said in a jailhouse interview that he pleaded guilty to a murder in Washington before being sent to The Pines. Because he was a juvenile at the time, that could not be confirmed by court records.
During an interview in the Portsmouth City Jail, where he is awaiting trial for the murder of Gibson, Austin said his stay at The Pines was one of the most pleasant periods of his troubled life.
``They gave me a lot of treatment and I got to talk to a lot of people,'' he said.
Austin eventually became part of a program that allowed him to leave the facility from time to time. Austin said he remembers many times when he walked unchaperoned from the Brighton campus to a nearby convenience store.
Toward the end of his stay there, Austin got a job through The Pines at one of the region's shipyards doing janitorial work.
Austin had a history of running away from the facility. When he ran away one time, he said he stayed off campus for at least a week. When he returned, Austin was placed in lockdown by Pines officials until he could talk with his therapist, he said.
Austin left The Pines in 1993, just how is uncertain. Pines officials say he graduated. Austin says he ran away.
Austin said he left The Pines for a visit with his mother, Sheila Austin, who came to Portsmouth from her home in Washington. When his mother left, Austin said, ``I was supposed to go back (to The Pines) but I stayed out with my friends. She thought I had gone back, but I didn't.''
In the months and years that followed, Austin fathered three children with two women. He also went on a crime spree that resulted in more than 15 charges against him in Portsmouth and Virginia Beach, ranging from misdemeanor assault to abduction and kidnapping. Some of those charges later were dropped.
When he was arrested in the Gibson murder, Austin also was charged with robbery and two weapons violations.
According to court records, Austin admitted to a friend shortly after Gibson was shot that he pulled the trigger.
``Rico came to my house and showed me the gun and told me `I just shot a guy at Twin-B and put a big-ass hole in him,' '' Amy Faison, a friend, told police five days after the fatal shooting. ``When I asked him why did he do it, he just laughed.''
Faison told police that Austin showed no remorse. She said he never has.
Austin maintains that he is innocent and that he is being set up to take the fall for Gibson's death. In an interview with police, he identified another person as the killer.
What bothers Therese Gibson is that after Austin left The Pines, he never returned to Washington. He stayed in Portsmouth.
``It doesn't make any sense to me,'' Therese Gibson said. ``If he was sent here for treatment, someone should have to answer back for him. After they are finished with treatment, they should have to go back to where they came from. Delivered back, not just released into the community.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Frank Gibson was about a mile from his home when he was shot to
death in a parking lot off George Washington Highway in Chesapeake
on April 5.
Police say the killer of Frank Gibson was 21-year-old Daerrico
Austin, who had been sent to The Pines in Portsmouth from Washington
in 1991.
MARK MITCHELL/The Virginian-Pilot
Therese Gibson was left to raise three children, Erin, Kyle and
Ryan, after her husband, Frank, was killed on April 5, 1996, while
returning to their Portsmouth home from a Norfolk Tides game.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING THE PINES
RESIDENTIAL TREAMTENT CENTER TEENAGERS YOUTH
OFFENDERS