Madison Schemitz and her mother, Jaclyn Roge, are suing Spencer Pearson, his parents, and the restaurant where she was stabbed last year, The Citizen has learned.
A civil lawsuit filed on the eve of Pearson’s sentencing accuses Tonya and Dan Pearson of negligently buying their troubled son a knife and allowing him to keep it despite his fragile mental state.
“Dan and Tonya Pearson also entrusted their minor and unsound son, Spencer Pearson, with a large knife they gave to him when he was under the age of 18,” the suit states. “It had his personal information engraved on it and was used to commit the assaults.”
The Pearsons, the case contends, did not take sufficient action after Roge warned them about Pearson’s menacing behavior in the weeks leading up to the incident.
Dan Pearson testified on his son’s behalf at his Friday sentencing, offering an emotional apology to Schemitz, Roge, and Armstrong as they looked on from the front row of the packed courtroom.
The filing also charges Mr. Chubby’s Wings in Ponte Vedra Beach with failing to ensure a secure environment despite an alleged history of rowdy and sometimes violent conduct at the venue.
Roge, the suit asserts, became increasingly worried about Pearson’s erratic behavior after her daughter broke up with him in April 2023 after roughly nine months together.
Pearson, who played football at Ponte Vedra High School, stalked his softball player classmate both in public and online, at one point sending her a picture of himself with a tie around his neck to signal an imminent suicide attempt, papers state.
In a separate TikTok comment addressed to Schemitz and several of her friends, Pearson issued a warning. “Y’all gonna get yours,” he wrote, according to the suit.
The case, which does not specify a dollar demand, contends that Roge repeatedly warned Pearson’s parents about his deteriorating mental state.
“Jacki emphasized the need to stop this harassment and strange behavior,” the filing states.
The Pearsons, the suit argues, gave no “proper or reasonable response” to Roge’s pleas.
The filing also accuses Pearson’s parents of financing the tools of his harassment — including his truck, phone, gas and spending cash — making them indirectly culpable for his behavior.
Dan and Tonya Pearson, the papers assert, should not have allowed him to maintain possession of the knife they gave him as a present and would later use to cut four people — including himself.
Pearson stabbed Schemitz 17 times on June 3, 2023, and left her partially paralyzed. He also wounded Roge and Kennedy Armstrong, a hero bystander who intervened.
Pearson pleaded guilty to attempted murder raps and will be sentenced Friday.
