JATHAN and JAYLON HERSHMAN - 3 and 1 yo (2010) - Manchester (S of Fort Bragg) CA

Manchester Slayings Calculated, Say Police

Police: Army Sergeant Confesses To Killing Woman, Her Sons

POSTED: 5:19 am CDT September 23, 2010
UPDATED: 8:00 pm CDT September 23, 2010
Three people were found dead in a Manchester home Wednesday night. Images: Family Found Dead In Manchester Home
The Manchester Police Department received information at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday that a 26-year-old mother and her sons, ages 1 and 3, were missing. When police arrived at the family's Liberty Court home, they found the three bodies individually wrapped in trash bags in a closet."Gruesome is the word," said Manchester investigator Ray Stewart. "It's the worst one I've seen, and I've been here 30 years.Officials arrested Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Victor Perkins, 30, about 10 miles from the home at the Jameson Inn in Tullahoma shortly before midnight in connection with the case. They contacted him by phone, talked him out of his room and arrested him. He has been charged with murder."We have interviewed him, and he has told us a lot," said Stewart.Police identified the victims as Stephanie, Jathan and Jaylon Hershman. Officers said they believed they'd been killed on Sunday. Someone called police Wednesday to report them missing.Perkins is in Franklin County Jail on $6 million bond and has confessed to the killings, police said. They said he's been calm and cooperative."(He) didn’t offer any kind of remorse," Stewart said.Police said the killings were calculated."He took a lot of time doing what he was doing," said Stewart.Police haven't said how the family was killed or given a motive for the slayings. He doesn't have a criminal history in Manchester, but police said he has a prior DUI charge and a charge for having a weapon.Police said Perkins had known the family for three or four months, police said. The children's father, Jeremy Hershman, is currently incarcerated in the Coffee County Jail on drug charges, Manchester Police Chief Ross Simmons said. Police said he is very distraught.Police said Hershman, who was from Michigan but went to Coffee County High School and worked in Tullahoma, met Perkins while her husband was incarcerated and that the two were a couple. Neighbors said the two shared a loving relationship."I just know she was a good person, and she didn't deserve for this to happen," said Tanya Brown, Hershman's friend. "So it's very sad.""It makes me sick to my stomach," said neighbor Cherie Townsend. "It's so sad. They didn't have to die."A U.S. Army representative said Perkins had been deployed twice: to Afghanistan from April 2004-Oct. 2005 and to Iraq Aug. 2006-Oct. 2007. He had been working as an Army recruiter in Tullahoma since 2008."The U.S. Army is disturbed that one of our soldiers has allegedly committed such a crime," the representative said. "Our first thoughts are with the family of the victims. We will be cooperating with civilian authorities."Investigator Billy Butler said Perkins is separated from his wife of 10 years, Jennifer Perkins. She was at the police station for questioning on Thursday morning, but declined to be interviewed.Butler said the couple have two children and that Jennifer Perkins described her husband as a good father.Clint Orr, who leased a house to the Perkins couple for two years until May, said they had been good tenants."He seemed like a pleasant person," Orr said. "I didn't see anything like what I heard today."Orr said Perkins looked a little intimidating "but he didn't make you feel like he was."Mark Shannon lives across the street from the Hershmans. He said he usually saw Stephanie Hershman on her porch smoking when he was taking his children to school. Some mornings Perkins was there, too."He smiled and waved," Shannon said. "He’d be outside playing with the kids, pushing them on a bike. He seemed like a really nice man."But he hadn't seen anyone at the house the past couple of days. It was normally busy, with people going in and out, he said.He said Stephanie Hershman was nice."We'd see her and her kids out playing and we'd wave back and forth," he said.Of the crime, he said, "It's unnerving, to say the least."Manchester is a town of 10,000 about 65 miles southeast of Nashville. The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is held on a farm in Manchester each year.
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Perkins to undergo mental testing

3/29/2011

Accused murderer Matthew Perkins was ordered to undergo mental evaluation Wednesday by Coffee County Circuit Court Judge Craig Johnson.

Perkins, charged with the murders of Stephanie Hershman and her two young sons last September at their home in Manchester, will be evaluated at a state mental facility.

Perkins entered a plea of not guilty on the charges.

Coffee County Circuit Court Judge Craig Johnson issued an order after Perkins’ attorney Campbell Smoot asked that a determination be made on two questions. The mental experts will determine if Perkins was sane at the time of the triple murder and if he is competent at this time to proceed with his case and assist in his defense.

The bodies of the mother and children were found by police stuffed ina garbage bags in a closet of their Liberty Court home with their throats cut.

Perkins was arrested Sept. 22, 2010, at a Tullahoma motel by Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves and investigator Danny Ferrell. After a lengthy discussion with officers, Perkins finally surrendered to Tullahoma police investigator Jason Kennedy.

After Wednesday’s hearing, Perkins was returned to his jail cell in the Franklin County Jail where he is being held under $6 million bond.

He is scheduled to return to court on May 18 for further motions in the case.

"A case of this nature will not be resolved quickly," Coffee County District Attorney Mickey Layne said Thursday.