VAN BUREN -- Six-year-old Mason Passmore was looking for cupcakes. It was her birthday and even though the cupcakes weren’t obtained with her birthday in mind, what 6-year-old doesn’t want cupcakes when they’re available? The flurry of activity, hugs, tears, handshakes and congratulations swirled around her. But Mason was still looking for the cupcakes.
It’s not often that you find yourself in a courtroom with a box of cupcakes sitting on a table.
Normally you would find lawyers, litigants and defendants sitting behind that table waiting for verdicts that could change their lives in a heartbeat.
On this particular day, the courtroom served as a place of celebration and redemption.
Make no mistake about it, justice was served, but it was justice that was served with compassion. Compassion and those darn, elusive cupcakes that Mason craved.
Mason’s parents, 37-year-old Lacy Petrekovich and 47-year old Jayson Passmore, met in Apache Junction, Arizona. Mason was born there in 2015.
Jayson grew up in Arizona living in Phoenix and Mesa. He lived in areas where the easiest way to make money was to sell drugs and most of the time, when you sell drugs, you use drugs. Jayson was no stranger to jail but oddly enough he hadn’t gone to jail on drug charges.
•• Carter County girl turns to meth
Lacy had a different story. Raised in Carter County, she had moved to Arizona to live with her mother.
When she was 17, she started using meth because she didn’t know that when someone asks you if you party and smoke, it’s not necessarily marijuana you’re being offered. In Carter County, that’s all it had ever meant, she said.
When it was explained to Lacy that they were in fact about to smoke meth, Lacy thought, “why not?” They say if you use meth once, you’re hooked, and in Lacy’s case, they were right. There were a lot of other things going on in her life as well that allowed the addict in her to make this decision.
In Lacy’s words, “You don’t wake up one day and say, ‘You know, I think I’m going to use some meth today,’ if you’re happy and living healthy the way you should be.”
She had been on track to enter the military in three months on a delayed entry but other things, as they often do when you’re an addict, happened. She stole a car and got caught. When she appeared before the judge, her record was as clear as the crystal meth she now used.
With that kind of a record in front of the court, it was decided that three years’ probation was a suitable judgment for Lacy.
Problem was, mere weeks after the judge was so nice to Lacy, she stole another car and got caught. When you appear in front of the same judge, who decided to be lenient with you on your first major offense just a few weeks ago, that judge will understandably be a bit cranky and decide it’s time to get serious. Lacy now found herself on the way to jail for a term of 3 and a half years. So at 18, Lacy went to the big house and served almost 3 years there.
She got out and met Jayson in 2011.
In 2016, she asked Jayson if he would consider moving to Elisinore. Jayson had never lived anywhere else and he loved Lacy. They had a child together and a change of scenery couldn’t hurt.
They were not using meth at that time. They drank and partied but no meth. Unfortunately, Lacy had developed a doctor-prescribed habit. Oxycodone and Fentanyl patches were now a part of her life.
•• 100 pills of Vicodin in a day
The move served two purposes. It got them out of Arizona, and possibly being closer to Lacy’s family would allow them to keep a closer eye on her and Jayson. At least that was the plan.
The newly arrived couple settled in. They were drinking alcohol but were not using meth. They were however dealing with another just as serious addiction.
Lacy had to be weaned off the amount of Oxycodone and Fentanyl patches and those drugs were replaced with Vicodin.
But the abuse started heading them down a familiar path. Lacy’s prescription wasn’t enough for her and she started supplementing it by getting pills wherever she could.
One day, Lacy filled her prescription of 120 pills around 8 or 9 in the morning. When Jayson arrived home, he found her in the bathroom throwing up blood. He asked her where the pill bottle was. When he found it, there were only 10 of them left. 10 out of 120. Something had to be done and Lacy went into treatment to get off the pills.
There is nothing funny about addiction. It destroys lives and can cause irreparable damage in personal relationships. But addiction is most certainly persistent. An addict always has to deal with it. It’s like a shark swimming under the surface of the water, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike and drag you back down into the abyss.
And in Jayson and Lacy’s case, it was a free weekend when the shark attacked.
•• Down the path to dealing drugs
It all started on a child-free weekend when Lacy said to Jayson, “Let’s party, just get a little something for the weekend. Jayson told me that’s not how this is going to work and it’s a bad idea. I told him no, it will be fine.”
Jayson did indeed think it was a bad idea and told her so.
“I actually made out a timeline when she suggested we do it,” he said. “I made a line with dots and I made this big red dot at the end.
“I told her this is going to be our life. First, we alienate family, then we stop going to work, then we stop paying bills, then we lose our house, then we fight and this big red dot?
“That’s the end of us and I promise you we will hit every single marker. Because I knew the demons were there. I’ve been dealing with them my whole life.”
Lacy says, “I really did think that it was going to be just the weekend and we were perfectly capable of handling that.”
Lacy was wrong. Really wrong. That one weekend started the whole thing over again.
Going from not using to using is bad enough. But going from not using, to using, to dealing? That takes commitment and that’s where Jayson and Lacy found themselves.
Jayson stayed home with the kids and Lacy would go out to deal and leave a supply of meth for him to use. The bigger the amount, the longer she would be gone. Their relationship became more and more dysfunctional. They argued about her being gone all the time. Lacy’s response was she had to go to work, which meant dealing drugs.
Jayson would repeat his complaint, but his own mind was in turmoil. It was addict thinking. Why are you leaving to sell drugs? (I’m going to take a hit on the pipe) You should stay at home. (I really need more drugs). The inner argument sometimes escalating the external one. Which meant Lacy might be gone even longer than she planned. Despite the dysfunction, they stayed together.
•• A traffic stop saves a family
A traffic stop one evening when Lacy was pulled over after completing a drug deal started the road to redemption. Even though they didn’t know it at the time, Lacy’s failure to stop completely while turning onto U.S. 60 would be the first moment that helped save their family.
In Tuesday's edition of the DAR we'll have part two of Lacy and Jayson's story. A story with a very happy ending.