By David Howell
and Billy Davis

A 16-year-old, facing two murder charges, has been released from a Memphis hospital and transported to the David M. Bryan Justice Complex.

Matthew Ryan Jacobs is charged with the shooting deaths of his step-mother and father last week.

Authorities allege he gunned down his parents in their home just after 4 a.m., June 30, according to Panola County Sheriff Otis Griffin.

Services were held Tuesday in Senatobia for stepmother Chrystal Jacobs and father Tommy Jacobs.

Mrs. Jacobs was 30. Tommy Jacobs was 35.   

The shooting occurred at 2970 Paul White Road, east of Como.

Mrs. Jacobs was pronounced dead at her residence after authorities arrived on the scene. Tommy Jacobs was airlifted to the Regional Medical Center where he died later that day. They had been shot in the bedroom, according to Griffin.

Matthew Jacobs was initially detained by authorities after showing up at the North Oak Regional Medical Center in Senatobia with a gunshot wound to the hand, according to Griffin.

He was transported to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, accompanied by a deputy from Panola County.

Griffin said the sheriff’s department did not have to extradite Matthew Jacobs back to Mississippi because he had remained in his department’s custody while in the hospital.

“He was never out of our custody,” Griffin reported. “We had a deputy at the Med in Memphis with him around the clock.”

The shooting remains under investigation as authorities are working to determine what happened. Griffin reported the teen told authorities that he was shot in the hand by his father, but evidence at the crime scene does not substantiate that claim.

Griffin said the disagreement with the teen and his parents apparently stemmed from a discipline problem.

“His step-mom tried to make him mind and do the right thing,” the sheriff reported.

Matthew Jacobs will have an initial appearance next week.

Chrystal Jacobs was a stay-at-home mom and Tommy Jacobs was a heavy equipment operator.