John Jared Southwell speaks out on the upcoming edition of “Eye on the Islands,” a regular program on the Government Access cable television channel. If his name sounds familiar, it is because he has been in the news before — but not in a good light.
Southwell is serving a 20-year sentence for his conviction as an accomplice in the Oct. 26, 2008 murder of V.I. Superior Court law clerk Gabriel Lerner.
“In this 50-minute special edition of ‘Eye on the Islands,’ inmate John Jared Southwell speaks with host Sara Lezama from inside the walls of the St. Thomas Corrections Facility Annex about how his life has been affected, the trial, the remorse he feels and how his involvement in this crime has affected his life,” Government House spokesman Jean Greaux said.
He went on to say that Southwell tells Lezema that at some point he’d like to speak to Lerner’s parents.
Greaux sees the video as a good opportunity to get the message out about what it really means when you break the law. And he said there’s been some interest in running the video in the schools as a deterrent to both boys and girls.
Eye on the Islands is produced for the Government Access channels by the Governor’s Office in conjunction with Lambert Media Team. The Government Access channels are Innovative Cable Channel 6 on St. Croix and Innovative Cable Channel 10 on St. Thomas and St. John.
"Eye on the Islands" airs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7 and 10 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at noon and 6 p.m. The audio track of the program also airs on WSTA Radio (1340 AM) on Thursdays at 6:30 pm and on both CBS TV 2 and WSVI-TV Channel 8. Greaux said the Southwell interview will run through Aug. 14.
