Phone Call From Jail Earns Inmate Witness Tampering Charge

LAND O' LAKES, FL — An inmate at the Land O' Lakes Detention Center has been charged with witness tampering after detention officers said he called his son from jail and tried to convince him to get his mother to change her story about the domestic battery case against him.

Jackie Mabe, 54, of Hudson is being held at the detention center on a third-degree felony charge for domestic battery.

According to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, Mabe apparently was unaware that all phone calls by inmates are recorded.

In the recorded phone call between Mabe and his son, Mabe demanded that he convince his mother to "change her story or she better pray like hell I never make it out of prison."

In a subsequent phone call to his son, Mabe was recorded saying, "You better tell your mom to try and be there (at his court hearing) and tell her to f.....g just let them know it's a misunderstanding."