The call from police at 5 a.m. Tuesday was the kind that would shake any mother.

The detective's voice made Shannon Mastrangelo numb.

Your son is going to be questioned, she recalled the detective saying. She asked why.

"Arson," the detective said.
[...]

Mastrangelo's son had been in handcuffs since 2 a.m., when he was arrested at a friend's house — where he had told her he would be spending the night.

"What's this about a fire, about (the girl)?" Mastrangelo asked.

"All I know is (she's) wanting to kill her mom and they pick me up," he said.

Mastrangelo said there was no way her son could be capable of committing the crimes.

"My son lies, I catch him. I catch him in a lot of lies. I know when he's lying. He tells a lie, he can't remember what he said five minutes later," Mastrangelo said.

Jack, who is being held at the Pinellas County Juvenile Assessment Center, attended a hearing Wednesday morning where he was advised of the charges.

During the hearing, Mastrangelo watched what was going on in disbelief.

"He had this blank stare, like he didn't know what was going on. He kept mouthing to me, 'I didn't do it. I didn't do it,' " she said. "He swears up and down it was (the girl)."
[...]

After eight years of calls to her house, mostly domestic disputes between her daughter, son and ex-husband, Mastrangelo said the police were tired of hearing about her family.

She didn't trust them.

The day before her son was arrested, Mastrangelo overheard him on the phone with his girlfriend. They had been together for two months. She thought the girl, who she never met, was the same age as her son.

"No, you can't do that, you won't do that, don't do that," she recalled her son saying.

"What are you talking about?" his mom asked him.

"Nothing, Mom," he said. "(My girlfriend) and her mom are fighting again."

Mastrangelo recalled the conversation after her son's arrest. She stood next to him in the cold interrogation room Wednesday.

She went up to her son and kissed him. "I love you," she said. "Don't say another word."
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