Meth'd Up Grape Creek Man Allegedly Kills Girlfriend with a Redneck Shotgun in a Mobile Home

GRAPE CREEK – A Grape Creek man was arrested on Wednesday morning after he shot and killed his girlfriend.

According to court documents, on Sep. 27 at 11:40 p.m., San Angelo Dispatch was called by a man who claimed to have shot and killed his girlfriend. SAPD then contacted the Tom Green County Sheriff's Office as the shooting occurred in Grape Creek.

TGCSO deputies were originally dispatched to the 8200 block of Poplar Ln. but quickly learned that the shooting actually happened next door at a trailer house on the 8200 block of Concho Dr. Outside of the house was the suspect, later identified as 32-year-old Matthew South, with his hands and body covered in blood. Before deputies went inside the residence, South told them that the shooting was an accident.

Paramedics arrived on scene before the deputies and had entered the house before the deputies. During their exit they told deputies that a female was deceased inside of the trailer with a gunshot wound to the chest.

Deputies then went inside of the trailer. Inside they found the women laying face up on a bed in the bedroom. The first deputy described the woman as someone in her late 20s to early 30s, with redish  brown hair, wearing a tank top, with her chest covered in blood. The deputy also found a short barreled shotgun with tape around the handle.

Another deputy recognized the woman as Debra Netherton. He was able to ID her because of past investigation involving her. CSI personnel were able to determine that Nertherton was killed by either bird or buck shot from a shot gun.

The deputies then got South's side of the story. He told them that he had been using meth earlier that day. South said he was trying to place the shotgun on top of a dog kennel. When he placed it on the cage it discharged a round which went through the wall of the trailer and hit Netherton.

South was then arrested and charged with Manslaughter. He is currently being held in the Tom Green County Detention Facility on a $150,000 bond.

South is no stranger to the jail either. Over the past 10 years South has been in the jail nearly a dozen times with charges such as burglary, possession various drugs, and a number of assaults. One of those assaults was an aggravated assault at Fisher Rig Works back in 2019. For more on this click here.