Bank Robber Charged With "Scaring Woman, 79" To Death

Published: January 30, 2009, 5:57 am

Updated: January 30, 2009, 6:01 am

MARLON A. WALKER

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (Jan. 29) -- Larry Whitfield was on foot, his getaway car wrecked, his rookie attempt at robbing a bank thwarted by a set of locked doors, according to detectives. Looking for a place to hide, police say, he found himself inside the home of a frightened old woman.

There's no evidence Whitfield ever touched 79-year-old Mary Parnell. Authorities say he even told the grandmother of five he didn't want to hurt her, directing her to sit in a chair in her bedroom. But investigators have no doubt he terrified her so much that she died of a heart attack.

Now Whitfield, a 20-year-old with no prior criminal record, is charged with first-degree murder, a rare defendant accused of literally scaring a person to death.

"He could've avoided all this by turning himself in, and life would've went on for Mrs. Parnell," said Capt. Calvin Shaw of the Gaston County Police Department, which handled the investigation.

Under a legal concept known as the felony murder rule, it's not uncommon for prosecutors to bring a murder charge against a defendant who doesn't intentionally harm a victim. The rule exists in some form in every state and lets authorities bring murder charges whenever someone dies during a crime such as burglary, rape, or kidnapping.

"If you're committing any of those offenses and a person dies, that's first-degree murder," said Locke Bell, Gaston County's district attorney and the prosecutor in Whitfield's case.

Prosecutors typically use the rule to charge all of the suspects with murder when, say, one of them shoots a teller during a bank robbery. But cases of prosecutors using the felony murder rule to charge a defendant with scaring someone to death are isolated.

Jurors convicted Willie Ingram in 1982 after 64-year-old Melvin Cooper died from a heart attack in his New York home, caused by what medical experts said was the "emotional upset" of a robbery attempt. Likewise, a Pittsburgh jury convicted Mark Fisher last year in the 2003 murder of 89-year-old Freda Dale, who medical examiners said died in her home from a fear-induced heart attack.

Whitfield is being held without bail, and his attorney and his family declined to comment. He's charged with several other crimes in addition to murder, and has not entered a plea. He faces life without parole if convicted.

Authorities said Whitfield and an accomplice, armed with semiautomatic rifles, planned to rob the Fort Financial Credit Union in Gastonia. The bank's staff locked its security doors as the men approached, leaving them stuck outside.

They fled but crashed on Interstate 85. Officials said the other man was caught shortly after the crash, while Whitfield ended up at Parnell's doorstep.

Parnell's husband came home from a funeral and found her around 4:30 p.m., slumped over in the chair. Whitfield, police say, had fled after Mary Parnell went into cardiac arrest and broke into another nearby home. He was arrested while walking in the neighborhood.

Parnell's autopsy report said she had an enlarged heart, was overweight and had advanced liver disease, kidney disease, hypertension, heart disease and was a diabetic, all of which were decided to be secondary factors. Dr. Steven Dunton, the deputy chief medical examiner in Dekalb County, Ga., said an autopsy finding of natural causes can be upgraded by what he calls an external environmental factor.

In Parnell's case, doctors listed her cause of death as a heart attack due to "stress during home invasion."

"There's nothing seen by the pathologist that would show a person died that way," Dunton said. "That's entirely from circumstantial information."

Legal experts said those circumstances will be crucial to winning a murder conviction. Prosecutors must show what Whitfield did inside Parnell's home caused her death, said Michael Tigar, a Duke University Law School professor.

"Jurors very often resent what they see as overcharging," Tigar said. "They resent lawyers who claim too much for their cases. In most cases, (lawyers have) stretched the analysis or theory in order to heighten punishment, and are often penalized by the jury because of it."

Parnell's family — four children, five grandchildren and her husband of 59 years, Herman — support the decision to seek a murder conviction, said the family attorney, H. Monroe Whitesides.

Whitfield, he said, "breaks into the house that she occupied with her husband for 59 years, and he kidnaps her and moves her to another room and she has a heart attack. And you think that this Whitfield character ... ought to be excused for that?"

Associated Press news researcher Julie Reed in Charlotte, N.C., contributed to this report.

Gaston County Jail / AP

Did He Scare Someone to Death? Police in Gaston County, N.C., charged Larry Whitfield, 20, with murder, accusing him of illegally entering an elderly woman's home and scaring her to death in the process. Whitfield was hiding in the woman's home after a failed bank robbery, police said.

Entry #97

Comments

time*treat - Jan 30, 2009, 12:33 pm

Attempted robbery? yes. First degree murder? No. For that, the prosecutors should also bring charges against the makers of soft drinks, food and forks. If a person with that medical history died at any other time [like, say, while being tazed in an airport :)] the coroner would determine it was 'pre-existing medical condition'.

justxploring - Jan 30, 2009, 6:02 pm

I agree with time*treat. This man has no past criminal record. If he was a repeat offender and had a long criminal history, including acts of violence, I'd say "throw the book at him." But he is only 20 and deserves a chance at some kind of life after he is released from prison for the robbery.

truesee - Jan 30, 2009, 6:43 pm

I agree that he should only be charged with bank robbery. He has no past criminal record and somehow I do believe that he has some redeeming qualities. Let him serve his time and let this be an incident in his past.

konane - Jan 30, 2009, 10:53 pm

"Parnell's autopsy report said she had an enlarged heart, was overweight and had advanced liver disease, kidney disease, hypertension, heart disease and was a diabetic, all of which were decided to be secondary factors. Dr. Steven Dunton, the deputy chief medical examiner in Dekalb County, Ga., said an autopsy finding of natural causes can be upgraded by what he calls an external environmental factor."

Given the aging baby boomer population stories like this may become more numerous. She was fragile from what the story says and stress would lead to her death .... having someone invade her home certainly qualifies. Going to be interesting if there is a follow up to this article.

Bank Robber Charged With "Scaring Woman, 79" To Death

Comments

Post a Comment

Please Log In

Not a member yet?