3 teens enter pleas in Whiteside case

Published 12:00 am Saturday, June 12, 2010

Three Bowling Green teenagers implicated in the 2009 death of Edward “Dickie” Whiteside pleaded guilty Friday in Warren Circuit Court.

Earl Wright, 17, entered a guilty plea to one count of murder, admitting to killing the 64-year-old Whiteside at his apartment at 1268 Kentucky St. on May 28, 2009.

Appearing before Warren Circuit Judge John Grise, Wright described how he and Whiteside got involved in an argument the day before Wright returned to Whiteside’s residence armed with a 12-gauge shotgun.

“I went over there and tried to scare him, and I ended up shooting him,” said Wright, who was represented by Diana Werkman of the Department of Public Advocacy.

Documents indicated that on May 26, 2009, two days before the shooting, Whiteside called the Bowling Green Police Department about 11 p.m. to report that three young men in an “older model maroon car” came to his apartment, and that one of them approached him with a shotgun, pointed it at him, pulled the trigger on the apparently unloaded weapon and threatened to kill him.

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Wright was one of five co-defendants indicted in connection with Whiteside’s slaying. Three of the suspects were juveniles at the time of the incident, but would have been tried as adults.

Two other defendants, Jasmine White, 18, and Traymel Lee, 17, also entered guilty pleas Friday, agreeing to a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter by complicity.

The pair had originally been charged with murder by complicity for their roles in Whiteside’s death. White was a juvenile at the time of the shooting.

Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Cohron has recommended a 15-year sentence for both White and Lee. They would become eligible for parole after serving three years.

White told Grise that she was part of a group who planned to go to Whiteside’s apartment to commit a robbery, and she knew that somebody in her group was armed.

White said that after her group arrived, she went inside the apartment to learn how many people were there and relayed that information back to the group. Whiteside was with another person in the apartment, according to White.

Lee said he was supposed to act as a lookout during the attempted robbery. While he did not see Wright fire the weapon, Lee said he was aware there was a gun involved in the act and he heard the shot fired.

Wright and White are scheduled to be sentenced July 27, while Lee has a scheduled sentencing date of Aug. 24.

Cohron said that a burglary charge against Wright in which he was alleged to have entered a residence and stolen a firearm was dropped as part of the agreement.

Wright, if convicted by a jury, could have faced a life sentence in prison, but his plea agreement recommends a 25-year prison sentence with parole eligibility after serving 20 years.

“I believe it’s in his best interest,” Werkman said of the plea agreement. “If he’s paroled after serving 20 years, he would be 37 years old and he’ll still have a chance to have a life after prison.”

C.J. Bunton, 20, and Cameron Thomas, 21, both of Bowling Green, also have been charged and their cases are pending. Cohron said both are scheduled to appear before Grise on Monday.

Bunton is charged with murder by complicity and tampering with physical evidence, and Thomas is charged with facilitation to commit murder.